Yasukichi Murakami no Sekai Exhibition in Osaka

Tuesday, December 12, 2023 – Sunday, January 21, 2024

10:30―17:00 (Closed Mondays and Public Holidays)

Admission: Free

Venue: Osaka University Nakanoshima Center 4F Exhibition Room

More Info: https://murakami.mayu.com.au/

Despite his success as a photographer, businessman, and inventor, Murakami was interned as an enemy alien at the outbreak of the Pacific War and died in an internment camp. The exhibition Yasukichi Murakami no Sekai-ten (The World of Murakami Yasukichi Exhibition) brings back his friendships, worldly possessions, and inventor patents that the war robbed from Murakami, along with fragments of the photographs he took throughout his life, to revive once forgotten dreams and love.

Yasukichi Murakami Through A Distant Lens and Seminar in Osaka

Japanese language production of Yasukichi Murakami -Through A Distant Lens will be presented in Osaka.

Despite his success as a photographer, businessman and an inventor in Northern Australia, Murakami Yasukichi was interned as an enemy alien during the Pacific War because he was a Japanese national. His application for naturalisation in previous years had been denied due to the White Australia Policy. He died in the internment camp. His work has remained largely unknown, but is now gradually being uncovered by Japanese Australian photographer Kanamori Mayu. Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens is a play about Kanamori experiences while exploring Murakami’s footprints. Kanamori herself is a character in the play, meeting Murakami, talking with him, and discussing friendships, family, love, war, and photography.

Dates:

19 January 2024 (Fri) 7pm   *   20 January 2024 (Sat) 2pm (Seminar afterwards)  *   21 January 2024 (Sun) 2pm

Venue: Osaka University Nakanoshima Centre Level 3 Studio

Bookings: https://forms.office.com/r/T2bJyE3rP2

More info (in Japanese): https://murakami.mayu.com.au/

Writer: Kanamori Mayu

Translater: Sawada Keiji

Director: Yamaguchi Hiroaki

Actors: Cho ChongHyung, Sakaguchi Shuichi, and Sugie Mio

Lighting Designers: Watarikawa Tomohiko and Imura Nami

Rehearsal Director: Yamanaka Shuichi

With: MAIMU Pro and 8.22 Kikaku

Sound Designer: Narushima Terumi

Designer: Muraoka Chie

Producers: Nagata Yasushi and Kastylianchanka, Iryna

Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens Japanese Reading & Symposium

Event Dates:

24 June 2022 (Fri)  2:45pm (JST)

25 June 2022 (Sat) 1pm (JST) – There will be a Symposium after the Reading

*Doors open 30 mins prior

Location:

Waseda University Ono Memorial Auditorium for Waseda University Students and Staff

Online for all other audiences (free online event). Bookings taken here from 1 June 2022 

Creative Team

Written by:  Mayu Kanamori

Translation by:  Keiji Sawada

Directed by: Kae Sugata

Performed by: Keito Shiina, Takafumi Hanada, Hanae Ozawa

Sound Design by: Terumi Narushima

Lighting Design by: Masumi Sakurai (Tokyo Butai ShowMei)

Marketing Design by: Chie Muraoka

Documentation & Streaming: Taro Koyama

Photographs by: Yasukichi Murakami Courtesy, Murakami Family Archives

Symposium Panelists:

Mayu Kanamori, Terumi Narushima, Kuni Hashimoto, Kae Sugata, Keiji Sawada, Keito Shiina, Takafumi Hanada, Hanae Ozawa

Supported by: The Australian Embassy, Tokyo

Keiji Sawada

Professor at Waseda University and winner of the 10th Yoshiko Yuasa Award for Theatre Translations. He is the author of 『オーストラリア先住民とパフォーマンス』(“Australian Indigenous People and Performance”, Tokyo University Press)『現代演劇と文化の混淆』(“Contemporary Theatre and Cultural Hybridity”, Waseda University Press). His translation work include the 『オーストラリア演劇叢書』(“Australian Drama Series” ①～⑭ ,Oceania Press), and more recently, 『ミス・タナカ』 (“Miss Tanaka”, Edo Ito Ayatsuri Ningyo: Youkiza), 『エブリマンとポールダンサーたち』(“Everyman & the Pole Dancers”, Shinjuku Ryozanpaku), 『ジャック・チャールズ vs 王冠』/ “Jack Charles V The Crown ” (Subtitle /Fuji no Kuni ? World Theatre Festival Shizuoka), 『ジャスパー・ジョーンズ』(“Jasper Jones” , Theatre Office Natori) , 『フューリアス～猛り狂う風～』(“Furious”), 『女と男とシェイクスピア』(“Dead White Males”), and 『面と向かって』(“Face to Face”) (Haiyuza), 『聖なる日』(“Holy Day” ) and 『リムーバリスト-  引っ越し屋 – 』(“The Removalists *)  (Gekidan Haisho) and other works.

Kae Sugata

Born in Yokohama, graduated from the Department of English Literature, Faculty of Literature, Japan Women’s University. After directing 『マンザナ、わが町』 (Written by Hisashi Inoue; “Manzanar: Our Town”), she joined the Haiyuza Theatre Company’s Theatre Research Institute, and has since directed Australian plays, such as  『ハサミ、紙、石（じゃんけんぽん）』 (written by Daniel Keene, “Scissors, Paper, Rock”; translated by Keiji Sawada) as part of Haiyuza’s Bungei Direction Department’s newcomer presentation, and the Haiyuza Lab Performance of 『フューリアス～猛り狂う風～』(written by Michael Gow, “Furious”; translated by Keiji Sawada). She has also directed 『象』(written by Minoru Betsuyaku; “The Elephant”) at the Minoru Betsuyaku Festival as well as devised and directed Haiyuza Theatre Company’s reading of 『戦争とは…』(“Senso to Wa…. “). She is currently working with Haiyuza Theatre Company’s Department of Bungei (Arts and Literature) Direction.

Mayu Kanamori

Sydney based storyteller working across mediums including theatre, performance, photography, video, installation, heritage interpretation, writing, and documentary making. Her performance works include “The Heart of the Journey”, “CHIKA: A Documentary Performance”, “Yasukichi Murakami: Through a Distant Lens” and “You’ve Mistaken Me For A Butterfly”. Her photographic exhibitions include “Unseen Faces of Japan”, “Sugao no Australia” and “Teiju to wa Nandaro: Australia”. As a heritage interpreter, she has created the audio for Nyamba Buru Yawuru’s multi award winning “Jetty to Jetty Heritage Trail” and “Lustre: Pearling & Australia” with the WA Museum. Other works include “Cowra Voices” in Cowra, NSW and “In Repose”, in Broome, Townsville and on Thursday Island. As a radio producer , she has received a commendation for United Nations Association of Victoria Media Peace Award Promotion of Multicultural Issues, Broome  NAIDOC Non Indigenous Reconciliation Award and has been a finalist for Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is a board member of The Koto Music Institute of Australia and a member of Nikkei Australia.

