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Mission

Pittsburgh based indie film company Daliborka Films, seeks to produce passion projects that inspire and entertain. Everyone has a story to tell and we are proud to help bring those stories to life.

Our documentaries, music videos, and promotional films highlight fascinating people, incredible places, and important work being done in Pittsburgh and beyond!

Day of the Western Sunrise

Day of the Western Sunrise is a Japanese-language (with English subtitles) animated documentary following three surviving fishermen from the tuna trawler Daigo Fukuryu Maru, or the Lucky Dragon No. 5. Created with a mix of animation and live-action, the second full-length documentary produced by Daliborka Films, Day of the Western Sunrise introduces us to the forgotten story of the Lucky Dragon, the Castle Bravo nuclear tests, and the damage and devastation still felt in Japan 65 years later.

The Story

On March 1st, 1954, the U.S. detonated Castle Bravo on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This detonation was the first in a series of six thermonuclear weapon tests, and remains the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon detonated by the United States. The blast was three times larger than predicted, and deposited radioactive fallout as far away as Australia. Not far away, 23 fishermen aboard the Lucky Dragon No. 5 immediately began experiencing symptoms of radiation sickness and, when they returned to Japan two weeks later, they were quarantined. During their 15 months in a Tokyo hospital, they became the subjects of intense medical scrutiny by both Japanese doctors who sought to treat them, and American doctors who sought to study them. When they were finally released from the hospital, they had to integrate themselves back into communities that did not understand radiation sickness. Many of the fishermen were shunned by friends and family and eventually forced into hiding. Day of the Western Sunrise is a human interest documentary that uses first-hand survivor accounts to craft an urgent and heartfelt narrative about the dangerous of nuclear testing and the importance of advocacy for victims of all kinds of nuclear incidents.

The Animation

The film is animated in a kamishibai style, paying homage to a Japanese story-telling tradition. Kamishibai translates into 'paper drama,' and dates back to 12th century Japan when monks began using the method to teach moral lessons to their pupils. In Day of the Western Sunrise, characters have been designed, drawn, and then animated to interact in a 3D computer simulated environment. Over 2,000 individual drawings were produced for this project, and the film contains over 500 animated shots. Audiences have remarked that the kamishibai style helped them connect deeply with the fishermen and the subject matter in a way traditional documentaries have not accomplished. Character and computer animations went through an arduous research and design period to make sure the film captured history as accurately as possible.

The Fishermen

The detonation of Castle Bravo changed the lives of the fishermen forever. The 23 crew-members of Daigo Fukuryu Maru had no idea what was in store for them when they left Japan on January 22nd, 1954. Most of the fishermen had been at sea before, but they were young and forced into menial jobs because of Japan's defeat during World War II. This is the first time many of the surviving crew members had been interviewed by American journalists intent on making a product for an American audience. The featured fishermen, Susumu Misaki, Matashichi Oishi, and Masaho Ikeda, tell their story elegantly and delicately. Their collective memory allows the filmmakers to animate a very detailed and accurate portrayal of what happened on March 1st, 1954.

Educational Outreach

Day of the Western Sunrise is not only an award-winning documentary, it is a film that inspires conversation among young people across the country and keeps history alive as those who lived it leave us. Partnerships with the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia allow the message of the film to enter the classroom. The filmmakers, along with representatives of the educational community, have created educational modules meant to accompany the film as an educational tool for classroom use. By speaking in conferences and classrooms, our hope is to connect as many people as we can with this important subject matter. The more we speak and listen, the more information we have thus preventing these disasters from happening again.

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Pittsburgh based indie film company Daliborka Films, seeks to produce passion projects that inspire and entertain. Everyone has a story to tell and we are proud to help bring those stories to life. Our documentaries, music videos, and promotional films highlight fascinating people, incredible places, and important work being done in Pittsburgh and beyond!

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Edo Avant-Garde reveals the pivotal role Japanese artists of the Edo era (1603 - 1868) played in setting the stage for the "modern art" movement in the West. During the Edo era, while a pacified Japan isolated itself from the world, audacious Japanese artists innovated stylization, abstraction, minimalism, surrealism, geometric composition and the illusion of 3-D. Their elegant originality is most striking in images of the natural world depicted on folding screens and scrolls by Sotatsu, Korin, Okyo, Rosetsu, Shohaku and many others who left their art unsigned.

To capture the dynamism, scale and meticulous details of the art, Japan's master cinematographer worked with Sony's cutting-edge 4K camera and filmed two hundred works of art in museums and private collections across the U.S. and Japan, along with remote temples and shrines and in bamboo groves, misted valleys and churning waves that inspired the artists centuries ago. Curators, restorers, collectors and scholars provide insights into the genesis of their mesmerizing, prescient visions.

The film's director is Linda Hoaglund ( Wings of Defeat, ANPO: Art X War, Things Left Behind, The Wound and The Gift), the cinematographer is Kasamatsu Norimichi (Japanese Academy Award winner 2014), the editor is William Lehman, the composers are Satoshi Takeishi and Shoko Nagai.

Documentary feature film, running time 83 minutes.

For inquiries, contact info@edoavantgarde.com

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Edo Avant-Garde reveals the pivotal role Japanese artists of the Edo era (1603 - 1868) played in setting the stage for the "modern art" movement in the West. During the Edo era, while a pacified Japan isolated itself from the world, audacious Japanese artists innovated stylization, abstraction, minimalism, surrealism, geometric composition and the illusion of 3-D.

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Ik-Joong Kang
Blue Chrysanthemum Moon Jar #1
2012
Mixed media on wood
47 x 47 in (119.4 x 119.4 cm)

Ik-Joong Kang
Happy World 2 (with Obama), 2008
Mixed media on wooden board
47 x 47 in (120 x 120 cm
Detailed shot of Happy World 2

Born in 1960, in Cheong Ju, Korea, Ik-Joong Kang has lived and worked in New York City since 1984. He received his BFA from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea, and his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Kang has exhibited widely, including a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York in 1996; a two-person show with Nam June Paik at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Connecticut; and group exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea. In the spring of 1997, he was awarded The Special Merit prize in the 47th Venice Biennale.

