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
Koheibashi Bridge
1media/koheibashi_bridge_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:18+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992Koheibashi Bridge in the Snow, Watercolor and Ink on paper, 1983. Hiroshima Sketches, pp. 110-111.plain2020-06-14T22:04:00+00:00Hirogaku ToshophotographMax Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12020-05-26T15:13:40+00:00Koheibashi Bridge3plain2020-06-14T16:01:38+00:00 Shikoku uses washes to evoke a calm, atmospheric winter day at Kōheibashi (Army Corps of Engineers Bridge). The text next to the image of a pedestrian bridge and snowy tree-lined riverbanks sets up a contrast between today’s peaceful landscape and the built environment of Imperial Japan. Military personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in Hiroshima constructed this suspension bridge in the 22nd year of Meiji (1889), in the early years of Hiroshima’s development into one the major military centers in Japan (pp. 110-111). Shikoku describes the mature stand of some 20 camphor trees (kusunoki) on the elevated banks in relation to city planning efforts to stem flooding downstream; a hedge of karatachi orange trees surrounded Army facility.