Play reading in Tokyo

Couple of years ago the script for Yasukichi Murakami: Through A Distant Lens was translated into Japanese by Professor Keiji Sawada, and since, it has been used as part of his curriculum at Waseda University. Now there are plans to conduct a reading with professional actors at the University.

Watch this space for further information.

Kunihiko Hashimoto and Arisa Yura during creative development of Murakami. Photo by Miho Watanabe

Photographs to the WA State Library

The first instalment of photographs taken by Yasukichi Murakami found during the research phase of this project was donated to the State Library of Western Australia to be archived. Many more to go, but here is a start.

You can find them 54 images here: State Library of WA Yasukichi Murakami.

BA2754/7: Japanese Cemetery in Cossack. Left to right -Jinzo Maruyama; unknown girl; Jiro Muramatsu; Kathleen Masuko Murakami; Theresa Shigeno Murakami; Richard Jyukichi Murakami (baby); Francis Yasunosuke Murakami (boy) and Mr Seto (first name unknown)

Yasukichi Murakami Life Story

Yasukichi Murakami （１８８０−１９４４）Life Story：Through the photographs sent to his mother at home, an exhibition curated by Professor Mutsumi Tsuda (Photographer / Professor, Seian University of Art and Design) at the Wakayama University’s Institute of Kishu Economic and Cultural History Library was an important milestone in the history of Japanese migration to Australia. The exhibition showcased many original prints from the Yasuko Murakami – Minami Collection, which are Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs from Australia, which he had sent to his mother in Japan.

In 1970 when his daughter Yasuko Pearl Minami Murakami moved to Tanami, Yasukichi’s hometown in Wakayama Prefecture, she gathered these photographs, which were scattered amongst their extended family, and secured them in her care until this day. This exhibition is the first time Murakami’s photographs were exhibited in Japan.

Front: Yasukichi Murakami Life Story, exhibiton curated by Mutsumi Tsuda

Back: Yasukichi Murakami Life Story, exhibiton curated by Mutsumi Tsuda

Along with the photographs were other highly personal exhibits including Murakami’s children’s school records, letters he had written to his mother and a moving art video filmed by Tsuda of Murakami’s son, Joseph Kisaburo Murakami looking at his father’s photographs, reflecting, and speaking to Tsuda, and in effect, to himself and the viewers of the video.

The opening of the exhibition was  in conjunction with the 2016 Australian Studies Association Conference held at the Wakayama University. Murakami was born in Tanami, Wakayama Prefecture. Included in the program was a seminar by Dr Yuriko Nagata from University of Queensland about Yasukichi Murakami and other Nikkei Australians.

Joseph Kisaburo Murakami on video by Mutsumi Tsuda, Julie Murakami (left) and Ruruka (Reiko) Minami (right) at the exhibition opening. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visitors at Yasukichi Murakami Life Story, exhibition curated by Mutsumi Tsuda. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Yasukichi Murakami Life Story, exhibits. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Yasukichi Murakami Life Story, exhibits. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

(Left to Right) Ruruka (Reiko) Minami, Julie Murakami and Mutsumi Tsuda. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Seminar by Dr Yuriko Nagata. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

(Left to Right) Ruruka (Reiko) Minami, Julie Murakami, Mutsumi Tsuda, and Mayu Kanamori next to a portrait of Yasukichi Murakami at the Yasukichi Murakami Life Story. Photo by Simon Wearne.

Returning to Sydney

RIVERSIDE THEATRES PRESENTS
A PERFORMANCE 4A PRODUCTION

YASUKICHI MURAKAMI –  THROUGH A DISTANT LENS                              by Mayu Kanamori

16 March – 19 March 2016

Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres

Corner Church and Market Streets
Parramatta NSW

Arisa Yura in Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

This is a forgotten story of the Japanese in Australia.

“We take so many photographs. How do we know which ones are important? Which ones matter?”

Inspired by the true story of Yasukichi Murakami, a Japanese-Australian photographer, entrepreneur and inventor who was a remarkable character in northern Australia in the early 1900s, this multi-disciplinary work is a contemporary framing of Murakami’s life through the lens of modern day Japanese-Australian theatre maker Mayu Kanamori.

Along the way she uncovers a fascinating story of unlikely friendships, thwarted ambition and love. The play stirs our collective amnesia about the history of the Japanese in Australia.

Yasukichi Murakami: Through a Distant Lens is a meditation on love, immortality, and in a digital age where cameras proliferate, the nature of photography. Combining live action with photographic projections, video, original music and soundscape, it is an immersive and poetic production, which adds significantly to the slim volume of Japanese Australian work for the stage.

This production will be accompanied by a photo exhibition in the foyer.

“A compelling and always absorbing work. Highly recommended.”– Stage Noise

Dates & Times:
Wednesday 16 March 7:30pm
Thursday 17 March 12pm (Plus Q&A) & 7:30pm
Friday 18 March 7:30pm
Saturday 19 March 2:15pm & 7:30pm

Tickets and bookings: https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/through-a-distant-lens/

Writer/ Original Concept
Mayu Kanamori

Director
Malcolm Blaylock

Dramaturge
Jane Bodie

Composer/ Sound Designer/ Musician
Terumi Narushima

Visual Design
Mic Gruchy

Lighting Design
Benjamin Brockman

Producer
Annette Shun Wah, Performance 4a

With
Arisa Yura
Kuni Hashimoto
Yumi Umiumare (on video)

 

Art, Advocacy, & Accountability

Recently I was given the opportunity to speak at the 5th Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN) conference “mobilities” (26-27 Nov 2015) at the Immigration Museum, Melbourne as part of a panel entitled “Creative politics, political creations”. Chaired by fellow artist Asian Australian artist  Owen Leong.

The talk was about ethics and social responsibilities of an artist, using examples from my theatre work Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens. I would like to share it with you:

“When you have art, you have a voice. When you have a voice, you have freedom. When you have freedom, you have responsibility.” 

This quote by Indigenous artist, activist and leader Richard Frankland is what inspires my talk today. Using examples from my recent work, Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens, I will discuss some of the issues that an artist may face in regards to our social responsibilities.

Here are some areas of my ethical concerns of late.

Identity, diaspora, imagined borders

1. Story-telling and its limitations
2. Historical or factual accuracies and theatrical licences
3. Archiving and documentation
4. Audience, stakeholders and authenticity
5. Publicity, media and advocacy

I will go through each one of them.

1. Identity, diaspora and imagined borders

I am a migrant artist. I was born in Japan and I’ve been telling stories about Japanese diaspora in Australia for some time. I can’t help but to wonder about the ethics of this.

Are we now not transnational / transcultural / trans everything, transcending those imaginary borders nations, heritage or ethnicity? I know it is my condition that I am of Japanese heritage, but do I need to keep making art about this? My ethics tells me to be inclusive of all people and not to draw borders between you and I, us and the other. To rise above those boundaries that keeps us separate.

Yes, my art is political…. But I actually believe that political leaders shouldn’t be divisive.

