I recently read about the wind phone and was floored by it. What a truly great concept. I read about a wind phone in North Carolina “where you can call the dead,” according to Fodors Travel. It was an article that came to one of the news sites I follow on my cell phone.
People are seeking out wind phones to talk to the dead, to lay out their griefs, to mourn a loved one. Or a friend, long-lost or recently passed. According to the article, “Gods have been using the wind to relay messages for thousands of years…but the wind phone adds a modern twist with its tangible apparatus. Public wind phones are popping up around the world, giving people a chance to express and process their grief.”
It provides an outlet for people to pick up the phone in a sacred space and say things you needed or need to say to that person. The phones are typically in an old-fashioned phone booth with an old-fashioned rotary phone. No land line needed, obviously, just the wind. And they are free.
The creation and history of the wind phone
In a nutshell, in Japan in December, 2010, Itaru Sasaki was grieving his cousin who had recently died from cancer. Sasaki purchased an old phone booth and rotary phone and installed it in his garden. (The photo at the top of this article is the wind phone Sasaki created). As he used his phone to communicate with his cousin, he began to feel comfort and named his invention, Kaze No Denwa, Japanese for Telephone of the Wind.
After the 2011 earthquake and tsunamis in Japan which resulted in 20,000 deaths, Sasaki opened the wind phone to the public. The wind phone concept then took off as many Japanese citizens made their pilgramage to the wind phone to communicate with the victims of the disaster.
According to Itari Sasaki’s website, Bell Gardia KUJIRAYAMA, “Wind Phone is connected to nowhere, however talking to lost loved ones via the phone makes people feeling to be connected with their lost loved ones, and their thought will surely be delivered to their loved ones is an imagination created by the people’s broken heart, however, this imagination provides those people a hope to live.”
In an interview, Sasaki reflected, “Because my thoughts couldn’t be relayed over a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind.”
Recent developments
Smithsonian magazine reports there are about 200 wind phones across the U.S. According to the magazine, various grieving techniques and wind phones have in common, “the use of a conversational approach that allows connection, reflection and the safe release of strong emotions. The spontaneity of saying it out loud can reveal subconscious insights.”
As of April 15, 2025, Amy Dawson, creator of Mywindphone.com has mapped 365 public wind phones, worldwide. Amy is the mother of Emily, who passed during Covid following a four-year illness.
It seems like a great way to allow people to grieve. But it also prompts people to entertain other scenarios in their lives. I read of one person who used a wind phone to call her younger self. She then had a conversation to talk about things she might have done differently, to discuss regrets, hopes, dreams.
I have not used a wind phone. But back in 2020, I mailed my dad a letter. The letter was a way of reaching out to my 93 year-old dad, to reconnect, to remind him of several important details about our relationship and our accomplishments. I knew a letter would have more impact than a conversation since Dad could read it, reflect upon it and reread it, thus leading to a more impactful discussion between us.
So, I mailed him the letter along with several WWII books covering naval battles I knew he would be interested in reading. Dad proudly served in the US Navy during the end of WWII on a signal ship, where he and his specialized and top-secret crew intercepted and decoded Japanese messages out in the Pacific Ocean. He received the box of books I had sent and he thanked me but he did not discover my letter which was probably sandwiched at the bottom of the box. No problem, I printed out the letter and resent it to him.
While my second letter was in the US Mail, Dad was taken to the hospital and then released into hospice back where he lived. Before he ever read this letter, he suddenly died; it was only Day 1 of hospice. The letter was later found, unopened.
So, I never had that final opportunity to talk with Dad and he never had that opportunity to read my words of healing between us. I have always regretted that. Some day, I may use a wind phone to call Dad so we can make our peace with each other.
I am a praying man and I have “spoken” to Dad during my occasional prayers. I actually have spoken to him often regarding the letter I wrote him. So I know his spirit knows what I revealed to him in that letter. But still.
I could do a wind phone call with him and just read him my letter. Just to be sure, you know.
My mom passed in January, 2024 and I do not feel the same need to get on the wind phone with her. After all, when Dad died, I called Mom nearly every day for three years just to check in on her. And of course, we became even closer during those years of daily phone calls. We had said everything there is to be said over our lifetimes and especially over those last three years of her life. We were very close.
But I do not rule out a wind phone call with Mom or Dad. We’ll see.
If you feel you would benefit from a wind phone call, in addition to the sites listed above, here is another website that lists several other locations:
Anything that helps people grieve or reconnect sounds like a positive step forward to me.
Chris Ebel
4/17.25
Photo Credit: the original wind phone at Bell Gardia KUJIRAYAMA, Japan