TAIJI Sadatoshi
太地貞利
Born: 3 May 1916 – Died: 1943
Particulars:
Sadatoshi was born in Japan in 1916. He left his parents and brother and travelled to Aotearoa / New Zealand aged 18 to work as a clerk for the trading company Banno Bros in Auckland. He also worked for the firm in Fiji for 18 months and was sent to Australia, coming back to Auckland in between each trip. He was arrested in Tonga in December 1941 and sent to Aotearoa / New Zealand to be interned on Mātiu / Somes Island in Wellington Harbour. He died of tuberculosis in late 1943, aged 27.
–Sophie Constable
More info:
Grace Gassin
Artist/s Statement:
When he died, Sadatoshi left behind just a few belongings, among them a small purse, pencil case, and wallet. These items were to be sent back to his father Santaro, in Japan. Santaro, who had been actively seeking information about his son via the International Red Cross, is hopefully reunited now with Sadatoshi in the afterlife.
In this work, I prepare to reunite Sadatoshi with his last belongings. Inspired by spiritual practices observed in some Chinese and Japanese communities, I have created paper representations of the objects to be burned so that their ashes may reach him. Crocheting the items allowed me to spend more time with Sadatoshi’s story, and honour him through my time and labour. The crocheted objects are placed beside plants that give a sense of place – Aotearoa / New Zealand where he died. I tried to evoke a sense of the hiddenness and distance, both geographical and temporal, of his story and many other histories within Aotearoa.
Paper threads through these works just as it does through Sadatoshi’s life and memory. As a clerk, Sadatoshi sent numerous letters and telegrams throughout New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and Japan. The surviving documents he wrote, and those written about him, now serve as a link across time for those of us who wish to remember him in the present.
Artist Bio:
Grace Gassin (Lîm Sò͘-chin 林素真) is a history curator and researcher based in Aotearoa / New Zealand. Much of her work focuses on highlighting the diverse historical and contemporary experiences of Australia and Aotearoa’s many Asian diaspora communities.