He just finished the project "Amazed World" commissioned by the Republic of Korea in association with Unicef. This project was based on the artist's belief of the rights of children to basic personal, political and social freedoms. Approximately 40,000 children's works from 150 countries were displayed in a gigantic maze installation in the UN building lobby in New York from September, 2001 through April, 2002. In December, 2000 he was commissioned a permanent Mural Project, at the San Francisco International Airport. The Mural Project contains 5,900 pieces of his paintings and sculptures. In December 1999, Ik-Joong Kang worked with 50,000 children from South Korea in creating "100,000 Dreams." This project featured a 1 km-long, vinyl tunnel-inside which all of the children's works were displayed. Though North Korean children did not participate as planned, this project has since manifested itself on a wider level. Amazed World aims to involve children from a diverse collection of cultures, religions, political beliefs, and environments.

Kang has received many awards and fellowships, including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. His work is represented in the British Museum in London, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, the Samsung Art Museum, Seoul, Korea, and the President's Committee on Arts and Humanity, Washington, D.C.

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One of the premier galleries specializing in Korean art and antiquities, Kang Collection has served a community of museums, discerning private collectors, and Asian art scholars since 1981. Under the leadership of Keum Ja Kang, the gallery offers expertise, advice, appraisal services, and rare access to one of the finest, most comprehensive collections of Korean art in North America.

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Hello and welcome! This guide has been created for students and faculty who are researching the art of East Asia. It is meant to tie together resources from University Libraries' collections and elsewhere that are relevant to the study of East Asian Art. This guide is just a start, as there is a plethora of material out there.

Materials in East Asian Studies are located at various libraries and collections on campus, such as the Fine Arts Library, Thompson Library, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and the Book Depository.

Kano Eino, One Hundred Boys, Edo Period, Japan, 17th century, Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper, Image (each screen): 44 7/8 x 111 in. (114 x 282 cm). Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Research Guides: East Asian Art: Welcome

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Research Guides: East Asian Art: Welcome

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137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, 04383, Republic of Korea
Tel : +82-2-2077-9000

© National Museum of Korea.

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National Intangible Heritage Center - Korea

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National Intangible Heritage Center - Korea

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Preserving Tradition, Supporting Artistry, The NIHC strives to consecrate our intangible cultural heritage. A treasure house of tradition and culture, the spirit and soul of Korea, intangible heritage is a record of our country's cherished past, as well as a vital foundation for future cultural prosperity. Located in the historic city of Jeonju, the National Intangible Heritage Center of Korea strives to preserve intact and discover new ways to enjoy our precious intangible heritage, all as a means to expand its significance within daily lives for generations to come.

Discover, Preserve, Promote, Come and joy Our cultural feast. Striving to establish a body of knowledge through search and research effort. Systematizing the selection and management of intangible heritage, and providing public access to the collection. Establishing a foundation for all levels of education and an effective system for safeguarding Korea's heritage. Pursuing the popularization and upgrading of performances and showcases for intangible heritage. Offering venues that meet the highest expectations and captivating firsthand experiences.

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National Intangible Heritage Center, Jeonju-si, South Korea - Google Arts & Culture

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Preserving Tradition, Supporting Artistry, The NIHC strives to consecrate our intangible cultural heritage. A treasure house of tradition and culture, the spirit and soul of Korea, intangible heritage is a record of our country's cherished past, as well as a vital foundation for future cultural prosperity.

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Tags for: Barbara Bosworth: Sun Light Moon Shadow

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In consideration of the health and welfare of visitors, volunteers, and staff, Mia is temporarily closed to the public. Learn more here.

Monday: Closed

Tuesday: Closed

Wednesday: Closed

Thursday: Closed

Friday: Closed

Saturday: Closed

Sunday: Closed

The museum is closed July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

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In consideration of the health and welfare of visitors, volunteers, and staff, Mia is temporarily closed to the public. Learn more here. Monday: Closed Tuesday: Closed Wednesday: Closed Thursday: Closed Friday: Closed Saturday: Closed Sunday: Closed The museum is closed July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

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The town square of our community, a gathering place for everybody.

The DIA connects people to art with programs, resources, and a diverse collection-among the top six in the nation with over 65,000 works.

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The Detroit Institute of Arts connects people to art with programs, resources, and a diverse collection - among the top six in the nation with over 65,000 works.

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There is a review of this book in EAGLE as well. A great insight into the terra cotta warriors and other key objects.

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Early China is best known for the dazzling material artifacts it has left behind. These terracotta figures, gilt-bronze lamps, and other material remnants of...

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The Song dynasty (960-1279) was culturally the most brilliant era in later imperial Chinese history. A time of great social and economic change, the period in large measure shaped the intellectual and political climate of China down to the twentieth century. The first half of this era, when the capital was located at Bianliang (modern Kaifeng), is known as the Northern Song period.

The early Northern Song dynasty witnessed the flowering of one of the supreme artistic expressions of Chinese civilization: monumental landscape painting. Retreating to the mountains to escape the turmoil and destruction that occurred at the end of the Tang dynasty (618-907), tenth-century recluse-painters discovered in nature the moral order that they had found lacking in the human world. In their visionary landscapes, the great mountain, towering above the lesser mountains, trees, and men, was like "a ruler among his subjects, a master among servants." Later, Song court painters transformed these idealized images of nature into emblems of a perfectly ordered state.

An important outgrowth of Song political unification after the war-torn Five Dynasties period (907-60) was the creation of a distinctive style of court painting under the auspices of the Imperial Painting Academy. Painters from all parts of the empire were recruited to serve the needs of the court. Over time, the varied traditions represented by this diverse group of artists were welded together into a harmonious Song academic manner that valued a naturalistic, closely descriptive portrayal of the physical world. Under Emperor Huizong (r. 1100-1125), himself an accomplished painter and calligrapher, imperial patronage and the ruler's direct involvement in establishing artistic direction reached a zenith. While maintaining that the fundamental purpose of painting was to be true to nature, Huizong sought to enrich its content through the inclusion of poetic resonance and references to antique styles.

The momentous political shift during the early Song-from a society ruled by a hereditary aristocratic order to a society governed by a central bureaucracy of scholar-officials chosen through the civil-service examination-also had a major impact on the arts. As a ruling elite, these Neo-Confucian scholars regarded public service as their principal calling, but factional strife sometimes forced them to retire from political engagement, during which time they often pursued artistic interests. Dissatisfied with the rigidity and oversophistication of early Northern Song calligraphy, eleventh-century scholars sought to revive the natural, spontaneous qualities of more archaic models. The literati also applied their new critical standards to painting. Rejecting the highly realistic descriptive style followed by the professional painters of the Imperial Painting Academy, they also departed from the official view that art must serve the state. Instead, the amateur scholar-artist pursued painting and calligraphy for his own amusement as a forum of personal expression.

