Documenting Hiroshima 80 years after A-bombing: In October 1950, “Hiroshima Panels” exhibit by artist couple depicts human tragedy after bombing
Feb. 17, 2025
by Michio Shimotaka, Staff Writer
On October 5, 1950, for the first time in Hiroshima City, an exhibition of the “Hiroshima Panels” began. The epic art work depicting the human tragedy of those who experienced the atomic bombing was created jointly by the Tokyo artists Iri Maruki, an ink painter who died in 1995 at the age of 95, and Toshi, Iri’s wife and a Western-style painter who died in 2000 at the age of 87.
More than the scorched ruins themselves
The exhibition venue was Goryuso, a building located next to the A-bomb Dome (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward). Toshi spoke at a roundtable discussion held there on October 8. “It is the towering masses of clouds or the scorched ruins that people imagine when they think of the atomic bombings … More terrible was that people died, and exasperated by that, I decided I truly wanted to paint only people,” she said, in words taken from the 10th edition of Warera no Uta (in English, ‘Our poems’).
The Marukis’ painting activity began before the war. On August 9, 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Iri headed to the city, where his parents and relatives lived, and saw “people who were burned, vomiting blood, and going mad,” according to the book titled Genbaku no Zu (“The Hiroshima Panels”), published in 1980, with quotes below taken from the same publication. Toshi followed Iri and helped with relief efforts.
After the war, the couple returned to Tokyo and vowed with other painters to paint “happy, peaceful faces.” The models they invited to their studio with that in mind had lost loved ones in the war or had scars on the soles of their feet. Sensing “the dark clouds of the next war” in a world caught in the grip of the Cold War, they decided in the summer of 1948 to create the Hiroshima Panels.
Starting in February 1950, they unveiled in succession the works titled “Ghosts,” “Fire,” and “Water” in Tokyo. This early trilogy, depicting people with swollen faces and hands and engulfed in flames, was also exhibited in Hiroshima. Yoshio Oda, 83, Iri’s nephew who lives in Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward, believes his uncle had “created the panels with the sole desire to preserve the tragedy in the paintings.” He said that the words Iri spoke to him before his death, “Lead an unwavering way of life,” are consistent with the art all the more, given the circumstances at the time.
Activities closely monitored
Four months prior to the exhibition, the Korean War had broken out, and the Peace Festival in Hiroshima scheduled for August 6, 1950, was suddenly canceled following negotiations with the occupation forces. Police closely monitored “anti-occupation forces” activities, as written on leaflets distributed by the Hiroshima City Police at the time.
Meanwhile, the exhibition venue Goryuso was a shack-like event space completed around 1947. It supported the cultural activities of Hiroshima’s early reconstruction period, serving as a venue for a Japanese flower arrangement exhibit and a music concert held during the city’s Peace Festival in 1947. Kazuko Yoshikawa, 81, a resident of the city’s Nishi Ward and granddaughter of Kenichi Kajio, the manager of the building who died in 1971 at the age of 69, remembers the residence with fondness. “When I was a child, I used to run around playing there,” said Ms. Yoshikawa.
Mr. Kajio, who experienced the atomic bombing in the area of Koi-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward), later produced a booklet that conveyed the devastation caused by the bombing, including his own experiences. “I could do nothing but tremble where I was as I listened helplessly to the screams of agony and despair,” he wrote in the booklet. Ms. Yoshikawa did not hear from her grandfather about why the Hiroshima Panels had been exhibited at Goryuso, but she assumes, “He must have had something specific in mind.”
Warera no Uta no Kai, a literary group led by the poet Sankichi Toge, worked hard to help organize the exhibition, which toured around Japan after Hiroshima. According to the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels, located in Saitama Prefecture, the exhibition had been held in about 170 locations throughout the country by 1953.
However, their activities were closely monitored by the authorities. In May 1951, the Hiroshima Prefectural government made a request of local governments in the prefecture to conduct an “investigation related to the Hiroshima Panels exhibition,” in a document archived at the Hiroshima Municipal Archives, on the grounds that people involved “seem to be stirring up anti-American and anti-war sentiments at informal peace meetings being held throughout the country in conjunction with the exhibition.” The prefecture requested that the local governments report on the exhibitions and meetings and about the kind of people who were in attendance.
