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
Group working on Comrade
1media/wsk-making-journal_thumb.jpg2019-08-23T15:26:55+00:00Maxwell Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69132Group of Japanese internees working on journal Comrade, from Memorandum of My Youth, 1949, 264.plain2019-08-23T15:28:30+00:00Memorandum of My Youth, 1949, 264.Maxwell Mitchell5fec7a6574d32fe574c01ba927cd57c749ceca69
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12019-08-26T17:31:56+00:00Repatriated2plain2019-08-26T17:46:15+00:00The positive intensity and teamwork that Shikoku emphasizes in this watercolor of Japanese internees in the Soviet camp huddled together to work on a journal Comrade suggests the attraction that Our Poem circle & its journal held for Shikoku once he returned to Hiroshima.
After its charismatic leader Tōge Sankichi died and as the JCP fractured in 1951. Our Poems’ circle and its remarkable journal suffered a decline in idealism and impact. However, this brief, fulfilling and vivid experience with Our Poems circle was sufficient to sustain and fuel Shikoku throughout his life. He met with discrimination as a “red” repatriate as he searched for employment but finally found temporary work at the City Hall, where he would eventually spend his career. Throughout his working life and retirement, Shikoku persisted at every turn in finding ways to put his beliefs, his art, and this framework into practice, and collaborating with other activist artists in Hiroshima.