Department of Asian Art. "Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127)." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nsong/hd_nsong.htm (October 2001)

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Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The early Northern Song dynasty witnessed the flowering of one of the supreme artistic expressions of Chinese civilization: monumental landscape painting.

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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In 1125, when the Jurchen, a semi-nomadic people from northeast Asia, invaded Song China and captured the capital at Bianliang (modern Kaifeng), founding their own Jin dynasty in the north, the Song court reestablished itself in the south in Hangzhou, where it continued to rule for another 150 years as the Southern Song dynasty.

Southern Song society was characterized by the pursuit of a highly aestheticized way of life, and paintings of the period often focus on evanescent pleasures and the transience of beauty. Images evoke poetic ideas that appeal to the senses or capture the fleeting qualities of a moment in time. One particularly important source of inspiration for Southern Song artists was the natural beauty of Hangzhou and its environs, especially West Lake, a famed scenic spot ringed with lush mountains and dotted with palaces, private gardens, and Buddhist temples.

The Southern Song Imperial Painting Academy continued the stylistic direction and high technical standards established by Emperor Huizong in the early twelfth century. Often executed in the intimate oval fan or album-leaf format, academic paintings-and the imperially inscribed poems that sometimes accompany them-reveal an increasingly narrow, concentrated vision and a commitment to the exact rendering of an object. The cultivation of a tranquil and detached mind free of material entanglements was a common concern of Song Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200): the "investigation of things [leading to] the extension of knowledge."

The decorative arts also reached the height of elegance and technical perfection during the Southern Song. Like painting, the plastic arts responded to two different aesthetics-that of the imperial court and that of popular culture. Supreme among the decorative arts of the Song period are ceramics, which many connoisseurs consider the highest artistic achievement of the Chinese potter.

Department of Asian Art. "Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279)." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ssong/hd_ssong.htm (October 2001)

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Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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In 1125, when the Jurchen, a semi-nomadic people from northeast Asia, invaded Song China and captured the capital at Bianliang (modern Kaifeng), founding their own Jin dynasty in the north, the Song court reestablished itself in the south in Hangzhou, where it continued to rule for another 150 years as the Southern Song dynasty.

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were a time of worldwide intellectual ferment. It was an age of great thinkers, such as Socrates and Plato, Confucius and Laozi. In India, it was the age of the Buddha, after whose death a religion developed that eventually spread far beyond its homeland.

Siddhartha, the prince who was to become the Buddha, was born into the royal family of Kapilavastu, a small kingdom in the Himalayan foothills. His was a divine conception and miraculous birth, at which sages predicted that he would become a universal conqueror, either of the physical world or of men's minds. It was the latter conquest that came to pass. Giving up the pleasures of the palace to seek the true purpose of life, Siddhartha first tried the path of severe asceticism, only to abandon it after six years as a futile exercise. He then sat down in yogic meditation beneath a bodhi tree until he achieved enlightenment. He was known henceforth as the Buddha, or "Enlightened One."

His is the Middle Path, rejecting both luxury and asceticism. Buddhism proposes a life of good thoughts, good intentions, and straight living, all with the ultimate aim of achieving nirvana, release from earthly existence. For most beings, nirvana lies in the distant future, because Buddhism, like other faiths of India, believes in a cycle of rebirth. Humans are born many times on earth, each time with the opportunity to perfect themselves further. And it is their own karma-the sum total of deeds, good and bad-that determines the circumstances of a future birth. The Buddha spent the remaining forty years of his life preaching his faith and making vast numbers of converts. When he died, his body was cremated, as was customary in India.

The cremated relics of the Buddha were divided into several portions and placed in relic caskets that were interred within large hemispherical mounds known as stupas. Such stupas constitute the central monument of Buddhist monastic complexes. They attract pilgrims from far and wide who come to experience the unseen presence of the Buddha. Stupas are enclosed by a railing that provides a path for ritual circumambulation. The sacred area is entered through gateways at the four cardinal points.

In the first century B.C., India's artists, who had worked in the perishable media of brick, wood, thatch, and bamboo, adopted stone on a very wide scale. Stone railings and gateways, covered with relief sculptures, were added to stupas. Favorite themes were events from the historic life of the Buddha, as well as from his previous lives, which were believed to number 550. The latter tales are called jatakas and often include popular legends adapted to Buddhist teachings.

In the earliest Buddhist art of India, the Buddha was not represented in human form. His presence was indicated instead by a sign, such as a pair of footprints, an empty seat, or an empty space beneath a parasol.

In the first century A.D., the human image of one Buddha came to dominate the artistic scene, and one of the first sites at which this occurred was along India's northwestern frontier. In the area known as Gandhara, artistic elements from the Hellenistic world combined with the symbolism needed to express Indian Buddhism to create a unique style. Youthful Buddhas with hair arranged in wavy curls resemble Roman statues of Apollo; the monastic robe covering both shoulders and arranged in heavy classical folds is reminiscent of a Roman toga. There are also many representations of Siddhartha as a princely bejeweled figure prior to his renunciation of palace life. Buddhism evolved the concept of a Buddha of the Future, Maitreya, depicted in art both as a Buddha clad in a monastic robe and as a princely bodhisattva before enlightenment. Gandharan artists made use of both stone and stucco to produce such images, which were placed in nichelike shrines around the stupa of a monastery. Contemporaneously, the Kushan-period artists in Mathura, India, produced a different image of the Buddha. His body was expanded by sacred breath ( prana), and his clinging monastic robe was draped to leave the right shoulder bare.

A third influential Buddha type evolved in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, where images of substantial proportions, with serious, unsmiling faces, were clad in robes that created a heavy swag at the hem and revealed the left shoulder. These southern sites provided artistic inspiration for the Buddhist land of Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, and Sri Lankan monks regularly visited the area. A number of statues in this style have been found as well throughout Southeast Asia.

The succeeding Gupta period, from the fourth to the sixth century A.D., in northern India, sometimes referred to as a Golden Age, witnessed the creation of an "ideal image" of the Buddha. This was achieved by combining selected traits from the Gandharan region with the sensuous form created by Mathura artists. Gupta Buddhas have their hair arranged in tiny individual curls, and the robes have a network of strings to suggest drapery folds (as at Mathura) or are transparent sheaths (as at Sarnath). With their downward glance and spiritual aura, Gupta Buddhas became the model for future generations of artists, whether in post-Gupta and Pala India or in Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia. Gupta metal images of the Buddha were also taken by pilgrims along the Silk Road to China.

