Webmaster visited Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels this week.
Access: Tokyo (local train 0:24) Ikebukuro (local train 0:55) Higashi-matsuyama (bus 0:15) Maruki-bijutsukan-higashi (walk 0:15) @
The gallery was built with a single goal in mind: to ensure that anyone, at any time, could see the Hiroshima Panels painted by a married couple Mr. Iri & Ms. Toshi Maruki. They were eyewitnesses to the atomic aftermath of the bomb in Hiroshima and they began collaborating on their work, the Hiroshima Panels, in the late 1940’s while information on the nuclear bombs was still strictly controlled by the Press Code enforced by US-led Occupation forces. (Cited and modified from A Brief Guide to the Maruki Gallery)
Those are the bronze statues of Mr. & Ms. Maruki placed by the gallery building.
The gallery building has two-story.
The main exhibition is a series of the Hiroshima Panels drawn on folding screens. It’s allowed to take photos of the exhibits only on the second floor where eight of fourteen Hiroshima Panels are exhibited.
These are the first Panel named “Ghost” and the second named “Fire”.
Some closed-up of the panels
Each work has a short explanation not only in Japanese but also in English, Chinese, Korean and Germany.
The view of Iri and Toshi to Hiroshima were not restricted only in the sight of a calamity of Japanese but also extended to American war captives and Koreans died in Hiroshima, and further extended to Auschwitz, Nanjing and Minamata, later.
I cannot show you the works on those themes, because those are exhibited in the other room where taking photo is prohibited.
It’s good to have a rest in the open-air after appreciating the paintings with rather heavy themes. Log chairs and table are set by the gallery.
Please visit Maruki Gallery. It’s worth while visiting.
End.