79 years since the tragedy. It is a book of my family.
Fumio Tachibana

More than 100 volumes containing the names of those who died in the atomic bombing are kept in the basement of the cenotaph in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Every year, all the volumes are taken out from the basement for a "ventilation" ceremony, and the names of new victims who died that year are added by hand writing. In 2024, 4100 new names were added to the book.

Tachibana's father was a bookbinder who was in charge of some of these "registers." After his father retired bookbindery, which was located in Hiroshima City until a few years ago, artist Fumio Tachibana took photographs of Hiroshima and Tokyo, and his brother, director and sculptor Hidehisa Tachibana, wrote the novel "Dear Diary," and this book was born. As the handwritten words on the cover say, "It is a book of my family," this is a book in which the Tachibana family confronted Hiroshima.

The title "Sanka" is a two-character compound word that is very typical of Tachibana-san, and he has previously rediscovered combinations of two kanji characters, such as "Kyutai" (sphere), "Inshou" (impression), and "Kikai" (opportunity), with his unique editorial sense. The title of the catalogue "Yoin (sphere 12)," which looked back on the "Impression" exhibition held at the Mito Art Tower, was also a good one.

This book is based on the limited private edition of 350 copies of "Sanka" (published in 2020), bound and published by Fumio Tachibana himself, and has been newly republished as a fully translated Japanese-English bilingual edition.

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<Exhibition Information>

Fumiho Tachibana Exhibition "Umbrellas and Ghosts"
August 6th (Tue) - 18th (Sun) 
Location: Morioka Shoten

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Fumio Tachibana

Born in Hiroshima in 1968. Artist. His works are mainly made up of text, paper, prints and books as materials and themes. While he produces unique books and printed matter such as the magazine "Kyutai," he also holds exhibitions at museums and galleries as an artist. His latest photo collection is "Sanka." He is participating in the "Sagacho Exhibit Space 1983-2000" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma until December 13, 2020.