Tanka after the Tsunami - Opening Reception

Exhibition Dates: January 28^th – February 14^th, 2013

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31^st, 5-8pm

You’re invited to the opening reception of, Voices from Japan: Tanka After the Tsunami.  The exhibition features a collection of translated Tanka poems, calligraphy, photographs, and video reflecting the loss and hope of the survivors of the tsunami that devastated Japan last year. The reception features a live calligraphy and a story telling performance.  Light refreshments and food will be served. 

Each week in Japan, new poems appear in newspapers. Following the disaster of March 11, 2011, thousands of readers submitted tanka poems to Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest daily newspapers. The poets: fisherman, housewives and loved ones testified to the physical and emotional damage left in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake measured magnitude 9.0, the most powerful ever to hit Japan. The resulting waves reached up 10 stories before rushing six miles inland, collapsing homes, shops, schools and temples. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was devastated. This exhibition seeks to remember the over 15,000 lives lost and to recognize the recovery and healing that continues today. More than a year after the devastating events, Isao Tsujimoto, director of Studio for Cultural Exchange, assembled and selected a collection of 75 poems, 29 of which are on display, along with photo collages and Japanese calligraphy from Voices from Japan: Despair and Hope from Disaster, in New York. These works convey the resiliency of the Japanese people and are being paired with photographs, live calligraphy, video, cultural literary exchange, and a storytelling performance.

Produced by Dilena Takeyama Center for the Study of Japan and Japanese Culture and The Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery at San Francisco State University. Presented in cooperation with Voices from Japan: Despair and Hope from Disaster, an exhibition and cultural exchange, curated by Isao Tsujimoto of Studio for Cultural Exchange in Tokyo, and first presented in New York, June of 2012.