{"id":144,"date":"2020-12-27T23:16:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T04:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/art574-yixu\/?p=144"},"modified":"2021-01-07T14:30:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:30:13","slug":"object-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/art574-yixu\/2020\/12\/27\/object-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Object #7"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Photograph and Personal Effects of a Kamikaze Commando<\/em>, 1960\u201365, printed 1973<\/span><\/p>\n

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

image: 24.3 x 18.6 cm. (9 9\/16 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

This photograph features a framed portrait of a young man in military uniform and a neatly folded uniform in front of the portrait. From the style of his uniform and the epaulet, it is possible to identity him as an aviator from the Kamikaze<\/em> Special Attack Unit. The way that his portrait is arranged with a folded uniform suggests that the framed photograph is probably a memorial portrait for the deceased soldier. In a succinct, straightforward way, this photograph presents to the viewer a melancholic episode of a person\u2019s life and a nation\u2019s past. Curiously, on top of the upper part of the photograph, there seems to be superimposed layer of a blurred image of a piece of handwriting. In light of other similar photographs of personal objects in the series, this blurred image is most likely a reflection on a glass placed in between the photographed subjects and the photographer\u2013\u2013Kawada probably took this picture behind a glass in a museum-like setting. The presence of this faint yet unignorable reflection calls attention to the physical and temporal gap between the viewer and an inaccessible past that the portrait refers to. In the photobook The Map<\/em>, this photograph is grouped with other photographs that document similar personal objects left from the wartime\u2013\u2013portraits, military manuals, personal writings including notes of last will (Fig. 7-1). Like the framed portrait of the Kamikaze<\/em> pilot, most of these personal items were photographed behind a glass in a public, museum-like setting.<\/span><\/p>\n