Over the following centuries there emerged a new form of Buddhism that involved an expanding pantheon and more elaborate rituals. This later Buddhism introduced the concept of heavenly bodhisattvas as well as goddesses, of whom the most popular was Tara. In Nepal and Tibet, where exquisite metal images and paintings were produced, new divinities were created and portrayed in both sculpture and painted scrolls. Ferocious deities were introduced in the role of protectors of Buddhism and its believers. Images of a more esoteric nature, depicting god and goddess in embrace, were produced to demonstrate the metaphysical concept that salvation resulted from the union of wisdom (female) and compassion (male). Buddhism had traveled a long way from its simple beginnings.

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Buddhism and Buddhist Art | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The Gupta period, from the fourth to the sixth century A.D., in northern India, sometimes referred to as a Golden Age, witnessed the creation of an "ideal image" of the Buddha.

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Completed in 1444, the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign, the Zhihua Temple was among a handful of Buddhist temples whose constructions were granted by the imperial edict issued directly from Emperor Yingzong. Under the auspice of this very emperor, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) witnessed the nation-wide construction of Buddhist temples in large quantity. Unfortunately, most of them have either disappeared or been altered in modern times, and today, it is rare to find Ming Buddhist temples still retaining much of their original architecture. The Zhihua Temple, the most complete Ming Buddhist temple to have survived today, preserves a slice of the temple's history, and offers a glance into some essential features that characterize Ming Buddhist architecture.

The temple layout is dominated by a central north-south axis, along which the principal halls are located. Each hall is fronted with a courtyard and two subsidiary buildings facing each other to form a "quadrangular enclosure". The only exception is the third building, the two-level structure-the Rulai Hall (Hall of Śākyamuni) on the first floor and the Wanfo Pavilion (Ten Thousand Buddhas Pavilion) on the second-enclosed by walls on its east and west. According to the first modern architectural survey of the temple during the early 1930s, it consisted of five quadrangular enclosures along the central axis (Fig. 1), with abbot's room and dormitories built along the two secondary axes that flank the central one in the rear section. Today, Zhihua Temple retains four original central quadrangular units (Fig. 2).

The rectangular plan, measuring 144 meters in length and 46 meters in width, has been typical for Buddhist temples since the Song period (960-1279). It is also customary to see a pair of tall structures-the Drum Tower on the west and Bell Tower on the east (Fig. 3)-immediately inside the entrance gate (shanmen). The entrance hall sitting on the north completes the first quadrangle. The entrance hall (Fig. 4), named Zhihua Gate, is a small structure with three bays across the front and two bays across the depth (13 x 7.8 meters). It originally contained four now-lost statues of the Four Heavenly Kings installed to guard and protect the temple. Taken together, the first quadrangle serves as a preparatory space before one makes entry into the main part of the complex to venerate the Buddhas.

The site's center lies in the second quadrangle comprising the main Buddha Hall, the Zhihua Hall, and two subsidiary buildings, the Sutra Hall (Zang dian) on the west and Dazhi Hall (Hall of Great Wisdom) on the east. The Zhihua Hall (Fig. 5) is a 3-bay-by-3-bay structure (18 x 14.5 meters) with a hip-and-gable roof. It initially housed a Buddha triad with the Śākyamuni Buddha at the center along with eighteen Arhats. The only four interior columns form a spacious central bay before the altar for visitors to see and worship the Buddhas. Above this central area is where the grand coffered ceiling (approx. 5 x 5 meters), now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was initially installed. The digitally reconstructed view (Figs. 6 and 7) shows how the coffered ceiling would have dominated the spatial center of the hall.

The Sutra Hall is a three-bay-by-three-bay structure (13.2 x 7.5 meters) with a hip-and-gable roof (Fig. 8). The primary function of the hall is to house an octagonal sutra cabinet, usually known as "Revolving Sutra Cabinet" (zhuanlun jingzang), although the one here has a stone plinth supporting the wooden cabinets and does not revolve. To accommodate the sutra cabinet, two front interior columns were removed to make fully visible the cabinet's front side. Further, the sutra cabinet is not located at the center but slightly closer to the rear, leaving the space in the front for veneration. A Vairocana Buddha seated on a lotus is positioned right at the center on top of the sutra cabinet (Fig. 9). The off-center position of the sutra cabinet turns out to be a calculated decision, as it creates enough space and angle for a visitor to see the Vairocana Buddha right before s/he enters the hall (Fig. 10).

Opposite from the Sutra Hall is the Dazhi Hall (Fig. 11), east of the Zhihua Hall. The hall initially enshrined three bodhisattvas, Avolokiteśvara attended by Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra on an altar. Though different in function and interior layout, the Dazhi Hall has the exact measurements and structure as the Sutra Hall, its counterpart across from the courtyard. This testifies to the remarkable degree to which the traditional timber-frame structure could accommodate diverse spatial arrangements without deviating from the norm that expects the two subsidiary structures to be similar in building form and structure.

Rising behind the Zhihua Hall, the two-level pavilion in the third quadrangle is the climax in the architectural landscape of the temple precinct (Fig. 12). The lower level, called Rulai Dian (Śākyamuni Hall), has five bays across the front and three in depth, measuring 18 x 11.6 meters, and qualifies as the temple's grandest structure. The upper level, the Wanfo Pavilion (Ten Thousand Buddhas Pavilion), is a smaller 3-bay-by-3-bay structure. Chinese multistoried pavilions could be multifunctional, with each floor serving different purposes from one another. Still, it is unusual to name each floor of the same multistoried building differently. However, despite using different names, the two levels of the multistoried structure were intended to be of a continuous vertical rise, structurally and iconographically.

As the cross-section (Fig. 13) shows, the front and rear rows of interior columns on the first level stretch vertically up to directly support the upper level's floor, on which the front and back brick walls stand. The style of vertical support thus opens the spacious room on both floors. The floor plan (Fig. 14) indicates a partition wall built on the lower level to further separate the interior into the front hall and a back area where the stairs are located. The front hall (Fig. 15) is thus defined by the partition wall and two side walls, all studded completely with small buddha images, each inside its niche. At the center is the iconic set of Śākyamuni and two celestial Kings, Indra and Brahma, flanked by two "L"-shaped sutra cabinets. The partition wall further continues upwards into the upper level, whose two side walls similarly are decorated with miniature buddha images (Fig. 16). The upper level features the "Three Bodies of the Buddha" (sanshen fo), with Buddha Vairocana at the center accompanied by Śākyamuni to its left and Rocana Buddha (Luzhena fao) to its right.

