Peace Education & Story Telling
The picture book Angry Jizo that emerged from the Yamaguchi-Shikoku-Numata collaboration leant itself perfectly to being read aloud to a group. The large rectangular format of the book and the striking and straightforward images that dominate the page make it easy for audiences to see and understand.
Here, actress Kiuchi Midori does a public reading of Angry Jizo in Hiroshima with Shikoku’s illustrations on the large screen. As the audience of adults in this video demonstrates, Angry Jizo had the capacity to reach both young audiences and adults. Kiuchi’s dramatic rendering of the story here was tailored toward an adult audience. If there were children or young students in the audience, the reader would adjust the reading to make the story less frightening.
From the 1970s, Angry Jizo was often read at antiwar and antinuclear protest rallies, such as this 1982 mass gathering with huge illustrations by Shikoku and reading by Numata.