How I address this particular question is to believe  – this is a belief – that I am being of service to communities; to perhaps vainly believe that I am making some sort of a contribution. Firstly to the Japanese diasporic community by giving a voice, then to the wider Asian Australian community to speak as loudly as I can. And then contributing to a even the wider community; to tell a part of little known Australian story for all. And then finally, telling the kind of story that would unite humanity in resonance instead of that which would divide us.

For those who don’t know my recent work Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens, it’s a story about a contemporary Japanese Australian photographer, Mayu, a character based on me, searching for the lost photographs of a historical Japanese Australian photographer, Yasukichi Murakami. It combines narration, documentary photographs and interviews, live music, dramatic action with actors and scripted dialogue between Mayu, Murakami’s ghost and ghost of Murakami’s first wife Eki Nishioka, who taught Murakami how to take photographs.

Murakami is not a fictional character. We know that he came to Australia in 1897, lived in Broome, then in Darwin as a photographer, inventor and entrepreneur. When WWII started, he was interned as an enemy alien, and died in the camp. And because of that, his life time worth of photographs have gone missing.

Before I made Murakami, I worried about telling stories about the war. Actually, I worried even more about not telling stories about the war. Since the year 2000, I had created several performance works to do with the Japanese diaspora in Australia… and so, then, I ask myself…. how could I keep avoiding telling stories about WWII?

When it comes to things Japanese… WWII is a major subject. A subject that cannot be ignored.

It isn’t easy for someone of Japanese diaspora, especially today with the current Japanese government and their ideas on the past  – conservative, divisive and alarming.

Making Murakami was a social responsibility I had to taken on. To be of service to the world I live in, I had to engage with the war without making heroes out of soldiers. Murakami was a civilian, like you and I – his life in the hands of people who wish divide us.

2. Story-telling and its limitations

I call myself a story-teller…. yet I’m increasingly suspicious of story-telling.

Story-telling has become a major force in our times. You go see a counsellor or read a self-help book or a blog on how to become happy or to be rich or whatever. They all tell you to write your story or rewrite your story. That story-telling is one the main ingredients for positive transformations to occur in our lives. Even the corporate sector now talks of story-telling through its content on social media as the key to successful brand loyalties.

But there is also problem with story-telling. Because although often stories carry moral and ethical codes that appear universal, often they also carry messages that can and should be questioned. Sometimes it carries out-dated and out-moded narratives.

As a woman of Japanese heritage… the story of Madama Butterfly for an example.

And in reality, not everything fits into the format of hero rescues damsel in distress or rags to riches. There is something wrong about trying to fit truth with a capital T into a story format, acceptable and accessible to all.

Having said that, Murakami’s story is a typical quest. Like Homer’s Odyssey, Mayu goes on a search for Murakami’s photographs, meets up with a mentor – the ghost of Murakami and Eki, encounters mysteries and struggles, then returns from her journey having found some of Murakami’s lost photographs, and in the process, learns some valuable life lessons.

All neatly fits into a quest format. But I worry about the ethics of this.

On her quest to find Murakami’s photographs, she found some in Japan.  They were Murakami’s family photographs he had sent to his mother in Japan during his lifetime in Australia.

Thus one of the lessons that Mayu learns from her quest is the importance of family and that family photographs are a key to immortality of his photographs. Family photographs – its heart warming lesson….

But, well, nothing in reality is so clean cut.

What I left out in the play is that Murakami’s most important photographs –  important to him – were not his family photographs, but a set of photographs he took whilst conducting experiments for his ground breaking diving suit design.

He actually had the foresight to take a photo album of his diving suit experiments with him to the internment camp. After the war, one of the family members kept the album, but was lost in Darwin in the 1970’s. Some say it was the cyclone, others tell me that it was lent to a researcher – a some what well known person in Darwin – who I won’t mention the name –never returned it to the family.

But this didn’t fit into our one hour story.

This brings me to my next point of discussion:

3. Historical or factual accuracies and theatrical licences

I worried a lot about not including what happened to Murakami’s diving suit album in the play . To me it felt unethical.

But then again, its been like this all along – from the beginning – I wrote in the script that Murakami and his family moved to Darwin circa 1935. But of course by the time we had creative development workshops everyone told me that I can’t use the word circa in a script … So in the play, Murakami’s ghost tells the audience, “… in 1935, we all moved to Darwin!”

Who cares about facts… really, I’ve got a ghost in the play!! But I worry about my social responsibility.

So… I actually saw a channeller…. To me…. It somehow felt more ethical to hear Murakami speak through a channeller than to put words in a dead man’s mouth.

So I guess it makes my feel better that I’m telling you all this today. And I’m hoping to put today’s talk up on my About Murakami process blog so its all on record.

Which brings me to my next point of discussion:

4. Archiving and documentation

My process blog is where I write things that get sieved out of the actual artwork outcome. It includes process videos, photos and written thoughts during the entire process of the project. It also includes a full bibliography for future researchers.

I am also now preparing captions for the 200 or so photographs I found for archiving by the State Library of WA. If I don’t do this, Murakami’s photographs will be lost again.

My sense of social responsibility says I’ve got to do these things in service and contribution for the good of wider communities.

5. Audience, stakeholders and authenticity

Social responsibility includes the audience. This means certain decisions need to be made which takes the audience into consideration… whether it be entertaining or inspiring or educational, I feel that audience needs to get something out of my show.

I also think that my creative collaborators need to get something out of it. As well as the Murakami Family – the descendants need to get something out of my arts practice.

So I think about what this something may be – but of course, it means for different things for different people.

The result is that best I keep good for all in mind, and that means that as long as universal values – what I believe are universal – of that which is to be human being are strong and constant enough – then the specifics should takes care of itself. And that means universals values throughout – not just in the art work itself, but in the process of creation and all other work I do, creative or other wise, that pertains to this project – and not just this project – but to live authentically in all that I do.

I know this sounds all airy fairy and unrealistic – nor am I perfect. And when conflicts arise, which inevitably it always does at some point, the only way to be is to refocus on higher ground, then let go.

6. Publicity, media and advocacy

As artists we have a chance to talk to the wider world with help of media, traditional or through social media. Although often the immediate reason behind this is to publicise a show, I see it as a chance express higher thoughts and ways of being for the betterment of the whole.

To advocate being in service for humanity.

I’m just an independent artist. I’m not even a scholar…. But with my tiny tiny tiny being as an artist, I’m going to be the political leader – starting with my constituency, then extending wider – I am going to be the political leader I want all our politicians to be.

Thank you!

Mayu Kanamori Nov, 2015

More info: mobilities conference: https://aai5conference.wordpress.com/

More info: AASRN https://aasrn.wordpress.com/

 

The Moon and the Lustre

The day before the full moon lunar eclipse in September 2015, Melissa Murakami and I visited the Maritime Museum in Fremantle to see the Lustre exhibition. Melissa’s great great grandfather Yasukichi Murakami lived in Broome during the hey-day of the Australian pearl shell industry, and had made a quiet, yet significant contributions to the industry. Quiet, because until this exhibition, the stories of Australian pearling had not been told through the vision of curator Sarah Yu and her team Bart Pigram and Maya Shioji at Nyamba Buru Yawuru with the WA Museum team who had included individual narratives of lessor known black and yellow fellas who were part of the Australian pearling community.

