Popular Protest in Post War Japan: The Antiwar Art of Shikoku GorōMain MenuOverviewThis exhibit explores the vibrant grassroots artistic culture of Hiroshima, known as the atomic bombed city. From 1949 through the 1990s, local artist Shikoku Gorō advanced a bold and democratic vision for cultural life by bringing poetry to the streets & mobilizing visual arts to represent the vitality, beauty, and complexity of Hiroshima. The exhibit explores a set of influential books, along with other examples of socially committed art. Shikoku and his circles of collaborators illuminated pathways to civic engagement for the citizens of Hiroshima—hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), vets, & younger generations.Atom Bomb Poetry CollectionThe Angry JizoHiroshima SketchesGlossaryResourcesAcknowledgmentsAnn Sherif99c9850c7ffbc663daa16feec7b9f1dd71ca3e2e
It was the Smell of a Woman's Hair Burning
1media/womans-hair_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:32+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992Tōge Sankichi and Shikoku Gorō. “It was the Smell of a Woman’s hair burning.” Steet poem poster. Watercolor on Paper. 1950-1953.plain2020-06-14T22:19:09+00:00Shikoku HikaruphotographMax Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12020-05-26T15:13:08+00:00A Woman's Hair Burning3plain2020-06-14T15:31:24+00:00The unsettling colors and woozy figures match the disturbing imagery in the poem: hair burning, bleeding, explosions, and a “city smelling of sadness.” The street poem poster demonstrates that Our Poems circle creatively engaged in a variety of alternative and grassroots civic activities to broaden the possibilities of dissent beyond large-scale protest marches.
