ONLINE TALK: Miyuki Okuyama in conversation with Jonathan Watkins
The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is pleased to present Miyuki Okuyama’s first UK solo exhibition, Japan, outside Japan. The show will feature Okuyama’s two recent works, Dear Japanese: Children of War (2012-17) and Michinoku Homeward: Walking towards the Northeast (2021).
Dear Japanese: Children of War (2012-17) is a documentary made from her personal point of view as a Japanese individual living in the Netherlands, portraying the children of Japanese soldiers and Dutch-Indonesian women, born during the Pacific War in Indonesia, now living in the Netherlands. In the portraits, the models look straight into our eyes, as if beyond the lens. Their gaze challenges us to see them as they really are. A Dutch/Indo viewer might notice the dissimilarity of appearance to him or herself, while a Japanese viewer might find a striking resemblance. Similarly, the ordinary Dutch landscapes might be very strange in the eyes of the photographer and those photographed. This is a subjective archive of compatriots abroad, sharing with them the complexity of having pride in being Japanese, coupled with feelings of alienation and guilt.
Michinoku Homeward: Walking towards the Northeast (2021) is a very personal documentary about Michinoku, Okuyama’s home region in north-eastern Japan. Michinoku is the ancient name for the area, first appearing in a 7th century chronicle, and means “the end of the road”. 2011 was an unforgettable year of disasters there, including a catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, causing more than 22,000 deaths. Okuyama was devastated by her powerlessness as a native of the region living abroad. Ten years later, in 2021, she walked 400km following the Edo period “Kaidо̄” route – officially created at the beginning of the 17th century – from the zero mile point in Tokyo to her home town of Yamagata. Michinoku Homeward is a photo documentary of this trip, combining journalistic topicality and the poetic feelings that occurred to her along the way, capturing her way home with an awareness that it might disappear.
Free
Opening hours
Mon - Friday: 9.30 am - 5pm
Location:
13/14 Cornwall Terrace,
London NW1 4QP
Text and pictures, copyright The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the artist