HIRAMATSU Tsuya
Born: 10 January 1880 – Died: 10 June 1945
Particulars:
Tsuya was born in Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. Her maiden name was Machida Tsuya. She was married to a merchant from Wakayama Prefecture. He was living in Dobo in the Aru Islands, Irian Jaya in what was then Dutch New Guinea, when the Pacific War broke out. She was taken to Australia and was interned at Tatura Internment Camp with her husband Otosuke. She died two days after being admitted to the camp hospital with pneumonia, only two months before the end of the war. She was aged 65. Her grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Mayu Kanamori
Artist/s Statement:
I found a photograph of Tsuya in the National Archives of Australia but decided not to use it as part of this artwork because it was one of those mug shots taken by the authorities, with a series of numbers dangling from her chest like that of a criminal. She looked very sad.
Instead I overlaid her handprint on a photograph I took of the Peace Statue at the Nagasaki Peace Park. A plaque near this statue, created by Nagasaki sculptor Seibo Kitamura reads:
After experiencing that nightmarish war,
that blood-curdling carnage,
that unendurable horror,
Who could walk away without praying for peace?
This statue was created as a signpost in the
struggle for global harmony.
Standing ten meters tall,
it conveys the profundity of knowledge and
the beauty of health and virility.
The right hand points to the atomic bomb,
the left hand points to peace,
and the face prays deeply for the victims of war.
Transcending the barriers of race
and evoking the qualities of Buddha and God,
it is a symbol of the greatest determination
ever known in the history of Nagasaki
and the highest hope of all mankind.
–Seibo Kitamura (Spring 1955)
Artist Bio:
Mayu Kanamori is a Japanese Australian artist working across mediums of photography, video, performance, and poetry.