79 years have passed since that tragedy.
My family's book story.

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, the volumes are taken out from the basement for a "ventilation" ceremony, and the names of new victims who died that year are added, before being returned to the library on August 6th. In 2024, 4,100 new names will be added to the book.

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

By the way, "Kasashita" 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), "impression" (impression), and "kikaku" (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. It seems that Yuta Orisaka may have noticed this sense recently.

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


Text by Osamu Kushida

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<Exhibition Information>

Fumiho Tachibana Exhibition "Umbrellas and Ghosts"
August 6th (Tue) - 18th (Sun) *Closed on Monday, August 12th
Location: Morioka Shoten

The photo book "Under the Umbrella: Tachibana Fumio," released in 2020, will be republished in a new edition (with English translation) by BON BOOK in August of this year. At the same time, I have bound and produced a book on the theme of Hiroshima, "Ghost: Tachibana Fumio," following on from "Font" and "Under the Umbrella."The newly reborn "Under the Umbrella" and the newly reborn "Ghost" will be unveiled at Morioka Bookstore.

Fumio Tachibana

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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 "Kasashita." He is participating in the "Sagacho Exhibit Space 1983-2000" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma until December 13, 2020.