Being reborn in the debeya

It was the custom on Ibukijima for women to live together in a facility known as a debeya during the final stage of pregnancy and post-delivery to relieve them from doing household chores and give them special care. On the site of the debeya , the place where life came forth, the artist has planted a large tree of life on its side to represent the womb. To slip through the space between the earth and the trunk symbolizes our birth from our mothers into this world.