There has been a lighthouse in Shikotan, one of the Kuril Islands, since the time of Japanese rule. The lighthouse is now home to Viktor. Few people reach this place and this suits him – Viktor does not like crowds.
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Andrey Shapran / Focus Pictures
A few years ago, Viktor started digging for artifacts dating from the time when these lands were controlled by the Japanese. He dreams of discovering a samurai sword.
Andrey Shapran / Focus Pictures
Viktor says he has two years to go to retirement, and then it may be time for a change.
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Crabs of this size are not a common sight.
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Five traps and 10 crabs is the limit for each resident of the Southern Kuril Islands.
Andrey Shapran / Focus Pictures
Commercial crabbing is banned in the Southern Kuril Islands, but the ban will not add crabs to Viktor’s traps.
Andrey Shapran / Focus Pictures
But the situation changed in the morning, the sea became calmer and the calm brought a catch.
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The sea was rough for a few days. Crabbing was out of the question – the traps set the previous day were all empty.
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“There is no room for feasts in our life, but we have a real feast today,” Viktor says as he comes back from the seaside.
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Viktor digs just for curiosity. He is aware neither of the names of the objects nor their designation, and he does not understand any of the Japanese characters.
Andrey Shapran / Focus Pictures
Today’s dig at the site of an old Japanese house is fruitless. He only finds a few beer bottles – the tide washes off the traces of the dig on the seaside.
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Viktor also tried going back to the mainland, but failed. There were three reasons – his age made it difficult to find a job, he couldn’t tolerate the climate, and he hates crowds. Six months later, he was back in Shikotan.
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The year 1994 was a turning point for many Kuril residents – a large portion of the islanders left the islands. But many returned later – the islands must be in their blood.
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Viktor’s main occupation is as a bulldozer operator. During Perestroika, when the state abandoned the islands and its inhabitants had to struggle to survive, he used his bulldozer to dig up non-ferrous metals and sold the metal to scrap yards.
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This is light-keeper Viktor Sidorov, 53. He was born in Nizhny Novgorod and has lived in the Kuril Islands since 1978. He has worked at the lighthouse for six years now. Solitude and the long distance from his superiors are the reasons he took this job.
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At one time, the lighthouse anticipated a visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev did not show up, but he had a bird eye’s view of the lighthouse from a helicopter that circled over Shikotan.
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The Japanese developed a system of concrete structures for moving between the premises without going outside. The roofs were lined with narrow curbs, and the water that accumulated in these “pools” was channeled into an underground well. During the Soviet era, the silver coins along the perimeter of its bottom that served as artificial water filters disappeared from the well. Since then, light-keepers have taken water from the stream and melted snow in the winter for water.
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The lighthouse is located on Crab Cape, five minutes’ walk from World’s End Cape. The lighthouse is one of just a few Japanese-built constructions left in the Southern Kuril Islands.
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Shpanberg Lighthouse was built in Shikotan in 1938-1943 by the Japanese. It is 18 meters (59 feet) tall.