Melissa Murakami and projected self-portrait of Yasukichi Murakami at the Lustre: Pearling & Australia exhibition. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Murakami and his business partner Captain A.C. Gregory started Australia’s first cultured pearl farm, although the authorities had closed it down because of the local fear of ruining the natural pearl market, which in effect had set Australia’s cultured pearl industry back by 30 years. Murakami had invented a safer diving suit, which was the forerunner for the modern-day scuba gear, and although he had patented his design, its renewal fell due whilst he was interned as an enemy alien during WWII, allowing a French inventor to patent one of a very similar design. Significant contributions dwarfed by the course of history, and the way what stories are told by whom.

I had created short audio stories for this exhibition by using oral history interviews of people who were part of the cultured pearling industry for this exhibition. They included not only pearling masters and Japanese pearl divers, but lesser known stories of Indigenous pearl shell carvers, deck hands, boat builders, and shell graders, among many others.

Although my involvement had been small compared to all the work that had gone into preparing the exhibition, being in constant communication with Sarah Yu, who had put me up in her home whilst I was researching Yasukichi Murakami’s story for Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens, gave me the opportunity to contribute some of Murakami’s story and photographs found in Tanami and Darwin for the exhibition

From the exhibition Lustre: Pearling & Australia. The photograph displayed of the boy on the left centre was taken by Yasukichi Murakami of his son Francis Yasunosuke Murakami at the Japanese Cemetery in Cossack. The x marking on the photo indicated the grave of Chiyo Araki, mother of Theresa Shigeno Murakami. The video display on the right was part of project In Repose by Wakako Asano, Satsuki Odamura, Vic McEwan and Mayu Kanamori.
Photo by Mayu Kanamori

I darted around the exhibition looking for images and stories pertaining to Murakami, making sure we did not miss any of them, pointing them out to Melissa with excitement, as if they were my own photographs on display. Melissa’s partner found the copy of a certificate exempting Murakami from a dictation test, issued by the Commonwealth of Australia as part of the Immigration Act 1901-1920. Displayed in one of the glass cabinets, the second page of the certificate was of his left palm, stamped by the customs and excise office in 1925.

There is something powerful about a hand print of someone who had once lived. Its proof of having-once-lived-ness enters our awareness vividly in rawness; much more so than a photograph of the deceased, perhaps because of our digital age and the proliferation of photographs.

Melissa studied the lines on her ancestor’s palm, then her own in comparison. It is often said in palmistry that the left hand shows traits a person was born with, and the right hand, the kind of a person they had become; and perhaps because of this, she found the shape of his palm and the lines similar to her own. She later told me of feeling a strong connection with this particular exhibit, as if “the only separation between was an ink pad, and not time.”

Melissa Murakami comparing her left palm to that of her ancestor Yasukichi Murakami. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Before we left the museum, we took photos of each other, separately and together in groups at the entrance of the exhibition. Seen from the entrance was a screen hoisted from the ceiling, its shape round, probably because it emulated the shape of a pearl. Black and white images of people who worked in the Australian pearling industry were projected on to the screen, one by one. When it was Melissa’s turn to be photographed on her own, one of Murakami’s self portraits taken at Captain Gregory’s home appeared on the screen.

That afternoon on my way back to Perth, I saw a daytime super moon, full, just above the horizon in the clear blue sky, perfectly round like a cultured pearl. Was it my own little ego that made me see Yasukichi Murakami sitting in Gregory’s cane chair, on the moon, acknowledging my small contribution for his descendants and wider world to recognise his? Perhaps it was time to return to humility, and remember that as people, we all have a part to play, a small but significant purpose to fulfil as part of the whole.

Lustre: Australian Pearling will be on at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle from 20 June to 25 Oct 2015 travelling to other locations.

More info:

Lustre by Sarah Yu, Bart Pigram and Maya Shioji on the Griffith Review

Lustre on-line text panels by WA Museum

Sydney season at Stables Theatre with the Griffin Theatre Company

Thank you to everyone who came to Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens at the Stables Theatre / Griffin Theatre Company and produced by Performance 4a.

Thank you also to everyone at Griffin Theatre Company for having us as part of your 2015 season. It was great to work with you!

Here is a short excerpt from our season!

Video by Michael Park

Written by Mayu Kanamori
Directed by Malcolm Blaylock
Music and sound design by Terumi Narushima
Dramaturgy by Jane Bodie
Visual Design by Mic Gruchy
Lighting Design by Luiz Pampolha
Dramturgic Consultant Yuji Sone
Performed by Arisa Yura & Kuni Hashimoto with Yumi Umiumare
Produced by Annette Shun Wah, Performance 4a

 

 

Somehow, of love and immortality

Upon returning from photographing a wedding on Pearl Beach last weekend, I found a message from a man named Greg Leon in Melbourne:

I have just seen a news article at ABC Online… regarding Yasukichi Murakami and your biographical work on him. The article mentioned the scarcity of his photographs from his Darwin years. I have a set of 15 photographs that Mr Murakami may have taken of my parents when they were married in Darwin in May 1940. If you are interested please let me know… Regards, Greg

Interested?! This is what I’ve been doing for nearly 3 years: Looking for Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs, especially from Darwin.

I telephoned Greg immediately.

Back of the envelope found by Greg Leon.

Dear Mayu,

I was surprised and delighted to receive your call today. The timing was something of a coincidence as I was scheduled this afternoon to perform (inter alia) a song I wrote that refers to Murakami-san’s photos of my parents’ wedding in Darwin in 1940. For info, I am a part-time singer-songwriter (and a semi-retired IT Consultant, Project Manager, Business Analyst).

I have attached scans of the envelope in which I found the photos (as film negatives). I have also attached one of the images revealing the shadow of the photographer!

Imelda (nee Leahy) and Tony Leon on their wedding day in Darwin, 1940. Photo probably by Yasukichi Murakami

When I was a younger photographer working for Fairfax Media, many of my colleagues said wedding photography was not a path to pursue for a serious photojournalist. Yet I enjoyed enjoy being of service as a photographer who endeavours to leave memories of love.

Photographing a wedding gives a photographer a great chance for his / her work to serve for generations to come. In a sense, it is our best shot at immortality.

Greg added:

My parents were Imelda (nee Leahy) and Tony Leon. Both were born in Adelaide, but my father’s family were from Melbourne. I understand that they met in Darwin just three weeks prior to their wedding. I am not sure when they returned to Adelaide, but I assume it was prior to 1941. After the start of the “Pacific” war, my father enlisted and went to New Guinea, while my mother remained in Adelaide as a nurse in one of the military hospitals. After I was born in 1947, my parents moved to Melbourne where I have spent the rest of my life to date.

Looking a little more critically – and from an amateur photographer’s perspective – some questions spring to mind:

– Why would a professional photographer allow his shadow to fall within the frame?

– Wouldn’t a professional photographer retain the negatives, rather than returning them to the client?

– Looking at the photographs as a set, I cannot help thinking they are almost too casual for a pro.

