The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
POWER OF HEROES FRAILTY OF HUMANS
An exhibition titled “Heroes and People in Japanese Contemporary Art” is being held through March 17 at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Chuo Ward, Kobe. The exhibition showcases artworks concerned with society, politics and mass media, such as manga, anime, kamishibai picture storytelling. In the process, it suggests a great deal about life in the Showa and Heisei eras.
About 400 pieces relating to the keywords “hero” and “people” (as in “the masses”) are being exhibited.
What are heroes? “[A hero is] a being that is attractive and familiar to many people and gives them dreams, hopes, thrills and excitement,” said curator Tadashi Kobayashi.
Visitors can see many nostalgic heroes such as Norakuro, in original drawings of the manga “Norakuro allout attack,” published in 1937; Golden Bat, a popular kamishibai character before World War II; and Moonlight Mask, Ultraman and Godzilla, who enthralled boys of the 1950s to 1970s and are shown in photo panels. The pieces are displayed with commentary about their historical background.
“Norakuro” gained popularity with its story about a stray dog, the title character, who becomes a success in military life. Moonlight Mask, a hero of justice whom children became absorbed in pretending to be, was based on the bodhisattva Gakko Bosatsu, symbolizing a sense of mercy. Originally created by Kohan Kawauchi, the hero usually blends in around town, but makes a dashing appearance in his mask in a pinch.
Such examples show that ordinary people saw heroes as longed-for ideals, yet also as familiar and approachable figures. The masses themselves are not as strong or as righteous as the heroes they dream of.
New creations by four artists shed light on the matter with a touch of irony.
Makoto Aida created a 7-meter-high Aomori nebuta float depicting a spectral and emaciated Japanese soldier pointing with a skeletal hand toward an object that might be the Diet building — or a tombstone. It looks as if he is cursing his fate while loitering in the world of the present. “An insane form of warfare was practiced in the final stages of World War II, as many soldiers died of disease, malnutrition and starvation.
This morbid aspect of Japanese society, in which a group cannot turn back although it has gone the wrong way, still exists in modern times,” said Aida.
In Shiriagari Kotobuki’s creation, costumes of local character heroes who perform in the Kansai area are hung from the ceiling of the museum. It projects a sense of intimacy while pointing to the precariousness of such an existence. Ryuichi Ishikawa made a video featuring a man who struggles to scatter his mother’s ashes. Anri Yanase sharply illustrates the boundary of life and death by showing the life cycle of sunflowers planted along a grave.
The hopes of the masses are reflected in the ideals of heroes. Some people act to achieve justice in heroic fashion while others are unable to do so and become mired in struggle. The exhibition, reminding visitors of the old days when they were absorbed with heroes, also shows us the danger that mass psychology tends to flow in one direction.