Public Art

Just Above Sunset
Volume 5, Number 10
March 11, 2007

The world as seen from Just Above Sunset -

"Notes on how things seem from out here in Hollywood..."

Public Art in Little Tokyo

To the right - Junichiro Hannya, Monument to Sontuko (Kinjiro) Ninomiya, 1983 - a bronze sculpture of the "Peasant Sage of Japan," 1787-1856 (200 South San Pedro Street)

That would be this fellow -

Part farmer, part philosopher and part government administrator, Ninomiya Sontoku (1787-1856) advocated diligence, cooperation, deference to authority and thrift as ways of improving Japan's rural economy at the end of the feudal Tokugawa era. He revitalized agriculture by establishing credit associations to finance roads, aqueducts and housing, and he taught farmers to apply new methods of irrigation and to use better fertilizers. Between 1830 and 1843, Ninomiya and his disciples established the hotoku movement to promote morality, industry and economy.

The government attempted to maintain a rural social structure by encouraging hotoku after the 1905 Russo-Japanese war. During the 1930s, Ninomiya's teachings were reinterpreted as supportive of Japan's aggressive military expansion. Small statues, based on an iconographic portrayal of Ninomiya at about age 14 learning to read while carrying a load of firewood on his back, were placed in elementary schools throughout Japan. Though initially installed as reminders to children of the ideal of combining work with study, these statues became associated with the pre-war period and many were destroyed by the American Occupational forces after World War II. Located in front of the Mitsui Manufacturers Bank, the bronze memorial to Ninomiya (which should be titled Ninomiya Sontuko in recognition of the sage's official name, rather than Kinjiro, which was both his boyhood and his popular name) replicates the design but greatly enlarges the size of the pre-World War II statues. Albert Taira, the Nisei developer of the bank building, proposed the statue to Obayashi, the contractor for the project, to symbolize the Issei's hard work and self-sacrifice when establishing roots in America. Obayashi commissioned the work from a Japanese foundry that in turn hired the artist to increase the size of the monument.

All we came up with over here was Johnny Appleseed.

Below - Towers of Peace, Prosperity and Hope, Michihiro Kosuge, 1989, 319 East 2nd Street

Conventional photo here and background here -

"When I was working on the design for this proposal," Kosuge wrote, "I was thinking about the peace and prosperity experienced by the people of Little Tokyo, as a symbol of all Japanese Americans. In my sculpture, I hope to express and convey this feeling."

Rather than executing individual towers for "peace" "prosperity" and "hope", he created an ensemble of three separate works, united by the title and a similar four-part structure. Three parts quote traditional Japanese motifs; one refers to a modern urban icon. Underneath an origami-style bronze bird capping each work, a 6' bronze section replicates the finial or garan of a Buddhist temple. Below the garan of the two tallest pieces is a thin stepped stainless steel section patterned after the Tower series Kosuge began executing in the late 1980s.

Imitating skyscrapers, which Kosuge described as "towers of power" because of their phallic references, the series was an outgrowth of Kosuge's architectural training in Japan. But unlike his gallery series, which often were painted, the surface of the three towers at the Allright Garage are highly polished. The lowest section of Kosuge's two tallest pieces is patterned after the forms of stone lanterns or toro found in traditional Japanese tea gardens. In the shortest of the three works, however, the toro section is above the tower.

The developer of the project, Allright Garage, invited Kosuge, along with Ruth Asawa, George Tsutakama and Susumu Shingu, to submit proposals for a sculpture that would fit into a base originally constructed for flag poles. Responding to the tight setting and the surrounding visual clutter, Kosuge designed tall works, proportionate to the scale of the site, to be viewed when people enter and leave the garage as well as by people standing on different garage levels.


	Below - Seiji Kunishima, Stonerise, 1984 - Four large black African granite blocks are separated with seven small black Indian granite stones, 120 South San Pedro Street (background here).

Isao Hirai, Monument to Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist on the Challenger, 1990, South Onizuka Street (Weller Plaza) - detail here, but the facts are simple. On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts aboard, and one of them was Ellison S. Onizuka, the first Japanese American astronaut. The year before he had flown on a secret mission aboard the shuttle Discovery. He was always around - and was Grand Marshall of the 1985 Nisei Week Parade.

As for the model - Isao Hirai, president of the Scale Model Company in Hawthorne, was commissioned to execute a model of the Challenger. He proposed a 1/10th scale model of the Challenger to fit the size and scale of the site, and the model for this Onizuka Memorial was constructed from drawings supplied the builder of the shuttles, Rockwell International.




		Next Page - Gardens in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo >>

If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me.

These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.


	[Public Art]


	Last updated Saturday, March 10, 2007, 10:30 pm Pacific Time