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
We Will Tell the Stories
1media/footprints_thumb.jpg2020-06-10T21:35:14+00:00Max Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca6992Shikoku Gorō. “We Will Tell the Stories.” Ink on paper. 1950-1953.plain2020-06-14T22:00:44+00:00Shikoku HikaruphotographMax Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12020-05-26T15:13:52+00:00We Will Tell the Stories2plain2020-06-14T15:31:52+00:00“We will tell the stories and sing the stories of the love and anger and resentment of people who were trampled on in the homeland.” Shikoku created the image by spreading paint on the soles of boots and stamping them on paper in order to suggest oppression but also the marching feet of of protestors.
It wasn’t unusual for a sympathetic passerby to warn the poets that the authorities were on their way, which allowed the activists to quickly pull down the posters and nonchalantly walk away—or just abandon the poems and run. The multiple tack holes in the corners of the extant posters demonstrate that the Circle posted them several times.
