Nobuyuki Ōura
Nobuyuki Ōura (
Early life and career[edit]
Ōura was born in Toyama City (Toyama Prefecture) in 1949. He studied economics at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo's Shibuya district, where he began making paintings in the late 1960s.[2] He moved to the United States in 1975, where he lived in New York City until 1985.[2]
After living in New York for two years, Ōura was introduced to and began working as a studio assistant for the renowned Japanese artist and architect Shūsaku Arakawa.[3] At first, he helped Arakawa by repainting his studios, but the two got along well and Ōura began working for him full-time, initially restoring his old paintings and eventually helping him with new works, becoming Arakawa's sole assistant from 1977 to 1984.[3][4] In interviews, he has stated that working for Arakawa for over seven years influenced his approach to expression and art making.[3]
Holding Perspective (1982-1985)[edit]
Ōura's best known artwork is Holding Perspective (
The artist produced a set of 14 prints that included images of the Shōwa Emperor (Hirohito) from various stages of his life, including photographs taken on the emperor's pre- and post-war visits to the US and Europe.[6][7] These images were cropped and superimposed with a mixture of imagery with Asian and Western influences, including rural scenes from traditional Japanese scrolls, Buddhist mandalas, Biblical imagery, tattooed and nude bodies, skeletons, brains, and cross sections of the human body, as well as documentation of the Pacific War, such as a mushroom cloud.[8] In his collages, Ōura consciously treated the images and icons in each composition as equivalents, with no value hierarchy among them.[3] He produced the series over the course of three years using both lithographic and silk screening techniques, returning to Japan intermittently to print them.[2] Ōura first showed prints from Holding Perspective in a solo exhibition at Gallery Yamaguchi in Tokyo in 1984.[7]
Concept[edit]
While living in New York, Ōura decided to create a self-portrait in a series of prints that utilized photographs of the Shōwa Emperor.[2] Through his years of living in the U.S., Ōura gained the objective distance to reconsider his own identity and sense of dislocation as a Japanese national, and created the series as a way to delve into the absorption and assimilation of Western culture and techniques undertaken by Japanese society in general, and the emperor specifically, during the postwar period.[3][9] This sentiment was implied in the title of the series; Ōura has stated that he wanted to “reverse the perspective we have learned from the West” and “hold that perspective on his own shoulders and walk forward.”[3] Ōura chose images of Hirohito photographed wearing Western clothing, demonstrating the shift in the emperor's military dress before/during the Pacific War to civilian clothes in the postwar decades.[7][5]
Art historian Kenji Kajiya analyzed Holding Perspective for a workshop on modern and contemporary East Asian Art held at New York University in 2005, interpreting the series as Ōura's “postcolonial reconsideration of modern Japan's effort to assimilate into Western culture.”[10] Kajiya asserted that Ōura's use of Emperor Hirohito's photograph in these self-portraits was a way to explore the awkwardness the artist experienced during his ten-year stay in New York as a non-Western person becoming more and more assimilated into Western culture.[9] Ōura has explained in his own words that, “there's an inner emperor inside of me that cannot be denied even if I attempt to refuse it.”[3] Most of the prints from the series carefully superimposed photographs of Emperor Hirohito in ways that highlighted his activities, dress, and stylization over the years against a variety of images and motifs that demonstrated Ōura's absorption in Western art techniques, such as sexual and racial fetishizations of the gaze and fragmentation of the human form (especially female) found in the work of Western artists such as Man Ray.[9] By juxtaposing photographs of the emperor's increasingly apparent Westernization in the postwar years with imagery that explored the complexities of Japanese culture and values, the artist considered his own mimicry of dominant Western culture and techniques.[9]
Critical reception and censorship[edit]
Ōura's Holding Perspective outraged Japanese conservatives for depicting the emperor in what they considered a disrespectful or negative light and has been subjected to censorship multiple times, most prominently in 1986 in a mediatized incident that resulted in a court trial addressing the censorship of artistic expression.[6] Although the series is often described as being about or critiquing Japan's emperor system, Ōura has maintained that the series was actually created as a form of self-portraiture. However, despite the artists' intentions, Holding Perspective is visually loaded with imagery and nuances that have sparked rightwing anger in Japan since the mid-1980s.[7] In particular, an image of Hirohito next to the nude image of a woman, and another with a mushroom cloud seeming to emerge from Hirohito's cropped head.[6][5]
