ISHIBASHI Tokusuke
Born: 12 February 1881 – Died: 30 January 1943
Particulars:
Tokusuke (incorrectly spelled as Tokusuka on official documents and on his grave) was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. He was a single man working as a labourer in Kanaky / New Caledonia when the Pacific War broke out. He had listed his brother in Fukuoka as his next of kin, and his address was in Meinohama Machi (incorrectly spelled as Menohama in official documents), which is now part of Nishi Ku in Fukuoka City. Tokusuke was taken to Australia and interned in the Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. He died from occlusion of his bronchial artery at the age of 61. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Emily Kerr and Simon Thornton
Artist/s Statement:
Ishibashi Tokusuke was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, the hometown of my good friend. He was raised in the Meiji Era, while she grew up in the Heisei. At under 5 feet tall, he was around the same height as my mother’s sister. They were both single. Ishibashi san was a labourer, and so I constructed for him a series of porcelain boxes in the shape of roughly hewn stone blocks. They form a man-made bridge over an unfamiliar path. It is my homage to his work. The signature in the image is the only mark made by Ishibashi san that I was able to find in the archival records.
Artwork was photographed by Simon Thornton.
Artist Bio:
Emily Kerr and is a ceramic artist working with porcelain and high-fired stoneware clays on Ngunnawal Country in Canberra, Australia and Simon Thornton enjoys capturing the balance and arrangement of light and objects in the spaces defined by the lens.