Hikari shimoda biography sample

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Downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery is proud to announce a two-artist exhibition featuring new works from Japanese contemporary painter Mayuka Yamamoto, titled Animal Crossing, and from San Francisco-based sculptor Erika Sanada, titled Dream State, to open Saturday, October 3rd in Gallery 3.

Yamamoto is widely recognized as one of Japan’s leading second-generation contemporary artist, whose works depict children sporting animal features and enigmatic expressions. The artist’s oil paintings often appear reticent and introspective. At first glance, the child characters in Yamamoto’s works seem to be devoid of any emotion or facial expression, that when juxtaposed against the subtle ambience settings painted in soft, muted color tones, exude an aura of otherworldly calm and demeanor that belie their true emotional and psychological states.

Regarding her new series, Yamamoto shares: “It's been nearly 20 years since I drew a picture of a child wearing an animal costume or becoming an animal. The reason for this is that, even though I am no longer a child, when I asked myself why I draw these pictures, I still feel the nostalgia of my childhood as an adult and it is still in my heart. It seems that my way of preserving this feeling is to continually paint these pictures. I have a certain memory of when I was young: My parents were always working very hard, but Christmas time was our family time together at home. It was a special day. Even now, when I smell the candles on a Christmas cake, my heart returns to my childhood as clear as if it were yesterday. It's the same feeling as when I finished drawing these pictures. When I look at my work, I feel a little sadness and longing, but also happy.”

Sanada creates beautifully creepy creatures in relationships that are often sweet and sometimes sinister. As a perpetually

Hikari War Monument
Hikari City, Yamaguchi Prefecture

On November 25, 1944, the Japanese Navy established a kaiten training base in Hikari City next to the Navy arsenal located there. Hikari was the second kaiten base, located only about 20 kilometers away from the first base at Ōtsushima. This war monument, erected in 1960, stands near the front gate of the huge Takeda Pharmaceutical factory at the wartime location of the Navy arsenal.

A sign near the beginning of the walkway up to the monument gives the following history:

This monument was erected to remember the noble sacrifice of the 738 Navy arsenal workers and mobilized students who died for their country during an air raid on August 14, 1945, and the members of the kaiten human torpedo special attack corps. Here we also remember and console the spirits of 38 crewmen of the Navy destroyers Kaba and Hagi who regrettably died for their country during antiaircraft fire off the coast of Hikari City on July 24, 1945.

The citizens of Hikari City pray for the repose of the spirits of those who died in this place giving their lives for our country in its time of crisis. We also wish for eternal world peace.

Hikari City

Hikari has another monument specifically dedicated to the men died in kaiten operations (see Hikari Kaiten Monument).

Shimoda Shin'yō and Kairyū Monument
Shimoda City, Shizuoka Prefecture

At the southern tip of Izu Peninsula in the town of Shimoda late in the Pacific War, the Japanese Navy established a base with two types of special (suicide) attack weapons: shin'yō explosive motorboats loaded with 250 kg of explosives in the bow and kairyū two-man midget submarines with two torpedoes and 600 kg of explosives. The war ended before any of these weapons were used.

After training at Kawatana Torpedo Boat Training School in Nagasaki Prefecture, the motorboat pilots of the 57th Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron, formed on June 25, 1945, were assigned to Shimoda in Shizuoka Prefecture. The squadron had 50 one-man Model 1 shin'yō motorboats that were hidden in six tunnels in Shimoda's Wakanoura area (near current location of Shimoda Floating Aquarium). The 57th Shin'yō Squadron had 8 officers, 53 boat pilots, 18 headquarters personnel, 37 maintenance workers, and 59 base workers for a total of 175 members.

The squadron members went by train from Kawatana Training School to Itō Town on the eastern side of the Izu Peninsula and then by truck to Shimoda. When they were in Ito, some of the squadron members went to photography studio to get a commemorative photograph taken (see below for this photograph). Their short time in Shimoda until the end of the war in August 1945 was busy as they continued to train each day but also was peaceful as they experienced no attacks. Ten years later the squadron members met for a reunion.

Along the 0.7 km Townsend Harris Walking Path, also known as the Fukuura Walking Path, can be found the Shimoda Shin'yō and Kairyū Monument. In the cliffs behind the monument, a tunnel to store shin'yō motorboats or kairyū miniature submarines can be seen but cannot be easily reached due to the heavy undergrowth between the monumen