(Originally published on February 17, 2025)
On October 5, 1950, for the first time in Hiroshima City, an exhibition of the “Hiroshima Panels” began. The epic art work depicting the human tragedy of those who experienced the atomic bombing was created jointly by the Tokyo artists Iri Maruki, an ink painter who died in 1995 at the age of 95, and Toshi, Iri’s wife and a Western-style painter who died in 2000 at the age of 87.
More than the scorched ruins themselves
The exhibition venue was Goryuso, a building located next to the A-bomb Dome (in Hiroshima’s present-day Naka Ward). Toshi spoke at a roundtable discussion held there on October 8. “It is the towering masses of clouds or the scorched ruins that people imagine when they think of the atomic bombings … More terrible was that people died, and exasperated by that, I decided I truly wanted to paint only people,” she said, in words taken from the 10th edition of Warera no Uta (in English, ‘Our poems’).
The Marukis’ painting activity began before the war. On August 9, 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Iri headed to the city, where his parents and relatives lived, and saw “people who were burned, vomiting blood, and going mad,” according to the book titled Genbaku no Zu (“The Hiroshima Panels”), published in 1980, with quotes below taken from the same publication. Toshi followed Iri and helped with relief efforts.
After the war, the couple returned to Tokyo and vowed with other painters to paint “happy, peaceful faces.” The models they invited to their studio with that in mind had lost loved ones in the war or had scars on the soles of their feet. Sensing “the dark clouds of the next war” in a world caught in the grip of the Cold War, they decided in the summer of 1948 to create the Hiroshima Panels.
Starting in February 1950, they unveiled in succession the works titled “Ghosts,” “Fire,” and “Water” in Tokyo. This early trilogy, depicting people with swollen faces and hands and engulfed in flames, was also exhibited in Hiroshima. Yoshio Oda, 83, Iri’s nephew who lives in Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward, believes his uncle had “created the panels with the sole desire to preserve the tragedy in the paintings.” He said that the words Iri spoke to him before his death, “Lead an unwavering way of life,” are consistent with the art all the more, given the circumstances at the time.
Activities closely monitored
Four months prior to the exhibition, the Korean War had broken out, and the Peace Festival in Hiroshima scheduled for August 6, 1950, was suddenly canceled following negotiations with the occupation forces. Police closely monitored “anti-occupation forces” activities, as written on leaflets distributed by the Hiroshima City Police at the time.
Meanwhile, the exhibition venue Goryuso was a shack-like event space completed around 1947. It supported the cultural activities of Hiroshima’s early reconstruction period, serving as a venue for a Japanese flower arrangement exhibit and a music concert held during the city’s Peace Festival in 1947. Kazuko Yoshikawa, 81, a resident of the city’s Nishi Ward and granddaughter of Kenichi Kajio, the manager of the building who died in 1971 at the age of 69, remembers the residence with fondness. “When I was a child, I used to run around playing there,” said Ms. Yoshikawa.
Mr. Kajio, who experienced the atomic bombing in the area of Koi-machi (in Hiroshima’s present-day Nishi Ward), later produced a booklet that conveyed the devastation caused by the bombing, including his own experiences. “I could do nothing but tremble where I was as I listened helplessly to the screams of agony and despair,” he wrote in the booklet. Ms. Yoshikawa did not hear from her grandfather about why the Hiroshima Panels had been exhibited at Goryuso, but she assumes, “He must have had something specific in mind.”
Warera no Uta no Kai, a literary group led by the poet Sankichi Toge, worked hard to help organize the exhibition, which toured around Japan after Hiroshima. According to the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels, located in Saitama Prefecture, the exhibition had been held in about 170 locations throughout the country by 1953.
However, their activities were closely monitored by the authorities. In May 1951, the Hiroshima Prefectural government made a request of local governments in the prefecture to conduct an “investigation related to the Hiroshima Panels exhibition,” in a document archived at the Hiroshima Municipal Archives, on the grounds that people involved “seem to be stirring up anti-American and anti-war sentiments at informal peace meetings being held throughout the country in conjunction with the exhibition.” The prefecture requested that the local governments report on the exhibitions and meetings and about the kind of people who were in attendance.
(Originally published on February 17, 2025)
