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
Atomic Bomb Slums
12020-05-26T15:13:28+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992plain2020-06-14T15:56:01+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69Shikoku did this sober painting around the same time as the cheerful lantern festival watercolor above. Both images depict the area around Aioi Bridge, the T-shaped bridge below the hypocenter, around which houses and businesses—mostly built of wood--were incinerated. This oil painting shows the “Atomic slum” (genbaku suramu) packed with wooden tenement houses built soon after the war by displaced survivors and others. To Shikoku, this area of the city served as a visible reminder of “the pain of the war long afterward.” In the 1970s, the city tore down these low-income neighborhoods as part of beautification and gentrification of the area around the Peace Park in central Hiroshima. Shikoku built the picture frame with wood salvaged from one of the tenements and inscribed it “Lest We Forget.”
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12020-05-26T15:13:28+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69Drawing in the HypocenterMax Mitchell3plain25722020-06-14T15:54:48+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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1media/genbaku_slum_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:14+00:00Genbaku Slum in Wodden Frame2“Lest We Forget.” Oil on canvas, wood, 1984. Hiroshima Sketches includes a study for this painting.media/genbaku_slum.jpgplain2020-06-14T22:02:03+00:00Shikoku GorōShikoku Hikaruphotograph