This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Popular Protest in Post War Japan: The Antiwar Art of Shikoku Gorō Overview This 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.

Resources

Arimitsu, Ken. “Shikoku Gorō no Shiberia yokuryū taiken o kangaeru.” Waga seishun no kiroku, Kyoto: Sanninsha, 2017, 509-519.

Avenell, Simon. Making Japanese Citizens: Civil Society and the Mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

Claremont, Yasuko. “Civil Resistance in Japan in Response to Political Domination.” In Civil Society and Postwar Pacific Basin Reconciliation. Claremont, Yasuko, ed. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 119-135.

Ground Zero: A Schoolboy’s Story: Testimony of Hiroshima Survivor Akihiro Takahashi. Illustrations by Goro Shikoku. English translation by Yuki Tanaka. MIT Visualizing Cultures. https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/groundzero1945_2/index.html

Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. A Tale of Two Brothers Across Time: Hiroshima Artist Gorō SHIKOKU and the Diary of Naoto on His Deathbed. English-subtitled Film. Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, 2020. https://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/project/exhibition/index.html

Kawaguchi, Takayuki. “Futatsu no ‘sengo’: Shigajin Shikoku Gorō no bunka undo no kiseki” in Tsuboi Hideto, Undō no Jidai, Kyoto: Rinsen Shoten, 2108.

Kawaguchi, Takayuki. “Waga seishun no kiroku to sengo bungaku undō: Shiberia shūyōjo no minshu undō to Hiroshima no saakuru undō,” in Waga seishun no kiroku, 520-530. Kyoto: Sanninsha, 2017.

Jesty, Justin. Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan. Cornell University Press, 2018.

Kawa Jōen Iinkai. “Kawa” Saku Tsuchiya Kiyoshi Hiroshima no seishun gunzō. Hiroshima: Kawa Jōen Iinkai, 2018.

Nagata, Kōzō. Hiroshima o tsutaeru: Shigajin Shikoku Gorō to genbaku no hyōgensha tachi. Tokyo: WAVE Shuppan, 2016.

Shikoku, Gorō. Hiroshima hyakkyō. Hiroshima: Shunyōsha, 1975.

Shikoku, Gorō. Hiroshima no sukecchi. Hiroshima: Hiroshima Bunko, 1985.

Shikoku, Gorō. Shikoku Gorō heiwa Bijutsukan. 2 Vols. Hiroshima: Hiroshima Mini Komi Center, 1999.

Takahashi Akihiro. “Ground Zero 1945. A Schoolboy's Story.” Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol 5, Issue 9, 2007.

Tsuchiya, Tokiko and Yagi Yoshihiro, eds. Hiroshima no “Kawa”: Geki sakka Tsuchiya Kiyoshi no Seishun gunzō geki. Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten, 2019.

Yamaguchi, Yuko. The Angry Jizo. Trans. Beth Harrison. Tokyo: Yamaguchi Shoten, 1983.

Yamaguchi, Yūko. Ehon okori Jizō. Tokyo: Kin no hoshi sha, 1979.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:
1. Overview This 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.