A Place Is Nationalist Ideology and a Historical Witness
by Anna Moblard Meier, Bryn Mawr College
Between 1937 and 1941 the Japanese print maker Tokuriki Tomikichirō (徳力富吉郎) (1902–2000) created a series titled Collected Prints of Sacred, Historic and Scenic Places (Seichi shiseki meishō). At first glance these multicolor woodblock prints appear to be simple, serene images of the Japanese landscape. Beneath their placid surfaces, however, these works are rife with tension. Tokuriki produced this series during the Pacific War (1937–1945) when artists were required to produce works in service of the military effort. During this period materials were rationed, and the state strictly censored artistic production. The focal point of this paper is the fiftieth and final print of this series, the Foundation Pillar of the Entire World under One Roof, Miyazaki (Hakkō Ichiu Miyazaki). In this paper I attend to the print’s relationship to the place it depicts, the Hakkō Ichiu Tower in Miyazaki, Japan, investigating the ambiguities and complex histories revealed by this wartime print.
Hakkō Ichiu Tower, Miyazaki, Japan
Sources for Further Research:
Film footage of the Foundation Ceremony and the dedication of the tower on 3 April 1940. Nippon News No. 23, Part 1.
The publications of平和の塔」の史実を考える会 (Association for Examining the True History of the ‘Peace Tower’)
Description of foundation ceremony, Domei News Agency semi-governmental publication Contemporary Japan December 1940.