Toyama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and Censorship Trial 1986-2000[edit]
In March 1986, Ōura exhibited ten works from Holding Perspective at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art in a month-long group show Art in Toyama '86, a biannual exhibition featuring 30 artists from Toyama Prefecture.[11] The museum purchased four of the pieces and arranged for Ōura to donate the remaining six to the museum, and the exhibition concluded without any incident.[11][5]
However, two months after its conclusion, rightwing groups began to aggressively protest Holding Perspective, and Ōura's artwork was criticized at the Toyama Prefectural Assembly as unpleasant, disgraceful, and unpatriotic for its alleged mocking of the emperor.[5][6][7] In July 1986, 52 trucks with loudspeakers and 220 protestors from more than 30 political groups gathered to protest the Toyama prefectural government and museum, insisting that Ōura's artwork be destroyed immediately and that museum director resign.[11] This wave of backlash was so aggressive that the museum director Ogawa Masataka (who was appointed by the prefectural governor) was prompted to withhold the four acquisitions from public display and unexpectedly return the six donated prints back to the artist.[11] The museum as well as the Toyama Prefectural Library made the exhibition's illustrated catalogue unavailable to the public.[11]
The exhibition's catalogue was finally made available to the public again four years later in 1990, following a consistent outpouring of criticism by supporters of the artist, the Japan Library Association, and appeals to freedom of expression by Social Democratic Party assemblyman Ishiguro Kazuo.[11] However, after the catalogue was put back into public circulation, an ultranationalist Shinto priest named Itō Katsuhiro destroyed the catalogue pages that reproduced Ōura's artwork at the Prefectural Library. The library renounced its claim to ownership of the catalogue in its collection and declined all offers made by citizens to donate their own catalogue copies as replacements.[5][6] Finally in 1993, it was revealed that the museum had sold the four pieces of Ōura's Holding Perspective series in its collection to an anonymous buyer and burned all 470 copies of the catalogue left in its possession.[11][6]
In 1994, Ōura and his supporters filed a lawsuit against the prefecture to demand that the museum regain the sold pieces and reprint the exhibition catalogue.[11] The trial took more than six years, making its way all the way to the Supreme Court which dismissed the case in February 2000. This meant a total defeat for Ōura.[3][11][5] Afterward, the artist commented, "it is quite strange that the artworks bought by an administrative cultural institution using taxpayer money could be kept private and sold to anonymous individuals without public knowledge."[3] Throughout the trial, Ōura maintained that the work was not critiquing the emperor or attempting to be unpatriotic, but rather was a self-critique as a citizen of modern Japanese society.[8]
Since 2000, no public museum in Japan has exhibited or possessed Ōura's Holding Perspective.[11]
Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum 2009[edit]
Ōura's Holding Perspective became the subject of controversy again when it was excluded from the group show "Into the Atomic Sunshine: Postwar Art under Japanese Peace Constitution Article 9” at the Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum in 2009.[12][13][7] The exhibition was organized by independent curator Watanabe Shinya and aimed to shed light on Japan's war history.[8] Two artists previously censored in Japan for their engagement with war-related topics were included: Ōura and Yanagi Yukinori.[8] The exhibition was first shown at the Puffin Room in New York's SoHo district; it was then brought to Japan and presented at the Hillside Gallery in Daikanyama, Tokyo in 2008 without any major incident.[7] However, the Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum's Director, Makino Hirotaka, decided against the inclusion of Ōura's work two months before the exhibition opening, citing "educational consideration" as the reason.[7][13] Makino insists that the decision to remove Holding Perspective from the exhibition was voluntarily made by Watanabe himself, but it has been since revealed that Watanabe was under pressure to either exclude Ōura or cancel the exhibition entirely.[13]