The two levels are, indeed, different. On the one hand, with the ceiling height at 5.87 meters, the lower level is more readily serving as a public veneration space. In contrast, the upper level has a much lower ceiling height at 5.13 meters because of the roof structure, suggesting a more intimate space perhaps for specific rituals or private visits. On the other hand, the ten thousand buddhas that cover both levels obscure physical separation and transform them into a much-unified vertical continuum. This verticality is also realized in architecture. While the lower-level ceiling is flat, consisting of square panels (tianhua), the ceiling on the second level features a magnificent coffered ceiling (zaojing), now installed in the Chinese gallery of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. In the digital reconstruction (Fig. 17), the coffered ceiling is at the apex of the entire elevation, seemingly oversize for the more intimate interior space on the second level, as seen in the point cloud of the cross-section produced by the scanner (Fig. 18).

The point cloud also shows the two main statues of the two levels are not aligned vertically. The statue of Vairocana is positioned further north, to leave enough space before it for visitors to pay homage to the Buddha with the coffered ceiling fully in view. Further, a visitor would gain a perspective of the entire interior on the first level at a 25° viewing angle. A visitor would also see the Vairocana Buddha on the second floor before reaching the building entrance with the same viewing angle (Fig. 19).

No doubt, Rulai Hall and Wanfo Pavilion together form the religious center of the temple. A glimpse of the Vairocana Buddha prompts and leads the pious visitor to enter. The Śākyamuni greets and shows the believer the Path with his Words, or dharma, collected in the sutras. The first level thus could be seen as a prelude to comprehending the cosmos of Buddhism that comprises numerous worlds, each presided by a Buddha, materialized in the ten thousand buddhas transforming the entire structure into a visionary cosmic space. The concept of that space is then embodied in the three bodies of the Buddha, with the Vairocana Buddha, under the coffered ceiling, as the center.

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A Ming Buddhist Temple and Its Architecture

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Zhihua Temple, the most complete Ming Buddhist temple to have survived today, preserves a slice of the temple's history, and offers a glance into some essential features that characterize Ming Buddhist architecture.

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AP Art History and Chinese Art - Association for Asian Studies

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Editor’s Note: Images featured in this essay are similar to AP Art History curriculum images which could not be republished due to permissions issues. A link to these AP images are included in each entry. The AP art history curriculum identifies 250 works students are required to know, spanning 20,0…

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Part 1: An Extended version of our Interview with Kyoto Activist Aileen Mioko Smith published in KJ 99: Travel, Revisited, Dec. 2020.

By Jennifer Teeter and Ken Rodgers. All photos courtesy of and subject to copyright by Aileen Mioko Smith.

DESCRIBING HER as a multidimensional character hardly captures the essence of Aileen Mioko Smith, an unrelenting and knowledgeable activist, photographer, mother of her daughter Mana, and now sole caretaker of her elderly yet vibrant mother. Aileen grew up in Tokyo with her Japanese mother and American father, moving to St. Louis in the American Midwest in 1961, at the age of 11. There, "where if something broke, people automatically joked that it was made in Japan," she was the only Japanese person that many people had ever met.

In 1970, after her second year as a student at Stanford, she took up a summer job with the Japanese advertising firm Dentsu and interpreted in photo shoots for a Fuji Film campaign featuring top photographers including W. Eugene Smith, former war photographer and pioneer Life magazine photojournalist. Shortly after this serendipitous encounter, she dropped out of Stanford and moved into his New York loft to assist in preparing for a 600-print retrospective exhibition, titled 'Let Truth be the Prejudice.' She was 20; he was 51. "He was so young and I was so old!" she quips. A year later, they took the retrospective to Japan, marrying here on August 28th, 1971.

Aileen and Gene, credit/copyright: Ishikawa Takeshi

The organizer of that show, Motomura Kazuhiko, suggested that Gene photograph in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, where a public health crisis was playing out (see sidebar). Aileen and Gene rented a house there, thinking they might stay three months. Three months became three years, documenting the lives and the struggles of victims of deadly methylmercury industrial pollution and their families. Publication of their early photo-essay in Life brought Minamata to international attention, and their book, Minamata, co-authored by Aileen and Gene, reached a worldwide audience upon publication in 1975.

A poignantly intimate wide-format integration of hard-hitting reportage and graphic documentary photography, Minamata indicted cynical corporate negligence and malfeasance, and administrative ineptitude. Together, Aileen and Gene recorded local citizens' heroic resistance through protest and protracted court hearings to a final verdict in their favor. Although Gene and Aileen only appear in the book as witnesses documenting the devastation it has been adapted into a screenplay about their time in Minamata, and filmed as-believe it or not-a Hollywood "true story drama thriller." Directed by Andrew Levitas, the movie, starring Johnny Depp, was shot in Montenegro, Serbia and Japan , and is scheduled to be released in 2021. As described by Levitas, "This uplifting story of hope, passion, and community reminds us that alone we may be the parts per million, but together we are the millions."

Sad to say, Gene passed away in 1978. Aileen has continued to support Minamata patients and their families' ongoing quest for justice, expanding her work to campaign tirelessly against another major public health threat-the nuclear power industry and Japan's fast breeder reactor and plutonium utilization programs, as discussed in the online version of this interview.

Jen Teeter and Ken Rodgers spoke with Aileen in October 2020 in Kyoto.

THE AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY OF MINAMATA

Direct negotiations with Chisso after the patient's court victory. Sakamoto Fujie, mother of congenital Minamata victim Sakamoto Shinobu, holds a mike to president Shimada of Chisso demanding an answer about annual payments. Credit/ copyright: Aileen M. Smith.

The town of Minamata, in Kumamoto prefecture, Kyushu, is irrevocably linked to ' Minamata-byo '-Minamata Disease, caused by methylmercury pollution of the Minamata Bay, Minamata River, and the adjacent Shiranui Sea. Starting from 1932, Chisso Corporation knowingly discharged wastewater from acetaldehyde production from its Minamata factory, expanding production in 1952.

The first case of what was at the time an unidentified medical condition occurred in April 1956; by October a Kumamoto University Research Group had identified it as heavy-metal poisoning caused by consuming fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay. In 1959 the company installed a "Cyclator" purification system which was later revealed to be completely ineffective. By 1962, 121 victims had been diagnosed, of whom 46 had died, and the wastewater sludge from the factory was proven to be the cause. ("Pollution was so heavy at the mouth of the wastewater canal, a figure of 2 kg of mercury per ton of sediment was measured: a level that would be economically viable to mine... Hair samples were taken from the victims of the disease and the Minamata population in general. In patients, the maximum mercury level recorded was 705 parts per million... compared to an average level of 4 ppm for people living outside the Minamata area."*)In 1968 the Japanese government finally announced officially that Chiso had caused the pollution.

