Popular Protest in Postwar 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.Atomic Bomb Poetry CollectionThe Angry JizoHiroshima SketchesAnn Sherif99c9850c7ffbc663daa16feec7b9f1dd71ca3e2e
Hiroshima Sketches Cover
1media/sketches_cover_thumb.JPG2020-02-06T20:23:26+00:00Maxwell Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69133Cover of Hiroshima Sketches with Atomic Bomb Dome. Watercolor on paper, 1985.plain2020-04-07T19:31:58+00:00Maxwell Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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1media/sketches_cover_title_v3.jpg2020-02-06T22:36:40+00:00Hiroshima Sketches21image_header2020-05-21T21:54:48+00:00 In Hiroshima Sketches (1985), Shikoku Gorō introduces the city of Hiroshima through a series of drawings and brief essays. The cover of the small paperback book features a watercolor close-up of the ruined brick walls and skeletal top of the Atomic Bomb Dome (genbaku dōmu), a widely recognized symbol of nuclear warfare. Inside the book, Shikoku devotes only a few pages to the renowned Peace Park surrounding the Atomic Bomb Dome, and instead focuses visually on lively contemporary scenes of shops, train stations, festivals, street scenes and more throughout the city of Hiroshima. Shikoku emphasizes the many bridges that make the city--spread across a delta of six rivers and surrounded by green mountains--not only livable but pleasing.
