This exhibition is a study of an installation that imagined last dream (of Harakiri) that Gosuke Takeya saw in his late years. My ancestor Gosuke Takeya fought the Boshin Japanese civil war in 1869 at the age of fourteen with his troop all in the same age group. It was illegal to send off child samurai to combat; yet they were happy the night before to join their very first battle – just like going for a field trip. Many were killed despite their innocence. Gosuke survived, but was traumatized for decades. But Harakiri is suicide. In recent years, suicide of young people continues to grow, but it is our adult responsibility to protect them. In this work, I investigated the concept of samurai’s spiritualism, or the concept of death, tried to explode the desire to live using baby dolls made in DAICHI Projects. It reminds us of Gosuke wished for young people to never lose their lives unnecessarily.
* The sword used in this installation is a reproduction of Gosuke’s Sword collectioned at Nihonmatsu Municipal Natural History Museum
mixed media, dimension variable, installation view at Fukushima Contemporary Art Biennale 2016, Fukushima, Japan
Gosule Takeya’s sword collection at Nihonmatsu Natural History Museum