In 1946, immediately after the end of World War II, an exhibition was held by GHQ, and only those involved with the occupying forces were allowed to view it. The exhibition was called “The Japanese War Art” exhibition. The exhibition was filled with 153 “war paintings” created by well-known contemporary Japanese painters during the war, and it is recorded that these paintings were inspected to determine whether they should be preserved as “art” or destroyed as “propaganda.”
Contemporary artist Hikaru Fujii conducted meticulous historical research into “The Japanese War Art” exhibition and created a work based on his investigation. He recreated the 1946 “The Japanese War Art” exhibition at the venue, and added a video installation in the form of a dialogue play, with a scenario based on historical documents, and presented it as the “The Japanese War Art” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2022. In 2023, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still having an impact, the exhibition was held as an online virtual exhibition.
Based on these two exhibitions, Masaki Komori curated the exhibition “Creating Art Exhibitions at Non-Art Schools|vol.1 A Reenactment of Hikaru Fujii’s ‘The Japanese War Art 1946.’” It was only open to the public for five days in March 2024 at Musashi University in Tokyo, Japan.
This book includes two reviews on the two previous “The Japanese War Art” exhibitions, the process leading up to the Musashi University exhibition, a record of the symposium held there with speakers Hikaru Fujii, Futoshi Hoshino and Mayumi Kagawa, and three essays on this project by Masaki Komori and Hikaru Fujii. This book explores the historical and philosophical questions about the dynamics of memory and history through war and disaster, which arose from the works, exhibition, and discussions of the Hikaru Fujii’s “The Japanese Art of War 1946″ exhibition. In a sense, this book is both an exhibition document and a new “re-enactment” of history in book form.
Masaki Komori ed. Creating Art Exhibitions at Non-Art Schools | vol.1 A Reenactment of Hikaru Fujii’s ‘The Japanese War Art 1946.’
Through contemporary artist Hikaru Fujii’s exhibition “The Japanese Art of War 1946,” what new historical narrative and image emerges from the “re-enactment” of the past? A passionate documentary by the eclectic curator and American cultural and museum studies scholar Masaki Komori.
Trial reading
¥ 1,980
160 pages
460mm x 310mm (18.1 x 12.1 inches)
1,980 yen
Billingual edition
Prologue
Part 0 : Première 〈The Japanese War Art 1946〉
Masaki Komori Inversing History from “Public” Museums
Masaki Komori Click “Buy” to Participate in the Remembrance of War
Part 1 : Re:enactment A Reenactment of Hikaru Fujii’s〈 The Japanese War Art 1946〉
Outline
Map
List of Works
About Artist
Flyer
Website – Re:enactment of〈 The Japanese War Art 1946〉
Re:enactment of “A Reenactment of〈 The Japanese War Art 1946〉”
SNS/Field Notes
Exhibition Credit
Part 2 Symposium
Futoshi Hoshino x Hikaru Fujii Possessing History
Mayumi Kagawa x Hikaru Fujii Thinking about the Memory of Disasters through the Hikaru Fujii’s “Les Nucléaires et les Choses”
Part 3 Reviews
Hikaru Fujii Reenactment and Exhibition
Masaki Komori The Museum as Ritualized War History
Masaki Komori Why ‘Installing Art Exhibitions into a Non-Art Schools?’ The Aim and the Theoretical Significance
Epilogue
Masaki Komori
He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Musashi University, and a visiting scholar at the History Department, Temple University. His specialties are American cultural studies and museum studies. He is also a critic of art and film, an editor of magazines, and a curator of exhibitions and alternative spaces. His publications include Accessible Politics, (Kodansha, 2024) “Did ‘Cancel Culture’ Come for Museums?” (Faculty of Humanities, Musashi University, 2024), “Contemporary and Commons” (Hakuhodo, 2023), “Overturning the Modernity of Art Museums with Play” (Aichi Triennale 2019 Learning Programs, 2019). His projects include Kajico: Private Diaries during the 108 Days at a Semi-Public Guesthouse (with Kotaro Miyake and Rie Jatani, 2010) and the web magazine <-oid> (2022-). He is currently contributing to the series “Getting Lost in the Museum,” “Inclusive Museum,” and “America as Observed from ‘Life.’”