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
Sketches Yanagibashi Bridge
1media/sketches_yanagibashi_bridge_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:28+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992View of Yanagibashi Bridge and Higashi Hiroshima Bridge from Inaribashi Bridge, watercolor and ink on paper, 1977. Hiroshima Sketches, pp. 14-15.plain2020-06-14T22:16:09+00:00Hirogaku ToshophotographMax Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12020-05-26T15:14:06+00:00Yanagibashi Bridge2plain2020-06-14T16:03:08+00:00“Yanagibashi (Willow Bridge) is splendid whether it’s a sunny day or raining, in the morning or the evening.” (p. 51). Shikoku includes several drawings of his favorite Yanagibashi Bridge, shown in this 1977 sketch as a pathway busy with pedestrians carrying umbrellas and people on bicycles. The atmospheric reflection of the lampposts and the bridge in the calm waters of the Kyobashi River and feathery willow trees evoke the peace and prosperity of 1970s Hiroshima. In a separate passage, Shikoku uses willows to remind readers of Hiroshima's prewar prominence as the location of military headquarters and as a port from which naval ships sailed for China and the front. In the 1890s when Imperial Japan was building a strong military, Hiroshima rose in prominence. Shikoku notes, “When renowned poet Masaoka Shiki stayed in a Hiroshima inn as an embedded journalist during the First Sino-Japanese War, he composed the haiku ‘Oh Hiroshima/a place replete/with willow trees.”
After the August 1945 atomic bombing, it was said that 70 years would pass before grasses and flowers grew again. Many hibakusha found hope in the green buds emerged from scorched trees and flowers sprung up among the ruins in the weeks after.