Wind telephone

The Wind Telephone ( Japanese 風 の 電話 Kaze no Denwa ) is located in a former telephone booth in Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture , Japan . The telephone booth on the coast of northeastern Japan is used by relatives of the tsunami disaster to talk to the deceased according to Japanese custom.

The phone booth is a telephone booth that a private citizen had set up in his garden to talk to his cousin, who died years ago. There is an old telephone in the house whose line is obviously not connected. Conversation with the deceased has an old tradition due to the Buddhist understanding of life after death , which is usually practiced at house altars .

After the earthquake and tsunami with many victims from the area, the phone booth was also used by neighbors to stop off. After the local press reported on this, the visit to Kaze no Denwa became a mass phenomenon that was also reported on television. The public broadcaster NHK created a documentary that was broadcast on March 10, 2016. Every year, thousands of visitors come to the telephone booth to talk to the deceased.

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• Page in English
• Der Spiegel 47/2016, p. 61: Wieland Wagner "Tell the Wind"