KINDA Charlie
Born: 2 March 1881 – Died: 12 May 1942
Particulars:
Charlie was born in Kobe City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He arrived in Townsville in Queensland, Australia when he was 20 years old aboard the Yamagata Maru. He moved to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and was in the laundry business at 5 Park Street, Katoomba when the Pacific War broke out. When he was arrested, he handed over 6 pounds in cash, a diamond ring, a wristwatch, a pearl tie pin, a torch, a razor blade, and a pair of binoculars. Unlike most other Japanese people, he was a Christian, his denomination was the Church of England. He was interned at Hay Internment Camp, where he died at the age of 61. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Yori Hirokawa
Artist/s Statement:
Why did you move south
so far from Kobe
and migrate to Australia?
Why did you decide this
at the tender age
of twenty?
Why did you have
pearls and diamonds when
aged sixty, you were captured?
Your work in the end was the laundry
but maybe you had dreams of pearling
and that was why you became a migrant.
Perhaps you sometimes touched the tie pin with a pearl
and felt the courage of those early days?
Perhaps you sometimes touched the diamond ring
and felt the temperature of love?
5 Park Street Katoomba NSW
I am at the place where you lived
letting my thoughts run free.
Signs of your life
exist, yet not.
Not, yet they exist.
Artist Bio:
Yori Hirokawa is a Japanese nature photographer, graphic designer, and travel writer. She migrated from Tokyo, Japan to Sydney, Australia in 2008 and currently works for a packaging design company as an arts worker for Microsoft products. Yori’s photograph of the Sydney Opera House won a prize in the All Nippon Airways (ANA) photo competition in 2019, and was selected for the ANA official calendar. In 2022, her works were selected and featured in the Australia Photography Magazine’s Photographer of the Year competition in both Animals and Nature and Black and White categories. Yori’s solo exhibitions include the ‘Soul Cleansing Time’ (2021) and ‘Soul Cleansing Time II – Life in resonance’ (2024). She has also produced photo books.