So, the Big One: was Murakami-san the actual photographer, or did he just process the film as a service for the person who took the photographs? What do you think?

Looking forward to further discussion!

Best regards, Greg

Envelope found by Greg Leon. The handwriting is that of Yasukichi Murakami’s.

I do not know all the answers.

I know that when I had photographed weddings on negatives, I often gave the negatives to the bride and groom. They are best with them, and not for us to keep a hold on the work we have taken part and brought to creation.

Murakami did leave his shadow in two of his family photographs.  There could be many more. John E deB Norman told me once that he has a photograph of Eki Nishioka’s shadow. Perhaps it was Eki who taught Murakami to leave his shadow in a photo every so often.

Somehow, the words love and immortality to come to mind.

Emma Dean and Joon Yang at Pearl Beach 2014 Photo by Mayu Kanamori

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

OzAsia Festival – Adelaide

9 & 10 September 2014 7:30pm Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

My date on Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens was beautiful Jacinta Thompson, former Artistic Director of OzAsia Festival. We met in the Space Theatre foyer with a heartfelt embrace. Many Asian Australian artists have developed their careers because of Jacinta’s vision and long-term curatorial commitment in nurturing the growth of an artist like myself. OzAsia Festival not only brings to Australian audiences art from Asia, but has actively invested in the Asian stories within Australia. The importance of their longer term curatorial vision must be congratulated and held in reverence.

Working with the professional people and facility at the Adelaide Festival Centre along with the excellent OzAsia team with current Artistic Director Joe Mitchell, our show excelled, bringing in many favourable reviews. We were blessed with great publicists throughout our Darwin, Broome and Adelaide tours, and have received much publicity, which is of course excellent for the show itself, but in the wider sense, we have been able to add to the legacy of Yasukichi Murakami and to rekindle the memory of the pre war Japanese contribution to Australia.

Reviews

Realtime: 8th OzAsia Festival 2014 Culture’s haunted houses by Ben Brooker

Realtime: 2014 Darwin Festival, Cultural syntheses: north-south, east-west by Nicola Fearn

BWW Review: OzAsia Festival 2014; Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens Captivates and Informs by Barry Lenny 

The Clothesline: Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens: An Enchanting Photographic Journey Betwden Past and Present by Michael Coghlan

The Advertiser: OzAsia migration lay Through a Distant Lens puts Japan in focus by Louise Nunn

In Daily: Murakami: a life lost and rediscovered by Gregg Elliott

Glamadelaide: OzAsia Theatre Review: Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens

Selected Media Links

ABC Radio National Arts & Books Daily: Yasukichi Murakami: the photographer who captured Darwin by Georgia Moodie. Presented by Michael Cathcart

ABC Radio National Music Show: Yasukichi Murakami. Presented by Andrew Ford. Produced by Maureen Cooney / Jennifer Mills

ABC Radio National Drive: A Japanese-Australian photographer in pre-WW2 Darwin. Presented by Waleed Aly. Produced by Hélène Hofman

ABC News: Japanese photographer, pearling pioneer Yasukichi Murakami honoured in Broome

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

 

 

 

Shinju Matsuri Festival – Broome

5 & 6 Septemeber 2014 7:30pm Broome Civic Centre

Old Broome families remember Yasukichi Murakami. Many have photographs of their family members taken by him in their homes. Others have grown up with Yasukichi’s children, and some to the Murakami family through marriage. People in Broome respect their history, and read the many books written about their town, many of which mention Yasukichi. There is a Murakami Road on the way to their new jetty with a sign erected by the Shire with information about him and his contribution to the town.

The audience in Broome were well-informed with their history, and soulfully connected to the story of Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens. They laughed and cried a lot louder, they talked, as they saw projected, photographs of people they remembered. For Broome’s Nikkei community and their friends of mixed heritage who lived and worked together before Broome’s rapid population growth, this performance touched upon their specific history, their contribution to pearling, and their hardships, including the almost forgotten Japanese internment during WW2.

There were 212 people interned from Broome. In the audience were former internee and Broome Counsillor Philip Matsumoto and Ben Shiosaki, who had returned from Mullewa to Broome for the first time since he was 6 years old when he and his family arrested as enemy aliens.

Showing Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens in Broome was important. As Annette Shun Wah from Performance 4a, the producer of this work aptly billed it, we were “bringing Murakami home to Broome.” With Shinju Matsuri Festival board member Chris Maher working diligently in the background, the Broome Shire President Graeme Campbell hosted a civic reception before the show opened for the Murakami family, welcoming them back to their town.

Shire President Graeme Campbell and Pearl Hamaguchi

Murakami family members arrived in Broome for this occasion from Perth, Karratha, Fitzroy Crossing and Darwin. Nikkei community Elder Pearl Hamaguchi gave a moving speech honouring the family, and remembering those community members interned during the war, including her own father Jimmy Chi. She presented the Shire with a framed copy of Yasukichi Murakami’s invention – his improved diving suit design which became the basis for the modern-day scuba equipment.

After the Broome performance of Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens. L to R – Fran Murakami, Colin Murakami, Kevin Murakami, Julie Murakami, Cr Philip Matsumoto, Ben Shiosaki, Joanne Shiosaki, Rodney Murakami and Mayu Kanamori.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

 

Darwin Festival

19  August 2014 8:15pm & 20 August 2014 6pm & 8:15pm Brown’s Mart Theatre

Sitting at the very back of the packed-out Brown’s Mart Theatre on the world premier of Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens, I thought I could hear every murmur, each gasp, laughter and finally, sniffle by the group of dozen Murakami family members who sat in the front row.

In making this work, listening became the most important thing to do. To listen carefully to the voice of Yasukichi Murakami’s spirit, the voices of the creative collaborators, and to my own inner voice of truth. This active listening required more effort than to speak out loud. For many years I had thought it a vital process of becoming an artist to express, and out loudly, but through this project,  I have learned expressive less, more receptive, let go, and allow the creative to emerge as it naturally flowed outwards.

Although those Murakami family members who had received a copy of the script gave their blessing, I was still very worried whether the family members would like how their ancestor was portrayed on stage. To my relief, when we met at the theatre forecourt after the show, it was obvious that they were pleased with the results.

Phew.

Cast and crew with Murakami family members after the premier of Yasukichi Murakami Through a Distant Lens photo by Greg Aitkin. Front row L to R – Veronica McLennan, Arisa Yura, Mayu Kanamori, Julie Murakami, Jacqueline Murakami, Annette Shun Wah, David Murakami, Terumi Narushima. Back row L to R -Malcolm Blaylock, Calvin Murakami, Maius Lai, Kevin Murakami, Peter Murakami, Yvonne Wood, Benjamin Brockman.

It was important to premier this work as part of Darwin Festival, Darwin’s most prestigious and recognised art festival, because this is where Yasukichi Murakami and his family were arrested as an enemy alien and it is where most of his descendants live today. Because of  this, Darwin is where the honour of his name and work need to be remembered, acknowledged and celebrated the most.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

References: Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens

Yasukichi Murakami

Bain, M. (1982). Full Fathom Five. 1st ed. Perth: Artlook Books.

