Attracted by the simple, rural lifestyle of the people of Akka, a village settlement in the mountains of Iwate Prefecture, Hirokazu Ishida visited the villages of Akka and Yaehata in the Kitakami Mountains between 1963 and 1973. Ranked a Class 5 Remote Region, the villages let Ishida learn the way of life of the community and observe the effects of Japan's economic growth on small villages as growing numbers of young people left to seek work in the surrounding cities. The black-and-white photographs are a personal reflection of that experience and show candid, intimate moments shared by the children and families of Akka. The afterword is in Japanese and English.