400 yen for the General-admission public

Middle school/high school students: 300 yen

200 yen for elementary school students

On Ie Island, which floats in the northwestern part of Okinawa Island, about one-third of the residents lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa, and even after the war, about 60% of the island was taken over as military land due to occupation by the US military, and the suffering of the residents continued. When forced land seizure by the US military called “bayonets and bulldozers” began on Ie Island in 1955 after the Korean War, it was Awane Masako (1901-2002) who led a nonviolent land struggle and then opened the beginning of the “island war” that unfolds in Okinawa. Awane cooperated with the islanders to thoroughly keep records of the US military's atrocities and struggles, and took over 3000 photographs with the only camera on Ie Island. In recent years, it became known that Awane was taking not only the state of land struggles, but also portraits of residents and snaps of their daily lives. These photographs, which were never recorded in the Awa Kan photo book “The Island Where Humans Live” (1982), make me think about what the land struggle of the Awa Ones was a movement to protect. This exhibition presents approximately 350 photographs taken by Awane from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, and aims to ask questions about modern society where land expropriation continues due to war and development.

●Gallery talk
11/22 (Friday) 13:00
Ohara Masashi (curator of this exhibition/Associate Professor, Tokyo Polytechnic University)

●Talk “Photos of Awane and the People of Ie Island”
11/23 (Saturday and holiday) 13:00
Speakers: Higa Toyomitsu (photographer) x Takashina Maki (Assistant Professor, National Museum of Ethnology) x Ohara Masashi

●Talk “Ie Island: Thinking from the Experience Surrounding Stolen Land”
11/30 (Sat) 14:00
Speakers: Ikuo Shinjo (Professor, University of the Ryukyus) x Mitsuaki Ohno (Associate Professor, University of Shiga Prefecture)

●Film Screening & Talk “A Way of Life Called 'Nonviolence': What Can We Learn from Masahou Awane”
12/7 (Sat) 14:00
Speakers: Ohata Yutaka (Wabi Ai no Sato) x Kimishima Haruhiko (Director, Ritsumeikan University Museum of International Peace)


Organizer: Ritsumeikan University Museum of International Peace
Co-organizers: Wabi Ai no Sato Foundation/Treasure of the Island: Awane Masahiro Photo Exhibition Executive Committee
Curated by Masashi Ohara
Cooperation: Awane Masahiro Material Research Group/Tokyo Polytechnic University/Ohara Sawako/Atomic Bomb Map Maruki Art Museum
Sponsors: Okinawa Prefecture Prefecture/Ie Village/Ie Village Board of Education/NHK Okinawa Broadcasting Station/Kyoto Prefecture/Kyoto Prefecture/Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education/Kyoto Municipal Board of Education/Kyoto City Museum Facilities Liaison Council/KBS Kyoto

https://rwp-museum.jp/special/20240926_02/