About "Kyushu-Ha
Yukito Tanaka
Last autumn, while viewing the "Turning Point in Contemporary Art in the 1960s" exhibition
held by the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (also traveling to the National Museumof Modern Art, Kyoto), I felt a strange sense of nostalgia. This is because some of the "antiart," as Neo-Dada art, action art, and conceptual art were called, were being feted in the art
world. "Well, well, well, you're all tucked in like a virgin princess, have you had a sex change
operation?“ I felt a strange feeling of inadequacy. They originally came from a family of "antiartists" known as Scavenger ART, Reclaimed ART, Counterfeit ART, and Packaging Art.
There was also a coterie of ARTs called Offensive Sound ART, Putrid Stench ART, andPornographic ART. Somehow, the sounds, smells, and eroticism probably caused a fart in
the National Gallery of Art. It was not displayed in the center of the hall.
What was the excitement I felt while looking at the exhibition? After seeing the exhibition, I
went outdoors and the reverberations were still there, but soon they disappeared like ghosts
or fireballs into the Tokyo sky. The "Anti-Art" group was allowed to rebel and rebel all theywanted, so they deserved to be punished. They can only survive as ghosts or fireballs among
those who believe in their existence. At that time, the sky over Tokyo looked like a large mirror.
The comedy of "anti-art" played out in the mirror would return to the mirror, where it wouldshine. The audience cannot see the tremendous earnestness of it. There is no need to besad at all.As long as people's histories have been alternately colored, there will be dayswhen they will appear gloriously, even if in a different stage format.
Kyushu-Ha was a group of eccentric wild souls among such "anti-art" tribes. I could only
watch them from afar, so I can't introduce much, but I can say that they were atremendously great group. One of them, Mr. Mokuma Kikuhata, was one of the artists in the"60s Exhibition" and his works such as "Roulette" and "Botanical Picture Book" wereprominently displayed. Since I lived in Kyushu, I think I saw "Kyushu-Ha" a little differently
than people in Tokyo. For example, Artist/Musician Yasunao Tone said the following. “In the1960s, it was a rare group in Japan that sought a theory of organization and movement,
considered expression from the inside of life, and took up the issues of the ideology ofexpression and the independence of artists. However, the movement is so intense, so vast,and so localized in quality that it has yet to be properly evaluated. Kyushu-Ha movement isdynamic, with internal conflicts and a communal life that is filled with political games andartistic supremacy. With the results of the Yomiuri Independents exhibition and the solo andgroup exhibitions in Tokyo, they used their philosophy as a weapon to challenge thepoliticism of local art and tear apart art politics into art and politics.”（Published in Bijutsu
Techo, October 1971）
Kyushu-Ha was disbanded in November 1968 with the "Great Meeting of Heroes".
For the remnants of Kyushu-Ha, Mr. Tone's concluding remarks may be both true andembarrassing. However, I could feel the enthusiasm of the artists as they took expression
from the inside of real life and emphasized above all the idea of painting. It was a brilliant
strategy to attack the prefectural exhibition, which was under the influence of the art
bosses, led by Mr. Takami Sakurai, and to attack the national network of public groupexhibitions, and to hold a series of independent and self-reliant independents. Infighting isa daily occurrence and somewhere along the line they seemed to be overconfident. For
example, if it was a member's wedding, it was a big deal. I don't know who made the toys,or when, or even if they found them at a fair, but there were tin rings with glass balls
attached to them. Every day, the stage was set for an "anti-art" style of living.
The dissolution ceremony, the "Great Meeting of Heroes," was another splendid, bizarre,and mysterious event. It was held at a rented beach house in a cold wind. On that day,
Junnosuke Miyazaki, who is still carving the strange wooden carvings of the play wheels,
spent all day and night digging one sand pit after another. When he finished, all that wasleft was a pile of sand washed away by the waves and the remains of a hole, but this wasten years before Nobuo Sekine's "Phase One Earth" appeared. I was also impressed byguest performer Yoshida Yoshie, who spent all night scrubbing the floorboards of thebeach house. Dressed in full body bandages, Mr. Eisuke Obata plucked the hair of a whitechicken in his arms by candlelight and stripped it naked. Yoriko Cho and Takami Sakurai
pried open a box containing hundreds of eggs and silently handed them to the astonishedaudience, just smiling at them. This is how the whirlwind of "Kyushu-Ha" swept through thecity of Hakata. You can say, "That's all there is to it" about Kyushu-Ha. Many of thescattered artists still stay in Hakata and continue to create something. Mokuma Kikuhata,Osamu Ochi, Yasuyuki Ishibashi, Eisuke Obata, Mitsuko Tabe, Jutaro Yamauchi... Ohyeah, Kenichiro Terada had rectal cancer surgery, but he survived. Mr. Takami Sakurai andMr. Arata Kinoshita live in Paris, while Mr. Masatoshi Katae makes wire mesh works inTokyo. They all seem to be mysterious people who live in isolation and community at thesame time.
The other day, I received an invitation to a strange exhibition. On my way back home, Iwent to Nishi-ku, Fukuoka City, and found out that it was an exhibition to celebrate theestablishment of the ward, organized by Obata, Tabe and others. They built the venue andeverything, and it was an independant exhibition of their own. To my surprise, the mayor ofthe ward rushed to the opening ceremony, and the head of the local fishermen's union
threw out a box full of fish, saying, "I want to congratulate you for creating a temporary
museum. At the venue, hundreds of works by professionals, amateurs, and housewives
were displayed in different ways. The panels for the temporary venue were lent to them forfree by the president of a construction company. These panels are used for pouringconcrete at the company. This kind of exhibition is possible because the aftermath of"Kyushu-Ha" is still alive and kicking somewhere. This would be unthinkable in Tokyo.
How did the giant cogs of art at the turn of the 60s mesh with history? Now, there is atendency to ask again, "What was the art of the 60s in Japan? This seems to be atemptation from the museum side. When I think about it, the essence of the art of the1960s may have been something like Extensive, which has now sunk deep into the artists.
It may be something that can be scooped up with a homosexual approach. The scatteredobjects and bodies may have no choice but to become irretrievable linguistic ghosts.
Tatsuo Takayama, who was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit this year, recalled hismotivation for painting his most favorite work: "When I came out of the exhibition ofJapanese paintings, I thought of the discrepancy with the state of Japan.
Has the museum become a place with a solid antiquity suitable for the celebration ofghosts, or has it grown into a "dream house" that entertains spiritual guests?
(Kojin Tanaka, art journalist)