Beaumont, J., O’Brien, I. and Trinca, M. (2008). Under suspicion. 1st ed. Canberra, A.C.T.: National Museum of Australia Press.

Caudle, R. (1979). Caudle, Rex Oral History Transcript. [Manuscript] NTRS 226 TS  26. 1979. Northern Territory Archives Service, Darwin, NT, Australia.

City of Darwin, (2001). A Secondary School Resource on the Bombing of Darwin. Darwin: Federation Frontline, pp.54 – 55.

Hamaguchi, P. (2013). Interview with Pearl Hamaguchi. Broome.

Jones, N. (2002). Number Two Home: A story of Japanese Pioneers in Australia 1st ed. Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.

Kaino, L. (2011). ˜Broome culture” and its historical links to the Japanese in the pearling industry. Continuum, 25(4), pp.479–490.

Kaino, L. (2013). On-Board train Australia: Some contest of the works of Kanamori and Murakami. Zeistschrift fur Australierstudien, (Issue 27), pp.pp 105 – 125.

Kilgariff, F. and Carment, D. et al (2008). MURAKAMI, YASUKICHI (1880-1944). In: Northern Territory Dictionary of Biographies, 2nd ed. Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press.

Lance, K. (2004). Redbill: From Pearls to Peace – Life in Times of A Remarkable Lugger 1st ed. North Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.

Minami, Y. (2013). Interview with Yasuko Pearl Murakami Minami. Tanami.

Murakami Shigeno Theresa (and Yasukichi). (2014). [Manuscripts, letters, historical documents. Electronic document] A367 – c68988 National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Murakami, J. (Dec 2011, Aug 2012 and Feb 2013). Interviews with Joseph Murakami. Tsunashima.

Murakami, J. (April 2012 and April 2013). Interviews with Julie Murakami. Darwin.

Murakami, K. (1979). Kathleen Murakami Oral History Transcript. [Manuscript] NTRS 226 TS  95. Northern Territory Archives Service. Darwin.

Murakami, P. (1979). Peter Murakami Oral History Transcript. [Manuscript] NTRS 226 TS 96 Northern Territory Archives Service. Darwin.

Murakami, Y. (1926). Application for Letters Patent for an invention, Improved diving dress. [Manuscript and diagrams] A627 – 4150944 National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Murakami, Y. (1926). Application for Letters Patent for an invention, Improved diving dress. [Documents and diagrams. Electronic document] A267 – 1525/1926 National Archives of Australia , Canberra.

Murakami, Y. (1926). Application for Letters Patent for an invention, Improvements in diving dress. [Manuscript and diagrams] A627 – 4215206  National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Murakami, Y. (1926-7). Application for Letters Patent for an invention, Improved diving dress [Manuscript and diagrams] A627 – 4216044 National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Murakami, Y. (1927). Application for Letters Patent for an invention, Improvements in and relating to diving dresses. [Manuscript and diagrams] A627 – 4215757 National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Murakami, Y. (circa 1988 – 1944). Handwritten text on back of original photographic prints, various. [Photographic prints, back].

Nagata, Y. (1996). Unwanted Aliens: Japanese Internment in Australia During WWII. 1st ed. St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press.

No 10 of 1918, Yasukichi Murakami [bankruptcy]. (1918). [Manuscripts, transcripts, letters, ledgers. Electronic document] PP92/1 – 12038022 Australian National Archives . Perth.

Norman, J. (May 2013). Interview with John Norman. Broome.

Prisoner of War/Internee: Murakami, Yasukichi; Date of birth – 19 December 1880; Nationality – Japanese. (n.d.). [Electronic document] MP1103/1 DJ18100 National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Prisoner of War/Internee; Murakami, Yasukichi; Year of birth – 1880; Nationality – Japanese. (n.d.).[Electronic document] MP1103/2 DJ18100 National Archives of Australia. Canberra.

Sack, E. (1979). Eve Sack Oral History Transcript. [Manuscript] NTRS 226 TS 114 Northern Territory Archives Service. Darwin.

Scott, T. (1979). Thomas Connor Scott Oral History Transcript. [Manuscript] NTRS 226 TS 616 Northern Territory Archives Service. Darwin.

Shigematsu, S. (2007). Research Note on Pearling and Japanese Contribution to Local Society in early 20th century Australia. The Otemon Journal of Australian Studies, 33, pp.91- 100

Sissons, D. (2014). Murakami, Yasukichi (1880 – 1944). In: Australian Dictionary of Biographies, 18th ed. [online] Carlton: Melbourne University Press.

Photography

Barthes, R. (1981). Camera Lucida. 1st ed. New York: Hill and Wang.

McAuley, G. (2008). Photography and Live Performance: Introduction. Still / Moving: Photography and Live Performance, About Performance, No 8, pp.7-13.

Benjamin, Walter (1936). 1999.  The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Illuminations. London: Random House

Nietzsche, F. (1872).  1995. The Birth of Tragedy. New York: Dover Publications.

Ritchin, F. (2009). After Photography. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton.

Sontag, S. (1977). On Photography. 1979. Middlesex: Penguin Books.

Photographs used in the production of Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens are a courtesy of:

Australian War Memorial – ID 052384 & 052460 Photo by James Tait, Tatura Victoria

Bielby, Margo Photographic Archive

Broome Historical Society of Joseph Kisaburo Murakami Photographic Archives

Darwin Rondalla Archives

Gruchy, Mic Photography and Archives

Hamaguchi, Pearl Family Archives

Hang, Ted and Eunice Family Archives

Jones, Noreen Photographic Collection of Mise & Yamamoto Photographic Archives

Kanamori, Mayu Photography and Archives

Lance, Kate Photographic Collection

Murakami, Joseph Kisaburo Family Archives

Murakami, Julie Family Archives

Murakami, Yasuko Pearl Family Archives

National Archives of Australia –  A446  – 7648980 Kathleen Murakami

National Museum of Australia –  Book cover of Under Suspicion: Citizenship and Internment in Australia during the Second World War,  ISBN 9781876944605 

Northern Territory Library – Commemoration PH0200/0380 Mayse Young Collection; Cavenagh Street in the 1930’s / V. Fletcher, Harold Snell Collection; Bi-plane PH0282/0039 Unknown Collection; Rally PH0283/0012 Bill Allcorn Collection; Group PH0323/0014 D. Smith Collection; Float in street parade, Darwin circa late 1930s PH0340/0038 Jarvis Collection; Old Town Hall on Smith Street PH0386/0150 Bill Littlejohn Collection; Afternoon drink PH0444/0006 Bill & Betty Eacott Collection; Couple PH0375/0008 Marella Collection; The Residency PH0223/0005 J. Towers Collection; Serviceman PH0285/0053 Photo by Y. Murakami, Frank Blackwell Collection; and Divers on pearling lugger D36 PH0238/0174 Peter Spillett Collection

Other photographs from Northern Territory Library duplicate and supplied from Murakami family archives directly – Five men and a lady sitting in a car PH0096/0026 Fay Kilgariff Collection; Dampier Hotel PH0096/0024 Fay Kilgariff Collection; Mrs Theresa Murakami and Mr Yasukichi Murakami PH0096/0020 Fay Kilgariff Collection; Family PH0096/0019 Fay Kilgariff Collection; Man sitting in drivers seat of a car PH0096/0025 Fay Kilgariff Collection;  and A Japanese woman in Japanese dress PH0096/0017 Fay Kilgariff Collection.

