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Popular Protest in Post War Japan: The Antiwar Art of Shikoku Gorō Overview This 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.

Black Pine of Hijiyama

Unusual among the images the book, this page is dominated by a sketch of a single large pine tree (kuromatsu). The accompanying text recalls highly regarded Hiroshima artist Yamaji Shō, who was arrested and jailed by the wartime police, and died before the end of the war; and poet Sakamoto Hisashi, who was tortured by the Thought Police. The authorities banned his massive painting “Pine Tree” because, they claimed, the red silhouette of the tree “was Communist” (forbidden thought at the time). Shikoku explains, “Each time I see this pine near his house, I wonder whether it was this very tree that inspired that painting.”

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Sketches Hijiyama no kuromatsu