Latest news with #TokyoPhotographicArtMuseum
Asahi Shimbun
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Iran to attend Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace ceremonies
Iranian Ambassador to Japan Peiman Seadat announced on July 10 that he plans to attend the annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace memorial ceremonies in August held on the anniversaries of the atomic bombings. That day, Seadat visited the photo exhibition 'Hiroshima 1945 Special Exhibition 80 Years after Atomic Bombing' at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum put on by The Asahi Shimbun and other organizations. He told reporters afterward that he had the opportunity to meet and talk with several atomic bomb survivors in June and July, and that he felt he must attend the ceremonies after seeing the photo exhibition as well. Seadat then said he would participate in both ceremonies with strong determination. This year, both cities plan to send notification letters and formal invitations to ambassadors from all countries and regions with diplomatic missions in Japan, which are listed on the Foreign Ministry's website. This includes Russia and Belarus, which were previously excluded due to the war in Ukraine. The decision to notify or invite Israel also is the result of the city of Nagasaki refraining from inviting Israel to last year's ceremony because of its continued attacks on Gaza. The move led to the United States and other countries declining to participate in the ceremony, which sparked controversy. Seadat also mentioned the legislation passed by the Iranian parliament in response to recent U.S. military attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. The law suspends Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Seadat clarified that the law is intended to be a temporary suspension of cooperation with the IAEA. He also said if there were guarantees that Iran's nuclear facilities would not be attacked by other countries during the IAEA's inspections, the country could resume cooperation with the agency. Seadat then criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's remark that airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were essentially the same as Hiroshima and Nagasaki in terms of ending a war. He said the remark was unacceptable, adding that Iran's nuclear program has always been and will always remain peaceful and intended solely for civilian use.
11-07-2025
- Politics
Japan Crown Prince, His Family Visit Hiroshima A-Bomb Exhibition
Tokyo, July 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Crown Prince Akishino and his family on Friday visited a photo exhibition on the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city of Hiroshima 80 years ago. The event, hosted by five media organizations including Chugoku Shimbun, a newspaper publisher in Hiroshima Prefecture, is being held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Meguro Ward of Japan's capital. Two videos and some 160 pictures taken by photographers of the media companies and residents of the city of Hiroshima are on display, showing the devastation from the nuclear attack, which took place on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. Crown Prince Akishino, Crown Princess Kiko, their second daughter, Princess Kako, and their son, Prince Hisahito, viewed the exhibits attentively while receiving explanations from a Chugoku Shimbun staff personnel. "The blast must have been big," the Crown Prince said as he looked at a photo taken at a point 2.2 kilometers from ground zero. Nuclear weapons must be abolished, he said, noting the harmful effects of radiation on humans. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Yomiuri Shimbun
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Kumamoto's Five-month-long Hit Now Playing in Tokyo; 'Boneless Lantern' Features Historical Hot Spring Town
©KUMAMOTO YAMAGA EIGA project A still from the film 'Honenashi Toro' ('Boneless Lantern') The film 'Honenashi Toro' ('Boneless Lantern'), which recorded an exceptional five-month-long run at a small theater in Kumamoto last year, is now playing in Tokyo through June 22. Nadeshiko Koba directed the film and lives in Yamaga, Kumamoto Prefecture. She independently filmed it along with her husband Tamio, who is the movie's producer. The plot revolves around a man who has lost his wife. Unable to overcome his grief, he wanders around the city with the box that holds her cremated bones. He gradually recovers thanks to funny and mysterious meetings with people. Yamaga is a city full of hot springs that once thrived as a post station town along a major road in the Edo period (1603-1867). During that time, Daimyo feudal lords were required to stay in the then capital Edo every other year. Some of them often stayed at Yamaga while traveling to Edo. Various scenes of the film closely depict the city's culture and atmosphere. The most symbolic is the Yamaga lantern, a local traditional craft that the film takes its name from. The lantern is made using only traditional Japanese washi paper and glue. Its soft light in some ways symbolizes the man's recovery. A summer festival shown in the film in which young women dance with these golden lanterns on their heads leaves an impression, along with the cheerful greetings of children. ©KUMAMOTO YAMAGA EIGA project A still from the film 'Honenashi Toro' ('Boneless Lantern') Koba established her career as a screenwriter. She moved to Yamaga with Tamio in 2021. 'Boneless Lantern' is Koba's first feature as a director. She won awards at film festivals, such as Best First Time Filmmaker at the Toronto International Women Film Festival. The movie played in cities including Kumamoto, Kobe and Nagoya before coming to Tokyo. Filmgoers can see it at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Tokyo. It plays with Japanese or English subtitles once a day each day of the week, with Chinese or French subtitles added on some days. The museum will be closed on June 9 and 16.
Asahi Shimbun
03-06-2025
- General
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Rare photos of Hiroshima A-bombing show grim aftermath
The event 'Hiroshima 1945: Special Exhibition 80 Years after Atomic Bombing' opened at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum on May 31 with many foreign visitors in attendance. (Photo by Koichiro Yoshida) There are few photographs left today that show what Hiroshima looked like immediately after the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped its nuclear payload on the city on Aug. 6, 1945. Of the pictures taken that day to graphically record the horrendous fate met by Hiroshima's citizens, only five film negatives still survive. They are all the works of Yoshito Matsushige (1913-2005), a photographer with the local daily newspaper The Chugoku Shimbun. Matsushige, who was 32 at the time, lived 2.8 kilometers from ground zero. Blown off his feet by the nuclear blast and bleeding from shards of broken window panes, he grabbed his camera and headed to the city. A toddler clung to its mother who could not move. A woman kept shouting her child's name. Faced with hordes of people with burnt skin and hair, Matsushige hesitated to release the shutter. 'Please forgive me,' he murmured in his heart as he steeled himself to do his job. The results are five black-and-white photographs that can be seen today. The silent witnesses show us a perspective that is decisively lacking from any aerial photo of the mushroom cloud taken from above. Matsushige's photos embody the 'suffering Hiroshima' its citizens gazed up at from under the mushroom cloud, not the Hiroshima as seen from the sky by the people who dropped the bomb. Some people may wonder about the scarcity of photos that remain. But far too many lives were wiped out by the bomb. The Chugoku Shimbun lost one-third of its workers—or 114 people. After World War II, the military incinerated many pictures, the disposal of some was regulated by the General Headquarters for the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ). At the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, an exhibition of rare, valuable photos opened on May 31. Titled 'Hiroshima 1945: Special Exhibition 80 Years after Atomic Bombing,' it highlights these weighty words of one of the photographers: 'As a record, may our photographs remain final forever.' —The Asahi Shimbun, June 3 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