Tsuda, Mutsumi Photography, Photographic Collection and Archives

Puertollano / Masuda, Cauline Family Archives

Sisters of St John of God Photographic Collection of Jones, Noreen Photographic Collection of Mise & Yamamoto Photographic Archives

All appropriate documents and photographs found for the research pertaining to Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens, used or other wise in the final production have been donated to Julie Murakami (Yasukichi’s great grand daughter / Murakami family historian) and Broome Historical Society / Museum.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Crowd funding – Thank you!

A huge thanks to Pozible supporters and generous donors for helping us get our Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens to Darwin Festival!

Our thank yous can also be found on:

Performance 4a

and

mayu.com.au

Abraham Hammoud	Jodie Bell	Rainer Fors
Adam Wojcinski	Joe Murakami	Ren Yano
Akiko Tomizawa	John Winter	Richard Wang
Alexandra McCallum	Josh Mu	Richard Watts
Alison Cook	Juanita Kwok	Rod Freedman
Alissar Chidiac	Julie Melbourne	Ronald Dirkse
Amanda Macri	Julie Muir	Rosalind Richards
Amanda thompson	Julie Murakami	Rowena Ward
Ann MacArthur	Jun Hamana	Ryoko Freeman
Anna Yen	Kabuki Shoroku & Sakuratei Japanese Restaurant	S Hesse
Anne Norman	Karin Matsuda	Sachi Hirayama
Anthony Pelchen	Kata Lance	Sakiko Johnson
Asako Kobayashi	Kathryn Hunyor	Sally Lewry
Ayako Payako Tsunazawa	Kathy Matsubara	Sally Mizoshiri
Ben Hills	Katy Fitzgerald	Samantha Chester
Bob Lyness	Kazuko Chalker	Sampei Seko
Cat Elder	Keiko Tamura	Sandy Edwards
Cate Pearce	Kerk Ross	Sarah Griffin
Cherilyn Margetts	Kevin Han	Sarah yu
Chie Muraoka	Language on the Move	Sayako Nakagawa
Chiyoko Takeuchi	lena	Sayuri Hayashi
Chiz Annakin	Lena Nahlous	Sean Bacon
Christine Piper	Linda Evans	Setsuko Yanagisawa
Clare Grant	Lisa Ko Kato	Shane F
David Fujii	Liz Pellinkhof	Shimizu
Dean Chan	Lorna Kaino	Sophie Constable
Dean Kunihiro	Lucas Ihlein	Stuart Tanaka
Diana Nguyen	Lynn Shimabukuro Blair	Su Goldfish
Donna Chang	Mai Nguyen-Long	Suzie Nguyen
Elaine Chia	Mako	Takako Inoue
Elleni Chambiras	Masayo Hasegawa	Takashi Takiguchi
Ellie Tanaka	Matthew Rooke	Takenobu Hamaguchi
Emi Otsuji	Maya Newell	Tallace Bissett
Erica Mann	Melissa Yoko Murakami	Ted Ambery
Ernie Wakamatsu	Mémé Thorne	Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Etsuko Tomimura-Bossling	Michael Cave	Theo Baer
Fiona Winning	Michael McCarville	TK Mills
Gabrielle Chan	Michael Turkic	Tomoko Otsuka
Gail Bryant	Miho Watanabe	Tony Lewis
Gary Gene Fish	Mika Nishimura	Tseen Khoo
Geraldine Mitchell	Mikkel Mynster	Victoria Spence
Graham Hartley	Mioko Tominaka	Vienna Del Rosario Parreno
Grant Cleary	Moni Lai Storz	Viv Rosman
Gregory Fournier	Mook Denton	Willa Zheng
Hiromi Ashlin	Murray Williams	William Yang
Hitomi Kurosawa	Mutsumi Tsuda	Y Matsumoto
Hugh Cann	Nicky Evans	Yasushi Hirai
Ian Glass	Noriko Ikaga	Yike Gao
Ildiko Susany	Noriko Shimada	Yoshiaki & Seiko Matsunaga
Isobel Deane	Norman Trott	Yoshie mizuno
Jackie Woods	Nozomi Wade	Yujiro Shimogori
Jacky Okada	Oliver Wenn	Yuki Hokari Sim
Jen Kwok	Paul & Jennifer Winch	Yuko Yamamoto
Jenevieve Chang	Pedro de Almeida	Yumi Umiumare
Jennifer Wong	Peter Alford	Yuriko Nagata
Jim Kim	Peter Fraser	Yushiro Mizukoshi
Jimmy Dalton	Peter R Phillips

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

In Appreciation

I am near the end of the creative development and rehearsal phase of Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, and I wanted to take a moment to thank the people and organisations that helped me get this far.

Of course the trouble is where to draw the line – I can think of so many more people who helped me along the way, simply being my friend, listening to me over a cup of tea at times of trouble or sharing a glass of wine with me when I had cause to celebrate. There are those who have contributed financially towards our crowd funding campaign, and others who helped me spread the word.

Names of the supporters of the Pozible / Murakami  fundraising campaign are listed in a separate post – click here.

… and my “thank you list: goes on, but here is a list of people who helped with the nitty-grittys, and I owe a heart-felt thanks to that I wanted to share on this blog today.

In alphabetical order…

Armstrong, Jon for your advice and taking photographs of me in Broome.

Asano, Wakako, Shigeaki Iwai, Vic McEwan and Satsuki Odamura for working with me in Japanese cemeteries and grave sites all over Australia in our project In Repose, which gave me the opportunity to begin hearing the ‘silent voices’.

Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN) for your continuous support, education and inspiration.

Australia Japan Association of Northern Territory (AJANT) for hosting an artist-talk, which allowed me to ask the Darwin community to help me find Murakami’s photographs.

Barr, Françoise and Northern Territory Archives for dedicated, kind, detailed and lateral ways of help in researching Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs, records and Murakami family history.

Blaylock, Malcolm for directing Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, encouraging me to write a dialogue based script for the first time in my life, being my artistic collaborator since 2001, thoughtful contribution to the script, and the depth of understanding the refined sensitivities of the human condition.

Bodie, Jane for being a dramaturg for Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, sitting with me for many hours in front of my computer doctoring my half-baked script, all the whilst listening and honouring to what it was that I wanted to say.

Bracher, Michael, Richard McLean, Takenobu Hamaguchi, and the Paspaley Group for showing me the Paspaley Family Photographic Collection.

Brockman, Benjamin for being the calm and reliable production manager of Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens and QLab expert for rehearsals and Darwin Festival.

Chin, John for sharing stories on the Stone Houses and Murakami family.

Cleveland, Ken for acute feedbacks on early versions of the script, and providing me with seeds of thought.

