The Horses of Yururi Island — Atsushi Okada Photography Book

"My journey around this northern island has finally come to an end." — (photographer Atsushi Okada)
— Yururi, an uninhabited island 8 kilometres in circumference off the Nemuro Peninsula, the easternmost point of mainland Japan. Behind this island becoming an uninhabited island where landing is prohibited and only horses live lies the history of Hokkaido, from its settlement through the last war to the present. — (from the text)
A photography book recording the figures and landscapes of vanishing things on the "phantom island" where only horses have lived for more than half a century since people stopped living there, photographed by Atsushi Okada over more than ten years.
It was in 1950 that people crossed to Yururi Island with horses, seeking drying grounds for kelp fishing. Some twenty years later, in 1971, the last islanders left, and Yururi became uninhabited again. In 2006, as the ageing of the former islanders made managing the horses difficult, the stallions were removed from Yururi Island. With that, the island's horses were destined to gradually die out. The 12 horses Okada counted when he first visited the island in the summer of 2011 gradually disappeared, and by 2024 only two remained.

Publisher: Seigensha
Publication year: 2025
Pages: 304
Dimensions: 257 × 182 mm

Atsushi Okada / Yururi Island / Horse Photography