In 1969 nineteen families filed a lawsuit against the company. In 1971, a "direct negotiations" group of survivors and supporters began sit-ins in Minamata and in Tokyo in front of Chisso's headquarters; union members physically attacked group members (and Gene and Aileen, who were photographing the protest) at Chisso's Goi plant in January 1972. The families won their court case in 1973 and Chisso immediately paid out 937 million yen (the equivalent of US$3.4 million at the then exchange rate) in compensation. Eventually, from 1970 though 1991, 784,000 cubic meters of sludge was dredged from Minamata Bay before the area could be declared safe again. By 2007, a total of 2,668 people were certified as patients suffering from Minamata poisoning.

As Gene and Aileen conclude in their book, Minamata, "The morality that pollution is criminal only after legal conviction is the morality that causes pollution."
* www.bu.edu/sustainability/minamata-disease/ KJ: When you first met Gene in New York, what was your impression of him?
AMS: My first impression, well, first of all, I didn't know anything about photographers. I mean, if somebody asked me, well, somebody must be taking these photographs, I might have gone, "Oh, yeah, I guess so." That was about my level of consciousness about photographers. I was handed Gene's book the night before; I was tired, and I kind of flipped a few pages and went to sleep. I think it was a very good thing that because I was never interested in photography. I didn't have any of this sort of, "oh, he's this great photographer and I'm getting to spend time with him." I never had that, right from the beginning.

Aileen by the Kamogawa in Kyoto. Credit/copyright: Nagase Mitsue

How did you both get involved in supporting the victims of industrial methyl mercury pollution in Minamata?
I helped Gene do his quote unquote, final exhibition and retrospective in New York, called "Let Truth Be the Prejudice," a very complicated title. His idea was, we all have our own prejudices we grew up with, we have different backgrounds. So "let truth be the prejudice" is his way of saying "may our prejudices and prejudgments be as close to the truth as possible." And journalism is one way of introducing people to situations and things that they may have had previous prejudgments about. They learn more about whatever it is and change their prejudgments. Even if they don't have direct experience, they are closer to it in its reality. That was at the end of August 1970. That October, Motomura Kazuhiko visited and he wanted to bring Gene's exhibition to Japan. He had retired from civil service to start his own publishing company. He knew about Gene's photography of WWII, Maude Callen, a black nurse midwife in South Carolina, Hitachi-he went to photograph all the Hitachi factories in Japan, ended up staying a year, and it got into Life magazine as "Colossus of the Orient"-also Schweitzer, Gene had been in Africa and photographed Schweitzer. That essay is what made Gene quit Life, because of editorial differences. He did not want to make Schweitzer a saint, just show the real person. That was back in '54.

Mr. Motomura was a supporter of a kōhatsusurukai group that was helping Minamata victims to rise up again and fight the company. He said, "There's a place called Minamata, would you want to go and photograph there?" And the moment we heard that, the first time we heard that people could actually be killed by industrial pollution, we just immediately, without hesitation, knew we wanted to do it. So we said yes.

The reasons we wanted to go were all sorts of things. One was Gene felt that his former life had been somewhere in Asia, in what he calls Japan, but not politically Japan, it's this region of the Pacific. And for me, it was like Urashima Taro-Rip Van Winkle-going back to post-war pre-Olympic, before an overhead highway was built going across Roppongi very close to where I had lived. I had never been to Kyushu or a village or small town and lived there, yet it felt kind of like homecoming to the Japan I remembered when I was little. So it all tied in. I think Gene felt that he would lose me without this, too. Nothing hung us together, then as soon as we heard about Minamata it really solidified us.

He said, "There's a place called Minamata, would you want to go and photograph there?" And the moment we heard that, the first time we heard that people could actually be killed by industrial pollution, we just immediately, without hesitation, said yes.

You didn't have previous experience with photography, but you were a working partner in the work that you did in Minamata.
Almost to the year from the day I met him we had already traveled to Japan and had opened the show in a Shinjuku department store, and got married on August 28th. During that year in New York, we didn't go on any photography assignments. But because it was a retrospective, I was totally immersed in the whole span of his work and why and how he did each one. It was almost like I lived through his career, in the sense of not like going through it directly, no direct experience of being in thirteen invasions or in Wyoming photographing a country doctor or in South Carolina or Africa, etc. but because he was trying to compile all of it as his final statement, he talked it out and relived it all with me, explaining it all. So I had all of that already as part of me.

Gene gave me the Fujica that was given to him as a gift from Fuji Film. After several weeks, the camera was almost part of my body. In the loft, everybody just always had their camera with them. The darkroom work was mainly Gene and I-I had already been in the darkroom tons and tons of hours over that year, but I never even one split second thought Gene was my teacher. It's a very interesting way of teaching where it just doesn't feel like teaching at all, it is just living it. Usually with teaching you start with easy things and you work on this level or that level. But one print that got used as one of the prints in the museum was the very first one I ever made in my life. We didn't even develop a batch of negatives until several weeks after I was there. Then proof printing was much later, so the order was completely topsy-turvy. I think it's a hint for a lot of learning. It's much more holistic. You keep doing different things and then you pretty much have learned from the beginning. So I had experienced all of that already, before arriving in Minamata. Actually going to different places photographing was a first. But I already had shot many, many, rolls of film, and photographing was already kind of part of me.

Teenager Sakamoto Shinobu, a congenital Minamata disease patient, out on the town to shop for a present.
Credit/copyright: Aileen M. Smith, 1972.

Shinobu Sakamoto talking with a friend. Credit/copyright: Aileen M. Smith, 1972.

