A couple of years ago, Popkin here at Boing Boing wrote about the "Phone of the Wind," a beautiful phone booth created by Itaru Sasaki as a way to help him grieve a family member who had died from cancer. Sasaki installed the first iteration of the Wind Phone—an old rotary phone that's disconnected from phone wires or anything electric and whose purpose is to help facilitate a one-way "conversation" with loved ones who have passed on—in 2010 in his garden. In 2011, following a catastrophic earthquake, Sasaki salvaged what was left of his phone booth and relocated it on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the town near of Ōtsuchi, which had been particularly affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. The Wind Phone then became a way for a much larger number of people to grieve and connect with their lost loved ones.
According to the My Wind Phone website:
The Phone of the Wind is a shrine mindfully created to connect people to their loved ones on the other side. It is one of the world's most powerful resilience sites. Grievers travel from around the world to "call" their loved ones in spirit, to say the things they didn't get a chance to say while the person was living. It is a place that offers the peace and solitude grievers need to work through their pain.
Since the original Phone of the Wind, many people across the world have installed their own versions, inspired by Sasaki's idea. There might even be one near you! The website, "My Wind Phone," is a terrific resource that includes a map of all currently existing wind phones—there are 260 in the United States, 190 internationally, and 14 more coming soon. On the website you can also learn about Itaru Sasaki's original Phone of the Wind, get pointers about how to create and then list your own wind phone, view images, read about featured wind phones on the site's blog, and even find grief resources.
In November 2024, Mr. Sasaki, creator of the original Phone of the Wind, published a letter setting forth some of the philosophical and design elements that he hopes will be present in wind phones. He writes:
I'm aware that it's very easy to make a Wind Phone, and that there are very few rules or constraints for doing so. However, the installation I have imagined makes sense and offers quality support to the bereaved as long as four basic conditions are met:
1) A nice, quiet place, favourable to introspection and contemplation.
2) An enclosed cabin, in which the person feels a real sense of intimacy and can let him or herself say out loud what he or she is thinking or feeling, without fear of being overheard.
3) The presence of a guardian, available for those who so wish. The guardian offers a warm, non-judgemental listening ear, helping to integrate the cabin experience even more effectively. The guardian is also the one who keeps the place alive, keeps it clean and sometimes organizes discussion groups, conferences or any other event related to bereavement support.
4) The use of the Wind Phone should be free of charge. Discussions with the guardian too.
In the letter, he also proposes a vision for a certification process for official Wind Phone Installations, along with the creation of a "small community of Wind Phone Guardians," so that his original "concept and spirit" of the project can continue:
I'd like to be able to encourage people who work in the same spirit as me by offering them a "certification". Patrick [JS: Genaine, the custodian of a Wind Phone in Switzerland] and I are in the process of drawing up a charter containing the basic ethical principles that the guardians will undertake to respect, and then I will certify these installations as legitimate to bear the name "Wind Phone" In a few months' time, I will be making a fuller announcement on the subject.
I encourage you to go the My Wind Phone website to learn more about wind phones and to perhaps even get inspired to create one! You can also search for phones near you to check out. I was delighted to see that there are several not too far from me, so I'll definitely be visiting them soon!