To protest the museum's censorship of the artwork, Ōura's supporters organized a group show of 25 Japanese artists entitled "Atomic Sunshine" Okinawa Show Censorship Protest Art Exhibition (「アトミックサンシャイン」
Aichi Triennale 2019[edit]
The censorship issue surrounding Ōura's work re-emerged in 2019 when a new film he produced, Holding Perspective II (2019), was included in the 2019 Aichi Triennale's "After 'Freedom of Expression?'" (in Japanese:『「
According to the Triennale's chief curator Iida Shihoko, although the international attention of the Aichi Triennale censorship scandal has singled out the sculpture Statue of Peace by South Korean artists Kim Seo Kyung and Kim Eun Sung, 50% of the aggressive backlash that led to the exhibit's closure was indeed centered on Ōura's Holding Perspective II.[17] Iida stated that most of the people who were against the exhibition had not actually seen it, and instead fixated on a few scenes of the artist from the film that had gone viral on social media, in which he uses a hand torch to burn his own prints from Holding Perspective (1982-85) that depict the emperor.[17]
Films[edit]
Following the Toyama Prefectural Art Museum incident (1986-2000), Ōura turned primarily to filmmaking, primarily documenting topics that are considered taboo and unapproachable in Japan.[8] While losing the court case prompted many people to dissuade him from investigating risky topics in his art, Ōura says that the censorship ordeal actually helped him to "clearly see the subject that [he] should engage with in this world as a creator."[18]
Holding Perspective (1995)[edit]
Japanese title:
Hariu Ichirō in the heart of Japan, a man who held the whole of Japan. (2001)[edit]
Japanese title:
9.11-8.15 Nippon Suicide Pact (2005)[edit]
Japanese title: 9.11-8.15
Emperor Game (2011)[edit]
Japanese title:
Yasukuni, Earth Spirit, Emperor (2014)[edit]
Japanese Title:
Holding Perspective II (2019)[edit]
Japanese title:
Woman Holding Perspective (2018)[edit]
Japanese title:
Activism[edit]
Since the Toyama Museum incident, Ōura and his supporters have been working to raise political awareness and activism as a warning against the revival of rightwing conservatism and nationalism in Japan. He has helped organize and attended meetings and symposia on the topic, as well as worked with his supporters to publish a variety of pamphlets, articles, books and films to raise awareness of issues of nationalism, chauvinism, historical revisionism, and censorship.[10] Art historian Kajiya Kenji has written that Ōura's censorship trial and subsequent activism influenced a new generation of critical artists that rose to prominence in the 1990s.[10]
When artist and activist Hong Song-dam's large mural Sewol Owol was censored at the 2014 Gwanju Biennale in South Korea, Ōura incorporated statements of protest into his exhibited artworks as a show of support.[28][4] Ōura traveled to South Korea to support Hong, where he 'censored' all 14 panels of the exhibited Holding Perspective with comments in English, Japanese, and Korean that rejected censorship, and aided in carrying out protests on site, including burning large portions of his exhibited artworks and cancelling the screening of his new film Yasukuni, Earth Spirit, Emperor (2014) to demonstrate the impact of censorship.[4][28]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Sugiyama, Yosuke (July 2014). "キワモノと
呼 ばれた大浦 信行 の、タブーを恐 れない芸術 家 の極意 " [Nobuyuki Ōura: the secret of the so-called 'Kiwamono' (edgy) artist who is not afraid of taboos]. CINRA.NET (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ a b c d Kajiya, Kenji (2017). "Ōura Nobuyuki's Holding Perspective and the Culture and Politics of Eighties Japan (English manuscript for Culture et Politique au Japon: En embrassant une perspective de Ōura Nobuyuki)". Implications Philosophiques. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Kosuga, Tomo (2015-12-19). "
天皇 コラージュがもたらしたもの | TOMO KOSUGA" [What the Emperor Collages Brought About] (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-12-19. Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ a b c Furukawa, Mika (Winter 2014). "
光州 ビエンナーレ2014特別 展 展示 拒否 事件 ー「不在 」を可視 化 するために" [The Rejection of an Artwork at Gwangju Biennale 2014: Artists’ Protest for a Visualization of ‘Absence’]. 5: Designing Media Ecology (in Japanese) (2): 48–59. ISBN 978-4-9907803-1-9. - ^ a b c d e f g Kajiya, Kenji (2007). "The Emperor's New Clothes in Old Photos: Oura Nobuyuki's Holding Perspective and the Culture and Politics of 1980s Japan". Into the Atomic Sunshine: Post-War Art under Japanese Peace Constitution Article 9. New York: "Atomic Sunshine - Article 9 and Japan" Exhibition Committee. pp. 32–37.
