OTA Sadahei
Born: Unknown – Died: 3 February 1942
Particulars:
Ota Sadahei was a Buddhist farmer, born between 1905 and 1906 in the south east of Shizuoka Prefecture. In 1941 he went to work in North Borneo, now the Malaysian state of Sabah, where in 1942, resident Japanese were arrested as ‘enemy aliens’ and interned. Ota Sadahei was taken to Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia and died of pneumonia and malnutrition within six days of arrival. He was 36 years old. His remains are now in the Japanese Cemetery, Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Andras Keszei
More info:
Andras Keszei
Artist/s Statement:
I have chosen Ota Sadahei because his life path intersects with mine in unexpected ways.
When I was conducting research for my PhD studies, I researched his home prefecture in Shizuoka, Japan. I still remember the beautifully tended tea plantations which the prefecture already prided itself on in Sadahei’s time. In 1923, when Sadahei was 17 years old, the epicentre of the Great Kanto Earthquake might have been near enough that his home was destroyed. Life in the following decades was a struggle for all those affected. In 1941 he went to work in North Borneo. The British North Borneo Company had invited Japanese workers to immigrate. The Japanese government saw this as an opportunity for expansion and promised land and wages to farmers willing to travel to Borneo as a way out of the ongoing economic depression. According to memoirs of survivors, the workers’ passports and hanko seals were taken away on departure from Japan, and they were treated like slaves. They grew crops for the British that Japanese companies promised to buy in bulk. Such a crop was abaca that Oji Paper Company used to make paper and cardboard. Later, some of the research I was involved in was directly funded by Oji Paper, so I guess Sadahei and I were colleagues out of time and place.
I carved Sadahei’s piece into the end grain of the wood of the nashi pear, a fruit cultivated in south-east Shizuoka. The block I engraved on is broken, and the breaks coincide with the split between the section representing Japan and Borneo. The image depicts a farmer, face not visible, in a mix of Japanese and western style clothing. In the background is Fujiyama as viewed from Shizuoka Prefecture. Behind the farmer is a Japanese style tea plantation typical of his birthplace, in front of him are the abaca plants he might have been growing in North Borneo. The image is hand printed on Manila paper made of abaca fibre. Digitally superimposed on the image are Ota Sadahei’s name and few personal details as scanned from Australian documents pertaining to Sadahei.
I have visited the Cowra several times, especially to the Japanese Garden. I was taken by my parents as a child, later as an adult, and I have also taken my children there. I will go back again soon to visit Sadahei’s grave in the Japanese Cemetery, also in Cowra.
Artist Bio:
Andras Keszei is a scientist, teacher, and artist. He works on the genetics and ecology of plants and currently lectures in this field at The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. He also dabbles in scientific illustration and printmaking. He was born in Hungary and has spent close to 30 years of his life in Australia.