info

Towards the last two months of my last visit to India in the spring of 2012, I encountered the Tibetan community in exile in India experiencing painful news of their people self-immolating in fire one after another in China-occupied Tibet. My experiences in the past visits in India (drawing a cremation site in Varanasi, documenting fire pits, cremation alters, and contemplating on life and death around fire) synchronized with this particular movement, an extreme way of ‘offering’ their bodies to ‘fire’ for asking freedom and peace.I could not help drawing large and small drawings as emotional response and with a sense of mourning.

After coming back to Vancouver, the self-immolation kept happening and I felt that my personal and professional task is not finished.

I have come back to India to continue to document and draw under the same theme. tomoyoihaya@hotmail.com

14 August 2023

終わりでない終戦 The War was not over

                                To the Light                                       copyright tomoyo ihaya 2023


戦争の終わり
サイパン島の崖の上から
次々に身を投げた女たち。

美徳やら義理やら体裁やら
何やら。
火だの男だのに追いつめられて。

とばなければいけないからとびこんだ。
ゆき場のないゆき場所
(崖はいつも女をまっさかさまにする)

それがねえ
まだ一人も海にとどかないのだ。
15年もたつというのに
どうしたんだろう。
あの、
女。

1969年
石垣りん 『表札など』より


Cliff

The end of the war
from the top of a cliff on Saipan Island
Women who threw themselves one after another.

Virtue, duty, and appearance 
Whatever.
Chased by fire or men

They jumped in because they were forced to.
To a place where there is no place 
(Cliffs always turn women upside down)

You know what
Not a single woman had reached the sea yet.
It's been 15 years
What happened with them?

Woman。


1969

Poet: Ishigaki Lin 

From "Nameplate, etc."


_____________________________











'To the Light - for women'  @Hsinchu Art Village,  2022  ( a part)  



"To the Light - for Women" close up                           copyright  tomoyo ihaya 2023


 

5 August 2023

To the tree of a refuge 安息の木のもとへ

                                                                                                                   copyright Tomoyo Ihaya 2023
 

Since I was a child, August was not only about a summer holiday but also a month of reminder of 
the past tragedy. 

August 6th is a memorial day for Hiroshima.  August 9th is a memorial day for Nagasaki.

In both cities, after two 'drops' of the atomic bombs, over 200,000 were killed and wounded with one of the most brutal way. 

There were books at home about the war and colonisation focusing on Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, Kamikaze troops, Okinawa....thanks to my mother who was a librarian. I also was taken to an exhibition of Toshi and Iri Maruki's Genbaku Paintings.  All I read and saw were overwhelmingly sad for the little girl however they planted a seed in the little heart that any form of violence, wars and conflicts, was nothing but brutal and harmful to all living beings. 

Then August 15th is a day that the World War II was over.

For my country, it was a day that the nation lost the war. For other countries which were colonised by the Japanese military government, it was a day of liberation, which did not come easily as chaos and traumas left behind lead to a dictatorship or war. 

How many wars and conflicts we have witnessed and are witnessing at this moment after August 15 1945?Don't humans know enough about pain and sorrow that wars bring among us for generations?

August for me is to feel remorse and pray for lost souls in wish that a true reconciliation and peace comes to this world.  

I vision we all walk together in silent to the Peace Tree. 




Note: This tree exist in real. It is a tree called Peace Tree in Haje Village, Gunsan, South Korea.

" It is now the Pentagon's land, and it can be passed over to the U.S. military at any time. That would expand the U.S. military base.  The U.S. military base in Gunsan is still increasing weapons and construction is underway. "  Info from my Korean friend, who is a social and peace activist. 

People gather around this tree to sing and dance, an act of a peaceful protest against expansion of the military base.