When you went to Minamata, was that just an initial visit or did you actually move there?
The first time we went, the first day we got there we found a house to live in. We were very lucky. Many photographers had photographed in Minamata and it wasn't easy for them at first, for example Kuwabara Shisei in 1960, 61. We went there at a very different time when already lots of media had been there, and if anything, patients were burned by people coming in, intruding and shooting for 30 minutes and then leaving, just using them as an assignment. But a photographer named Shiota Takeshi was living there and photographing, in his late 20s. Mr. Motomura arranged for him to show us around and gave him an assignment for Asahi Graph on 'Eugene Smith, Minamata wo toru,' something like that, so he got to do this job and get published. And through that we got shown around the whole place-Minamata Bay, the waste place up at Hachiman, the whole orientation of where the villages were badly hit-and very importantly, the key people to meet. He introduced us to them, so it wasn't like going there cold.
It would have been especially hard as a foreigner.
Well, I think in a way it's harder for a Japanese person. With a foreigner, it's harder to refuse-it's like you've come from all the way across the world. It made a difference that we were going to live here, not like, oh, we're here for the day.
At that point, did you imagine you would stay so long?
No. The idea was to stay three months, the whole fall. We arrived in the first few days of September '71. There are four main villages or hamlets within Minamata city to the south, right by the bay, and three of them are just walking distance, within 20 minutes. In the middle of that is where we got our house. Our main house rent was three thousand yen a month, the darkroom was two thousand yen a month. Even that five thousand was a hefty fee for us to gather. We didn't have any kind of stipend or anything, we just went there.
How soon were you showing images of Minamata?
The first real putting it together was Life magazine, June 2nd, nine months after we arrived.
Was that when the company realized that Gene was working on this?
Oh, they knew from the day we arrived. There were no foreigners around. They knew. We even actually went inside the factory and interviewed Chisso. And their point was, "It's just 10 to 15 parts per million, and it's just so minute and you put it in the vast expanse of the ocean, and how could we ever know?"-that was the kind of talk they gave us. Of course, they knew their secret cat experiments had produced Minamata disease, and then they hid that fact and diverted the effluent water to the Minamata river, which then polluted vast expanses of the Shiranui Sea. We knew that they were giving us a completely false picture. We already knew what had really happened.

We went there at a time when already lots of media had been there, and if anything, patients were burned by people coming in, intruding and shooting for 30 minutes and then leaving, just using them as an assignment.

Gene photographing in Minamata. Credit/copyright: Ishikawa Takeshi

Director of the Environment Agency and future Prime Minister Miki Takeo visiting a facility for Minamata victims.
Credit/copyright: Aileen M. Smith.

The photograph of Tomoko in the bath was taken three months after we arrived, in December of 1971. Right before that, there was a sit-in of newly-certified victims (who Chisso considered were "new patients" and therefore in a completely different category, so they didn't have to pay them) in front of the factory in Minamata, from November and then there was a sit-in in front of Chisso headquarters in Tokyo. We wanted to go but we didn't have the money. Finally, we scraped together the money and we went, and the first action was January 7th, 1972, right after New Year. The action was to go to Chisso's Goi factory, in Chiba, because pro-company union workers were helping the company guard the fourth floor of the headquarters in Tokyo- the building was right in front of Tokyo Station.

The idea was for a victim, Kawamoto Teruo, and a group of supporters to go and talk to the head of the union saying, "Don't do that. You work for the company, okay, but don't be goons for them. Don't be security guards for the company." So we went and photographed. There was also media. We waited and waited for the head of the union, but he escaped by a different exit. And as we waited, the goon squad came and beat us all up. Gene was beaten up more severely. That was exactly four months after we arrived.

Minamata victims protest Chisso corporations' violence against victims, supporters, and journalists at the company's Goi factory gates. Credit/copyright: Aileen M. Smith.

Chisso president Shimada Kenichi during marathon negotiations with Minamata disease victims at Chisso Tokyo headquarters. Credit/copyright: Aileen M. Smith.

Were you attacked as well?
Yeah, we were all attacked. I got my hair pulled and I was mauled and pushed around and thrown out of this little security building where you wait to go into the factory. They didn't give us any time to escape and they blocked the entrance so it's not like you could just leave-they just said leave now or else, and then bang, all of them flooded in and beat us around and pushed us out. So Gene got beaten up-they threw him to the ground inside the security office and then they dragged him outside and on the cement, they pushed the back of his neck into the ground, that's where he got the pinched nerves. It wasn't that he couldn't see anymore, but after the nerves got pinched, he had lots of trouble seeing, and a lot of pain. So we lived with that, from that day onward. Before that he'd had a couple of plane crashes, he'd had lots of accidents and of course the main war injury of Okinawa-a hole on the top of his mouth, his dentures would just not work. And a lot of pain in his legs and other stuff from the war. So it was already pretty heavy duty, and then we just got this bigger load on top.
The photo of Tomoko in the bath was very influential. How did it become known? How was it interpreted?
Well, it got known all over the world as a result of publication in Life. After that there were requests to republish all the time, which we answered. I think people were just incredibly moved by the photograph. Millions of people have seen it. It's an iconic image that people can identify and also, it's powerful that you can see through the handicap. I think that people just see the connection of the mother and the child, the two of them, and the love that they feel.
It's very universal, not simply as a post-industrial accident.
Right. And you don't see it just a pollution issue. I think you see it as life, but each person sees it differently or it resounds in them differently. I feel that the photograph is completed when the viewer sees it. And whatever happens inside that person is the final product. So I want to give an opportunity to have people experience that.

But, I'm still honoring the the agreement that we reached with the parents, of not releasing it further. The parents don't want it out anymore. For the last 20 years, I have used my copyright to say no to further release. But I'm going to release it through discussion with the parents if the book gets republished, and for a few moments in the movie, because they simulated the scene. Without the real photograph, the simulation would be the image that exists, rather than the real thing, so although my agreement with the movie people was not to show the image, I said yes. I actually got a ticket to London, went and talked to the director for two hours, said yes, and came back. On my own money.

For many people their whole life changed from seeing this photograph. When it hits somebody in junior high or high school is where it's the strongest. A person that was 17, who felt a chip on his shoulder, who had never been loved, saw this photograph and it just completely dissolved something inside and changed him. And Fukushima Atsuko, one of the leaders now of the Fukushima evacuees fighting in the lawsuit, says in junior high school, every single day, she went to the library and looked at this book, and she decided to go into environmental monitoring work because of it. That's her whole career. She said, "You just changed my life." That's why I want to republish the book.

But it's not going to be that easy, because that was 1975, and it's much harder to publish books now. Right now I'm showing it to one publisher in the US, and a Japanese publisher wants to publish. If it gets republished, maybe it might invent something new again.

We all have our own prejudices we grew up with, we have different backgrounds. So "let truth be the prejudice" is Gene's way of saying "may our prejudices and prejudgments be as close to the truth as possible."

