YAMASHITA Satsuki
Born: About 1937 – Died: 2 August 1943
Particulars:
Satsuki was born about 1937 in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, where her parents had settled 10 years earlier, fishing and running a store. Her older sister Nanae and younger brother Susumu were also born in Nuku’alofa.
When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, Satsuki’s father Kinzo was separated from the family and interned on Matiu / Somes Island in Wellington Harbour, Aotearoa / New Zealand. Satsuki was taken with her mother and siblings to live near Auckland with the wives and children of other internees. The family was reunited to be sent on a flight to Australia in 1943. That flight crashed flying out of Auckland. Satsuki and her mother died in the plane crash. Satsuki was 5 years old.
– Sophie Constable
More info:
- Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand (Reference: R23437994)
- Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand (Reference: 23438011)
Ebonie Laufilitoga Maka Fifita with Aniselina Nishi, Nuki Beazley, Jenni Heka, Peti Taufa, Vitolio Laufilitoga Maka & friends, Mayuko Uene Haruna, Sophie Constable and Mayu Kanamori
Artist/s Statement:
Reflecting their three main homes, the Yamashita family’s works join Tongan, Fijian, and Japanese pigments, dyes, cloth, and designs. On layers of paper mulberry bark pounded together to form ngatu cloth, Tongan and Fijian earth pigments catch the kupesi designs, highlighted with overlaid dyes from the bark of red mangrove and other medicinal plants also used to honour all layers of life and transitions to and from it. The interlocking circles create a pattern familiar in Pasifika as well as Japan, and the manulua (two birds / birds in flight) design became common vocabulary in all the works. This grounding has been digitally combined with an overlay of katagami stencil patterns on indigo-dyed kimono silk.
Satsuki’s artwork layers a mat-like design in earth pigments over the manulua grid and is marked in three sections to honour her two siblings who were sent to Japan after their father’s death. Mats in Tongan vocabulary reference home and family, the importance of conversation and wisdom sharing, respect and journeys, sails, and gathering spaces. Satsuki’s work also incorporates her parents’ patterns and features an interlocking circle pattern known as shippo in Japanese, which symbolises the treasured value of relationships and connections between people, as well as never-ending peace.
Artist Bio:
Nurtured by fele artist Ebonie Laufilitoga Maka Fifita in her home, the Yamashita family works are a collaboration between many hands and hearts that have informed and contributed, including Aniselina Nishi, Nuki Beazley, Jenni Heka, Peti Taufa, Vitolio Laufilitoga Maka and friends, Mayuko Uene Haruna, Sophie Constable, and Mayu Kanamori.