Fukushima: 2011 disaster threatens to end age-old cultural practices

Junior high school boy Shintaro Yamauchi lights candles around a fireside during a community ritual in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, on Jan. 14. (Masahiro Takahashi)

When tens of thousands of people fled after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and ensuing Fukushima nuclear accident, their cultural traditions left with them.