Tomoko with her family, supporters, Gene, and Asahi Camera editor, taken at Tomoko's home in Minamata on her sixteenth birthday. (Gene's photo of 'Tomoko and Mother in the Bath' focused world attention on Minamata.)
Credit/copyright: Aileen M. Smith. June 13, 1972

Somehow, that book became a screenplay. How does it feel, to have parts of your own real life depicted in a Hollywood movie?
It feels like your life is kind of ripped off of you. Gene and I were partners in this work. It was a unique partnership-he as a veteran photojournalist doing his final work, me doing my first-the two of us were one. We took a similar number of rolls of film. Both our photographs are in the book. It's seamless. I cherish that reality. The movie doesn't show any of my photographs. The reality that a lot of people who see the movie are going to think [happened] is not necessarily the reality that happened to me or us. In a way that hurts, and it bothers me, but I've had a sort of epiphany. It's about letting go. A child is born but you don't own it. The child creates its own life. By letting go in this way, the message Gene and I wanted to convey, and the message about who Gene is and what he believes in reaches not just a far wider audience but many more kinds of people. It's a kind of different message, but the more I see this with a wider vision, the more I feel the essence is portrayed. The more people taking part in this creation the better. The impact the movie had at the premiere at Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) made me feel very strongly that it was worth it all. At the same time, I'll continue myself to tell our story and- importantly-the story of Minamata.
Does it show Eugene as you would like him to be remembered?
I told Johnny that there was one moment, it was up high on a building, and they were outside filming, it was almost like, oh, Gene's out there, and I haven't seen him a long time, I'm going to go out and see him, kind of... really. The resemblance is uncanny at times. I don't know how they did it. Looking at Johnny up close, I really didn't see any make up. Except his voice is of course very different. I said to Johnny you look so much like Gene and he said, that's the nicest thing someone could ever hear from somebody that was directly involved. Of course, the character in the movie is different from the real Gene. Gene never, ever would give up in front of an editor. But finally I think that it portrays him as more like him than I realized, maybe. I'm not that bothered by the way Gene is portrayed, because I think the real him is still there and so strong. There's a biography of him that was done by a friend, Jim Hughes, who interviewed everybody in his life and has really good direct quotes of Gene's own words, and also other people who really knew him, so I feel like it's on record.

But I think the most exciting thing I heard was after people came out of the Berlinialle premiere. We had a flyer about what's happening with mercury now- the levels are going up and up and up worldwide and we're trying to get it down. There is a convention, but we want everybody to ratify it and really commit to reducing the pollution all over the world, including from coal-coal-fired plants emit mercury. When the audience came out, I had to go to the after-party with Johnny Depp and everybody, but [friends] were there handing out the leaflet that we had made. And the reaction was really exciting. They described three types of reactions. One is "I'm just absolutely flabbergasted this kind of thing could have happened in an advanced country like Japan, so completely floored that this was going on, in Japan." Or "Yeah, sure, I'll take a flyer." Then for another group of people like, "It was just too much for me, I can't even take a flyer," that kind of feeling. And then other people said, "Yeah, I'll grab a flyer, how many can I have?-I want to show it to my friends."

Official Minamata movie poster. Credit: MINAMATA, Dir. Andrew Levitas 2020.

When does the movie actually come out?
It will come out in the US next spring. But not in Japan until around September.
Do you anticipate a backlash against the film?
I think not nationally, but in Minamata, it's going to be really hard. My main concern is Minamata and the victims, what would happen there. The city powers-that-be want the problem to go away, don't want the Japanese public to be reminded of what happened and even more that the problem is ongoing.

The current mayor got elected with Chisso's backing. In Minamata there will be turmoil. I even hear that conservative city legislators are asking, "Is Chisso going to be portrayed badly?" This is the corporation that killed all these people-it's like ...hello? If they complain, let's just spell out all the things Chisso not only did do but continues to do. They appeal court cases even if victims win. So if we're going to have a debate about Chisso being portrayed badly I'm ready for that debate. If the movie is eased into Minamata, the victims won't get the brunt of the backlash.
What's happening still with the court cases? What are the key points now in what's happening in Minamata for the survivors?
The official take on the situation domestically was that the poisoning was caused by some kind of poison in fish in Minamata Bay. That official declaration was 1956, May 1st. So now how many years has that been, 64 years, right? But during the worst part of the pollution, fishing was never banned in Minamata Bay. The food sanitation law could have banned it,-if a restaurant is emitting poison, you shut it down. But MITI said that there's no proof that every single fish in Minamata Bay is poisonous and therefore we will not ban. There have been lawsuits by a doctor and also a victim about this issue. This was somebody whose father and mother got Minamata disease and he has Minamata disease but he lost the suit because this law is to protect public health and not individuals. So you do not have the right to sue.

There has never been an official epidemiological study of this situation. No careful study of the pattern of disease, meaning "What is it? What kind of symptoms occur? And what groups of people got it?" You do a case control study in a similar area, everything is the same except that the fish isn't polluted, versus what's here. Not once has that been done. Most recently, a group of patients went to Koizumi, the Environment Minister, and asked, please hurry up and do the survey, hurry up! It's 64 years since the discovery of Minamata, and it hasn't been done. And yet, there's a certification system that says, unless you have these kind of symptoms, you don't have Minamata disease, so you're shut out.

Right now, one key lawsuit is the one by a man who actually had sued under the food sanitation law, whose parents had gotten sick and he also has Minamata disease. His name is Hideki Sato, and his parents are in the book here [ Minamata]. The toddlers who were living there in the peak of the pollution grew up being told Minamata disease is only that acute stuff that your parents have, or the bedridden congenital victims or the people who died, that's Minamata disease. And now, no problem exists, and etc. So they grew up their whole life, thinking, this is just my body, I get convulsions sometimes or I'm numb here, but gradually realizing, hey, everybody doesn't have this, you know, there's a cause to this. An outside industrial cause. Realizing it took time too, and then they sued. So these toddlers, they're now in their mid-60s. And they won a case and still Chisso and the government appeals the case. So now they're in appellate court. That's the current status today, in appellate court, toddlers of 50 years ago, or 55 years ago, still suing. Now they just look like ojisan or obasan [grandparents]. But I always say you should find the photographs of them when they were little.

It's not like something you have that you stopped having years ago, you're still having it. There's pain and there's numbness and there's things you can't do because of it. And you're just living with it all the time. For example, Hideki's wife, she's saying, I'm driving with the kids in the back, going 40 or 50 kilometers an hour, and suddenly I can't feel my hands. I can't feel my feet. And she says it's terrifying.
Download KJ 99: Travel, Revisited

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Documenting Minamata with W. Eugene Smith

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Part 1: An Extended version of our Interview with Kyoto Activist Aileen Mioko Smith published in KJ 99: Travel, Revisited, Dec. 2020. By Jennifer Teeter and Ken Rodgers. All photos courtesy of and subject to copyright by Aileen Mioko Smith.