SUGAMATA Kanichi
Born: 25 July 1886 – Died: 10 March 1942
Particulars:
Kanichi was born in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. Official documents say that he was a ‘planter’ in ‘Modajae Mongondow, Celebes’, in the Dutch East Indies, now Sulawesi, Indonesia when the Pacific War broke out. He was a single man of the Buddhist faith, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 126 pounds, sallow completion, grey hair, brown eyes, and had a small mole between his eyes. He was captured and taken to Australia and interned at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. He was admitted to the hospital in Barmera a couple of months later, and died from dysentery aged 55. His grave is now in the Japanese Cemetery, Cowra in New South Wales, Australia.
–Cheri Hills
More info:
Cheri Hills
Artist/s Statement:
I choose to create this piece for Kanichi because he spent his life tending to the soil, being a planter, and returned to the soil at the end of his life. Offering flowers at Buddhist shrines and altars is a common practise, expressing reverence, gratitude, and the desire to cultivate virtue. In the Buddhist faith, death is not seen as the end but as a transition to the next stage of existence.
Artist Bio:
Cheri Hills is a florist and horticulturalist based in Brisbane, Australia.