Another ten years later, Hakata Station had been redesigned. Another ten years later, Hakata
Station had been redesigned. On the night of August 17, 1971, I was welcomed by a groupof old friends, except for Sakurai, who was now in San Francisco, and Obata, who was hiding
out on Nokonoshima Island in Hakata Bay, and Ohguro, Aiko. It was a reunion of sorts, as
we had not seen each other for years.
As far as I know, there have been drastic changes in the past ten years. Two years later, theidea of the "Great Meeting of Heroes" was expanded to a proposal to hold the same event
in New York City, and Sakurai made a bold and dreamy proposal in the October 1963 issue.
Sakurai did not hide his frank belief that he wanted to locate the ignition point of contemporary
avant-garde art in Kyushu, no matter what. In the end, this proposal did not succeed, but at
its core, Sakurai's vision was not only correct, it was ahead of its time. 5 or 6 years later, inNew York and other parts of the U.S., "heroes' rallies" to denounce the state system were
held on a scale that astounded Sakurai. Sakurai's idea turned into the idea of a Kyushu-Ha
exhibition in New York, and then, much later than planned, he followed Osamu Ochi to San
Francisco. In San Francisco, Jun Morinaga, a former member of Kyushu-Ha, also came fromNew York, and together with Osamu Ochi and Muneo Urata, they formed the Kyushu-Ha San
Francisco Commune. In 1966 and 1967, the Kyushu-Ha exhibition was held in a modest way.
Sakurai's idea turned into the idea of a Kyushu-Ha exhibition in New York, and then, muchlater than planned, he followed Osamu Ochi to San Francisco.In San Francisco, JunMorinaga, a former member of Kyushu-Ha, also came from New York, and together withOsamu Ochi and Muneo Urata, they formed the Kyushu-Ha San Francisco Commune.
In 1966 and 1967, the Kyushu-Ha exhibition was held in a modest way.The "San FranciscoBeatnik" eventually gave birth to the hippies, and through the historic Haight-Ashbury rallies,
the tribe was born. Ochi said, "At that time, it was as beautiful as a flower blooming all overthe field, and I really felt that a culture had sprouted anew.
Masatoshi Kou and Arata Kinoshita also went to New York around the same time.
In Japan, Toshio Taniguchi, Kenichiro Terada and others established a commune called
Yakuin Art Village in Yakuin, Fukuoka in the spring of 1968. I In addition, Harutasu Taniguchiof the Nishinippon Shimbun and Fukunichi Shimbun's Fukano Osamu became sponsors ofa coalition of avant-garde art groups in Kyushu, and the "Kyushu Contemporary Art Trend
Exhibition" was born. The group Kumo in Kitakyushu and the group HE in Omuta wereformed out of this movement. These young groups were against the background of thesituation in Sasebo and beyond. In 1969, Kyushu-Ha fought together with Zero-Jigen, Kokuin,

and other groups to destroy the Expo, and in September of the same year they took action
to crush the Asahi Seibu Art Exhibition. Moriyama Yasuhide, a member of <KUMO>, wasarrested on the street last November during a demonstration in Yanagawa against thedisciplinary action against the three teachers at Denshukan Scool and was fined for public
display of obscene materials. Moriyama argued that the arrest and fine were unfair. Articles
174 and 175 of the Penal Code violate the Constitution" and began a courtroom battle. The
trial is currently underway, with Tadashi Odo, Mitsuko Tabe, Osamu Ochi, Toku Yonekura,and Kenichiro Terada all working hard.
From this point of view, the situation of art since Kyushu-Ha is not stagnant at all. At thesame time, their anti-Tokyo image has somehow disappeared, and they share the same
tectonic shaking that connects us all.

Sakurai's former dream of a "great gathering ofheroes" has been buried by the larger and more urgent gathering of heroes of our time. Inthe midst of the tectonic shifts that have engulfed him, does he still hold on to the heroic
dream of the avant-garde of "art"?
We all drifted off to BOBO, a snack bar in Nakasu. It seems that two years ago, Yoshihiro
Kato, Kenji Kanesaka, and Shigeomi Sato, among others, stepped into this place in relation
to the Expo's destruction. On the wall is a poster of Sakurai's self-portrait of a face with longhippie-style hair and beard. This poster is terribly beautiful. It looks like Christ, but it also
looks like Sakurai. St. Sakurai," I muttered. I thought I had pronounced it "Saint Sacrai. As I
got drunk, the gap between us became more and more apparent. Kikuhata, Ochi, Yamauchi,
Miyazaki and I drove to the grand studio of Taniguchi Toshio. He is now running a school
called Seibu Art Academy. Below us, we could see the night view of Hakata Bay, withNokonoshima Island lying in the distance. That's Momochi," said Taniguchi. The image of ayoung man silently digging in the sand and the flames blowing up came and went in my mind.