Hiroshima Collection (1986-) (1) Hiroshima Collection
The relationship between photography and text is something I have always considered as someone who creates images, but the presence of text is particularly important in the 'Hiroshima Collection' series, which I have been working on continuously from 1982 to the present.
Dress, Donated: November 15, 2005 / Donor: Futaba Takase (the individual herself) (maiden name: Mito) / 690×980 mm. Futaba Mito (then 18 years old) evacuated from Tokyo to Hiroshima on July 26. She was exposed to the atomic bomb along with her mother, Setsuko (then 38), and her younger sister, Kasumi (then 15), at their home in Otemachi 5-chome (1,100m from the hypocenter). They escaped from their collapsed home. Her mother, Setsuko, died of sepsis on September 1. Both Futaba and Kasumi suffered from radiation sickness but later recovered. This dress is what Futaba was wearing on the day of the bombing. It was sewn for her by her mother, Setsuko, and she cherished it as a memento of her mother.
Photographs can only capture the present. It is impossible to capture a past phenomenon from 80 years ago (August 6, 1945) in the present. On the other hand, words can freely express the present, as well as the past and the future. I judged that a methodology that attempts to express the past solely through photographs is highly likely to fall into personal impressions or ambiguous memories, and is not appropriate for aiming at a more accurate and realistic (present-tense) expression of 'Hiroshima.' By placing photographs and text in parallel, I present the present and the past simultaneously within a single work. This methodology, which I became convinced of and implemented in 1982, remains unchanged and consistent even in my most recent photography in 2024.
Dress, Donated: January 30, 1974 / Donor: Ritsu Ogawa (mother of Setsuko Ogawa) / 570×820 mm. Setsuko Ogawa (then 21 years old) was exposed to the atomic bomb while doing morning exercises at the Fifth Division Headquarters (790m from the hypocenter). She fled to Shukkeien Garden, but while soaking in the Kyobashi River to avoid the intensity of the fire, she was rescued by soldiers and taken to the Division Headquarters. She was transferred to Ninoshima Island on the 9th, but died on the 11th. This silk dress was worn under her jacket and monpe trousers.
What becomes possible through the combined use of photography and text is a thorough de-expression and non-staging in photography. In expressing Hiroshima's atomic bomb materials, I judged that I should avoid staging tragedy by emphasizing shadows or scars, or inducing emotional image manipulation. In my photography, I exclude personal emotions, focus on the 'form of daily life' as it is, and concentrate on capturing it objectively and clearly. This is because the 'form of daily life' in 1945 shares a semiotic quality that connects to our own daily lives today. It is not 'someone's dress from the past,' but rather a dress belonging to us living in the present, or to our families. The angle is basically a bird's-eye view, a composition that can capture the semiotic quality more effectively. I used 4x5 film before 2000 and digital photography thereafter, but my methodology has not changed at all from 1982 to the present. I am proud that what I became convinced of and implemented 40 years ago still possesses, and perhaps even more so because it is now, effectiveness and a sense of the present.
Bento Box, Donated: June 25, 1970 / Donor: Shigeru Watanabe (father of Reiko Watanabe) / 165×30×110 mm. Reiko Watanabe (then a 12-year-old first-year student at the Municipal First Girls' High School) was exposed to the atomic bomb while working on building demolition as a mobilized student in Nakajima-cho (550m from the hypocenter). Her older sister, Keiko, found this the following day, the 7th, at the work site where bodies and rubble were scattered. It is a luxurious bento for that time, consisting of boiled beans and white rice, but it is completely carbonized. Her body was never found.
The relationship between photography and text has been the most important concept from the beginning (mentioned by Koen Shigemori in the 1984 Asahi Camera special issue 'Hiroshima'). Regarding text production, I repeatedly read the data preserved along with the materials. These were collected through interviews when the donors—often the individuals themselves or their families, though not always—donated the materials. The provenance and background of the collected materials are diverse, ranging from items with no records at all to those with explanatory texts exceeding 2,000 characters. In my case, I repeatedly scrutinize and refine the content to be included in the work and the parts to be cut, aiming for about 300 characters of text that can be recognized simultaneously with the photograph. Text production is quite a difficult task, and I spend as much time on it as I do on the photography. This process has also been consistent since 1982, and I believe it is important that I do it myself. What is important is the one line of data under the title. 'When and who donated it.' The relationship between the material and the donor, cases where parents donate the belongings of their children, or vice versa—from this one line alone, the major situation that befell the atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima should become visible. Many items were donated 60 or 70 years after the bombing. There is an increasing number of cases where mementos that have been protected by each family for two or three generations are being donated due to generational changes and the like. I would like to investigate this again, as there are likely things that can be seen from the trends in the number of donations.
Doll, Donated: September 3, 2014 / Donor: Ryoko Hamada (younger sister of Mitsuko Hamada) / 25×65×5 mm. The donor's older sister, Mitsuko Hamada (a 13-year-old first-year junior high school student), was exposed to the atomic bomb as a mobilized student at a building demolition site at the west end of Tsurumi Bridge (1,500m from the hypocenter). The following day, the 7th, her father, Ryoichi, and mother, Miyono, entered the city to search for Mitsuko, found her severely burned on Mt. Futaba, and returned home on the 8th. Mitsuko sensed her own condition and said, 'If I die, there will be no one left to look after Mother.' Mitsuko's hair fell out, and she died on the morning of the 19th. Her older brother, Sai (then 17), who was exposed to the bomb in Komachi, also died on the afternoon of the same day. After that, until she passed away in 2003 at the age of 98, Miyono never missed her morning and evening sutra chanting and continued to cherish these mementos.
Since I began photographing for the 'Hiroshima Collection' in 1982, I have photographed not only symbolic clothing but also familiar kitchen utensils and daily necessities. However, in my most recent photography from 2023-24, I consciously selected trivial daily items and toys found in the home. This is not to close up only on the tragic situation of the war, but to express that the lives of people, down to the details of daily life, were destroyed in an instant by the atomic bombing, and that daily life was brought to a halt. By placing many such small daily necessities and household items in parallel, I show that the damage from the atomic bomb reached deep into people's lives.