{"id":142,"date":"2020-12-27T23:12:01","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T04:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/art574-yixu\/?p=142"},"modified":"2021-01-07T14:37:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:37:45","slug":"object-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/art574-yixu\/2020\/12\/27\/object-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Object #6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kawada Kikuji \u5ddd\u7530\u559c\u4e45\u6cbb (b. 1933)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ruin of a Stronghold, Atomic Bomb Memorial Dome<\/em>, 1960-65, printed 1973<\/span><\/p>\n

Gelatin silver print<\/span><\/p>\n

image: 24.2 x 18.6 cm (9 1\/2 x 7 5\/16 in.)<\/span><\/p>\n

sheet: 37.9 x 30.3 cm (14 15\/16 x 11 15\/16 in.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Robert Gambee, Class of 1964<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Kikuji Kawada<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In this photograph, Kawada captures the ruins of a desolate stronghold as a monumental relic of the wartime. The low angle from which Kawada took the photograph and the almost symmetrical placement of the anti-aircraft gun position in the picture highlights the monumentality of the stronghold. The sharp contrast and grainy quality of the photograph accentuate the texture of the decayed exterior surface of the stronghold, which denotes the rupture between the time of the military structure\u2019s active service and the early 1960s when Kawada captured it. The \u201cstains\u201d on the wall surface, referred to as shimi<\/em> by Kawada in Japanese, remain an important motif in the series of The Map<\/em> that embodies the enduring stains that the war left in Japan\u2019s postwar identity.[1]<\/a> At the same time, the way that the deserted stronghold fills almost the entire photograph also detaches the structure from its surrounding environment, thus uncoupling it from any specific social and historical moment. This photographic style resonates with that of other photographs in The Map<\/em> that record the ruins of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, often known as the A-Bomb Dome. The A-Bomb Dome is one of few surviving architectural structures near the hypocenter of the bomb\u2019s blast and a central landmark of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park constructed from 1950 through 1964. The stylistic uniformity between the photographs of the A-Bomb Dome and that of the stronghold visually equate the status of the desolate fortification with that of a historical monument that memorializes the traumatic history of war in postwar Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n