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
Our Poems Journal
12020-05-26T15:13:18+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6994plain25352020-06-14T15:27:49+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69By the time Atom Bomb Poetry was published, Tōge and circle members had already built an enthusiastic regional audience through its journal Our Poems (Warera no uta), which featured poetry and essays. Shikoku Gorō’s design cover of Our Poems’ first issue, with a sketch of a healthy young laborer on a red background, suggests the circle’s intended audience of working class readers. Encouraged by the new postwar Constitution guarantee of equal rights for women, women actively contributed to the journal.
1media/cover-sitting-woman_v2_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:14+00:00Our Poems Issue 1 Cover2Cover of Our Poems journal by Shikoku Gorō. Issue #1, November 1949.media/cover-sitting-woman_v2.jpgplain2020-06-14T16:30:18+00:00The Association for Preservation of Literary Materials of Hiroshimaphotograph