- ^ a b c d e f Tsurumi, E. Patricia (1994-09-01). "Censored in Japan: Taboo art". Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. 26 (3): 66–70. doi:10.1080/14672715.1994.10416162. ISSN 0007-4810.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rawlings, Ashley (2008). "Taboos In Japanese Postwar Art: Mutually Assured Decorum". Art Asia Pacific. 65.
- ^ a b c d e f g Downey, Jean Miyake; Watanabe, Shinya (2008). "Into the Atomic Sunshine: Shinya Watanabe's New York and Tokyo Exhibition on Post-War Art Under Article 9". The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. 6 (3).
- ^ a b c d Kajiya, Kenji (2017). "Ōura Nobuyuki's Holding Perspective and the Culture and Politics of Eighties Japan". Implications Philosophiques. pp. 16–20.
- ^ a b c Kajiya, Kenji (2017). "Ōura Nobuyuki's Holding Perspective and the Culture and Politics of Eighties Japan". Implications Philosophiques. p. 20.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kajiya, Kenji (2017). "Ōura Nobuyuki's Holding Perspective and the Culture and Politics of Eighties Japan". Implications Philosophiques. pp. 2–5.
- ^ "Into the Atomic Sunshine - アトミックサンシャインの
中 へ". www.shinyawatanabe.net. Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ a b c Kajiya, Kenji (2017). "Ōura Nobuyuki's Holding Perspective and the Culture and Politics of Eighties Japan". Implications Philosophiques. pp. 7–9.
- ^ a b "「アトミックサンシャイン」
沖縄 展 の検閲 に抗議 する美術 展 | GALLERY MAKI". 2016-06-10. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ a b Brasor, Philip (2019-11-09). "Exploring the artistic subtleties at play behind the controversial Aichi Triennale exhibition". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ a b Sagarawai, Noi (2019). "Notes on Art and Current Events 87 – Before "Freedom of Expression?": 2019 for Shusei Kobayakawa, Kikuji Yamashita, and Nobuyuki Oura". ART iT: Japanese-English contemporary art portal site. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ a b c Pruden, Vincent (2019-11-15). "Aichi Triennale tests the limits of freedom of expression in Japan". Biennial Foundation. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ Sugiara, Taichi. "
天皇 と9条 から見 る日本 戦後 美術 〜大浦 信行 インタビュー" [Postwar Japanese Art looking at Emperor and Article 9 –Interview with Ōura Nobuyuki]. CINRA.NET (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ a b c d "
映画 『靖国 ・地 霊 ・天皇 』公式 サイト 2014年 7月 ポレポレ東中野 にて全国 順次 公開 " [Yasukuni, Earth Spirit, Emperor] (in Japanese). 2016-01-11. Archived from the original on 2016-01-11. Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ "
日本 心中 針生 一郎 ・日本 を丸 ごと抱 えこんでしまった男 。 :作品 情報 " [Hariu Ichirō in the heart of Japan ・ A man who has embraced Japan in its entirety]. EIGA.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-05. - ^ a b "9.11-8.15 Nippon Suicide Pact". 2011-07-14. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ Tatehata, Akira; Kajiya, Kenji; Sakagami, Shinobu (November 1, 2009). "
針生 一郎 オーラル・ヒストリー 2009年 2月 28日 " [Hariu Ichirō Oral History - February 28, 2009]. www.oralarthistory.org (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ "9.11-8.15
日本 心中 " [9.11-8.15 NIPPON SUICIDE PACT]. JFDB - Japanese Film Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ a b "
天皇 ごっこ見 沢知 廉 ・たった一人 の革命 " [EMPEROR GAME]. JFDB - Japan Film Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-04. - ^ Fukuzumi, Ren (July 19, 2014). "
靖国 ・地 霊 ・天皇 " [Yasukuni, Earth Spirit, Emperor]. artscape review (in Japanese). - ^ a b "2020 edition | Brussels Independent Film Festival". Brussels Independent. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
- ^ a b "
大浦 信行 の映像 作品 《遠近 を抱 えた女 》、有料 配信 がスタート。収益 の半分 はミニシアター支援 に" [Nobuyuki Ōura's video work "Woman with Perspective" is now available for a fee. Half of the revenue goes to support the mini theater].美術 手帖 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2021-06-05. - ^ a b Ota, Emma (2015). "Historic Misgivings – East Asian Yasukunism". Tokyo Art Beat. Retrieved 2021-06-04.