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
Rivers Performance, 2017
1media/rivers-2017-reading_v2_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:20+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992Ichikawa Mutsuko (played by Nakayama Ryōko) reading the poem “Sky of Hiroshima” in Rivers (2017 production in Hiroshima).plain2020-06-14T22:09:18+00:00The Association for Preservation of Literary Materials of HiroshimaphotographFBMD01000aaf0d0000afce01008a9f03001dcd0300001d0400a9eb05003d6c0c00d2fc0c00e8410d00cbb20d00f1fb1800Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12020-05-26T15:13:08+00:002017 Revival2plain2020-06-14T15:38:03+00:00In 2017, Tsuchiya Tokiko lead a group of actors in mounting a revival of Rivers (Kawa) by Tsuchiya Kiyoshi. The revival followed soon after a series of exhibits of Shikoku Gorō’s works after his death in 2014, and the publication of a facsimile of Our Poems journal and extensive scholarship on the circle & historical context. Rivers again found a responsive audience in a time of global instability and revival of nuclear threat and hatred. Journalist Nakayama Ryōko played the role of Ichikawa, a character based on her own grandmother Hayashi Sachiko. In this climatic moment of the play, Ichikawa reads the poem “Sky of Hiroshima.” As the generation of Our Poems members passed, Nakayama was dedicated to learning about the social and cultural movement and the ways it spoke to her own time. Although the character Shikoku Gorō did not appear in Rivers, his presence was evident: Shikoku’s works were projected on the stage; and more than one character in the play embodied his artistic and political commitments, as well as his humility. The production was also infused with the shared notion of struggle and a hope in the promise of democracy and justice, which resonated with audiences in various times of struggle, including the Vietnam War, 1960s student movement, and the rising nuclear threat from 2016.