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I participated in the 2025 exhibition “Japan’s War Questioned from Asia.”

Dates:
May 4 (Sunday), 2025 — 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
May 5 (Monday), 2025 — 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Venue:
Abeno Civic Learning Center, Osaka

Recently, aside from juried calligraphy exhibitions such as the Seihitsu Exhibition, Seiryu Exhibition, and the Kansai Peace Art Exhibition, the main platform where I can fully express my thoughts has been the exhibition “Japan’s War Questioned from Asia.”

For this year’s exhibition, I presented a series of works centered on the theme:
“What Did Japan Do to China Over 80 Years Ago?”
These works were part of a larger project that began in the summer of 2024, following my participation in that year’s War Exhibition. Inspired by this, I received a request from Okinawan film director Yoshikazu Hara to create approximately 50 large-format performance calligraphy works — each on tatami-sized paper — over the course of five sessions.

In connection with the “80 Years Since the End of the War” theme, I based my calligraphy on excerpts from battlefield diaries written by Japanese soldiers.
Some of these pieces were used in the film “Metamorphosis and Silence” (Hyōhen to Chinmoku).
The film is scheduled to be screened from August 16, 2025, at K’s Cinema in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

In 2024, I was deeply moved by a heartfelt “rally appeal” against the military base, written by a student from Yomitan High School. Inspired by its message, I transformed it into a calligraphy piece with a gentle, compassionate touch.
Unfortunately, I was unable to identify the name of the student who wrote the original appeal, and I regret that I had to leave the work unsigned in that regard. It still weighs on my mind.

That same year, Professor Iyahiko Kuroda told me that there was a haiku monument of Tsurumine Akira within Osaka Castle.
I searched for it on foot and, upon finding it, was inspired to create a calligraphy piece based on it.

In the previous year, 2023, I created a calligraphy work featuring a haiku by Hakusen Watanabe:
“War stood at the end of the hallway.”
(Sensō ga rōka no oku ni tatte ita)
The piece measured 2 meters by 1.4 meters.
After being exhibited at the 2023 “War Exhibition,” the work was featured on the cover of issue No. 158 of “Voices from Wadatsumi,” the official publication of the Japan Memorial Society for Students Killed in the War.

I was also commissioned by a group working on the issue of “comfort women” to create a large calligraphy piece based on the climactic scene from “The House with the Red Tiled Roof” by Fumiko Kawata.
The resulting work measured 4 meters by 1.4 meters.
This piece also served as a powerful backdrop for a special talk event held during the 2024 “War Exhibition”, where Ms. Kim Hyun-ok, who cared for Ms. Bae Bong-gi in her later years, was invited from Okinawa to speak.
The event was well-attended and warmly received by many participants.