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
Mother and Child Fleeing
1media/mother-child-fleeing_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:20+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992Shikoku Gorō. “Mother and Child Fleeing.” Watercolor on paper. 1950-1953.plain2020-06-14T22:08:12+00:00Shikoku HikaruphotographMax Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12020-05-26T15:13:50+00:00Mother and Child Fleeing3plain2020-06-14T15:32:38+00:00Together, Shikoku, Tōge, and college students, union members, and other young people in the circle would create the tsuji-shi. Sometimes the poem came first. Working from the poem “Stop It!” Shikoku conceived of a dynamic composition that combined striking image and text. He used a brush in tsujishi to write provocative verse in big letters and drew bold images—some abstract and ghostlike, as in “It was the Smell of a Woman’s Hair” and others realistic as in “Mother and Child Fleeing” --so that passersby might pause long enough to add their signatures to a petition and talk about current events.
