Location: Children’s Wing, Digital Museum Reconstruction Hall
Description:
A miniature version of Saito Temple sits within glass, reduced to model scale for children who never saw the real one. Its shingles are simulated clay, its staircases too precise. The plaque claims it was built from survivor recollection and childhood sketchbooks. Judai watches a group of children reprogram the lighting—changing the model’s internal sky from dusk to aftermath. Juna kneels to photograph the floor grid beneath the temple: a schematic for rebuilding not the structure, but the idea of sanctuary. One child adds a paper train beside the temple gate. “It’s where the movie starts,” she says. The light dims. A projector embedded in the wall flashes images of family altars, then rewinds. The temple shimmers. The past practices reconstruction.

Keywords:
temple model, child-scale sanctuary, memory lighting, schematic altar, paper train placement

Very Short Story:
Juna touched the edge of the glass case and felt warmth. “This shouldn’t be warm,” she said. A docent appeared, nodded, then walked away without speaking. Judai looked beneath the model and found a wire that led nowhere—an echo circuit. Children pressed buttons, and the temple’s interior changed: funeral, wedding, empty. Juna took a snapshot just as the paper train lit up in gold. “Someone made that today,” she murmured. Judai noticed a label: “Scene One Replica.” They left through the side door. When they looked back, the model had changed positions. The paper train now sat on the roof. “It’s going to leave,” said a child’s voice from behind. But there was no child in the hallway.

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