Clocks and Clouds (Kraig Grady and Terumi Narushima) for music from their CD In A Pentagonal Room in the Diving Suit and Tanami scenes.

Dann, Lucy and family for taking photographs with me in Broome, and introducing me to old Broome families in the first place, when we first shared our time together in The Heart of the Journey.

Darwin Rondalla for music in the Darwin scene.

DeQuincey, Tess for constant encouragement and advice on this project.

Ensemble Offspring for music from their CD Behind The Keys in the promotional video.

Grady, Kraig for his handmade musical instruments.

Gruchy, Mic for your emotive and moving visual imagery in Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, audio-visual expertise, thorough ways of working, as well as calm and wisdom that comes with your wealth of experience.

Hamaguchi, Pearl for sharing photographs of your mother and friend taken by Yasukichi Murakami, and sharing many hours of stories about old Broome.

Hashimoto, Kuni for playing the part of Yasukichi Murakami’s ghost in Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, generously imparting your knowledge of theatre, assisting me with the script, and  continuously reminding  me of that which is of importance.

Hills, Ben for your support, behind the scenes encouragement, advice, listening to my complaints and looking after my general well-being.

Hirayama, Sachiko for giving me a home in Darwin and organising an artist talk, which allowed me to ask the Darwin community to help me find Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs.

Hirobe, Kyoko for channelling the spirit of Yasukichi Murakami, resulting in messages, which became the backbone of the script.

Jones, Noreen for your book Number 2 Home, a must read for all Japanese Australians, and sharing the old Mise and Yamamoto photographs from the Noreen Jones Photographic Collection.

Kaino, Lorna for being my first partner for this project, your series of essays, our joint conference paper in Canberra and Stuttgart on Yasukichi Murakami and being with me when we found his grave in Cowra

Kawai, Reiko for information about Darwin and continuing friendship since The Heart of the Journey.

Kobayashi, Asako and Go-Nichi Sunday Japanese Language Radio for assisting in calling out to the community to find Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs.

Khoo, Tseen for your continuous support, encouragement and being an on-line ally at all times of the development process of this project.

Kim-Pok,Teik and Playwriting Australia for your funding support, having me as part of Lotus Playwriting Project and for your invaluable advice in completing the script for this project.

Konomi, Masafumi and the Japan Foundation, Sydney for funding assistance in this project at a crucial stage in our development and for your on-going support for this project.

Kylie Jennings and the Broome Historic Society for well-versed help in researching Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs and history.

Lance, Kate for your immaculately researched book, Red Bill and your generosity in sharing your photographs and citations on the internet for all future researchers, as well as sharing with me your meticulous original source materials.

Lewis, Lee, Simon Wellington, Alicia Talbot, all at Griffin Theatre Company and all participants of Story Lab 2012 for giving me the inspiration and encouragement to continue developing this project.

Lo, Jacqueline for our continuing dialogues about Asian Australian art practices in performance, and your support, which gave me the courage to explore the Japanese diasporic condition and WWII.

Lunn, Edwina and Georgie Sedgewick for inclusion in the Darwin Festival 2014.

Lynette Atchison and the Northern Territory Library for the efficient and well-informed help in researching Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs.

Maher, Chris and members of Shinju Matsuri Festival board for your inclusion in your 2014 program.

Masuda, Cauline for sharing a photograph of your grandmother taken by Yasukichi Murakami, visiting the Japanese Cemetery in Broome with me countless times, and your leadership in the Japanese community in Broome.

Masuda, Karin for channelling the spirit of Eki Nishioka, which became an important and poignant counter point in the script.

McEwan, Vic for sharing your music in the first stages of this project and for conference presentations in Stuttguard and Canberra.

Mills, Nichole, photographer Katrina Bridgeford, and the Sunday Territorian for making a call-out to the Northern Territory community to find Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs.

Mills, Terry for your support during my call out to the community to find Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs from his days in Darwin, and for dialogues which inspired crucial aspects of the script development.

Mills,Vanessa and ABC Radio, Kimberley for your genuine interest in Yasukichi Murakami and old Broome history, and assisting in calling out to the community to find Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs.

Minami, Reiko (Ruruka) Murakami for meeting me in Tanami and introducing me to her mother, Yasuko Pearl Murakami Minami, sharing family photographs and showing me Tanami and Kushimoto.

Minami, Yasuko Pearl Murakami for inviting me to your home, and sharing your family photographs and stories about your father and family history.

Murakami Gold, Lorna for being the first person to let me know about Yasukichi Murakami back in 1998 when I was photographing you, by telling me that your great-grandfather was a Japanese photographer.

Murakami, Julie for contacting me after finding this blog, sharing your family photographs and stories, and spending many hours researching with me.

Murakami, Kevin for visiting me when I was in Broome to help me understand the importance of family and descendants.

Murakami, Kisaburo Joseph for on-going support for this project, sharing family photographs, not only to me, but also to your family members in Australia, information and stories about his father and family.

Muraoka, Chie for your patient and dedicated web design and mastering.

Nagata, Yuriko for your definitive book Unwanted Aliens: Japanese Internment in Australia during WWII, introducing me to Joseph Kisaburo Murakami, and your continuing support.

Nagata, Yuriko, Keiko Tamura, Lorna Kaino, Shigemi Kurahashi, Chie Maruoka, Jun Nagatomo and Nikkei Australia for your support and information exchange.

Narushima, Terumi for your exquisite and evocative music, being the composer / musician / sound designer for Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, understanding the social political significance of this work, and being in the same emotional space and spirit with me throughout the process.

Ng, Kevin for your dedication and enthusiasm as the technical manager and audio-visual expert during the creative development phase of Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens.

Norman, J.E. deB and late G.V. Norman for your book A Pearling Master’s Journey and sharing stories of old Broome and your family history.

Pampolha, Luiz for being the lighting designer for Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, adding to the production the essential refinement, atmosphere and your depth of experience for the production.

Shun Wah, Annette and Performance 4a for producing Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, your wisdom, commitment, resilience, significant advice on script development and story-telling,  for being a pioneer for us all, and the depth of your understanding the wider meaning of this work.

Silva, David for your access to your galleries in the Stone Houses, support in my research and continuing to be the photographic guardian of the Stone Houses, Yasukichi Murakami’s former home and studio.

Sister Pat Rhatigan, Helen Martin and Sisters of St John of God Heritage Centre, Broome for sharing your extensive photographic collection for this project.

Skrzynski, Hannah, Teik Kim Pok, Jennifer Wong, Annette Shun Wah and Performance 4a for running our successful Pozible fundraising campaign.

Sone, Yuji for being the dramaturgical consultant and continuing to support this project, your wealth of knowledge, advice, and giving me a second chance despite my initial failed attempt at creating this work as a Master of Arts Degree.

Sone, Yuji, David Mitchell, Marcus Eckerman and Macquarie University, Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts for partnering this project, giving us technical support, providing filming, editing and invaluable dramaturgical consultancy and a home for our development and rehearsals.

Steer Adam, Claire Rawlinson and ABC Radio, Darwin for assisting in calling out to the community to find Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs.

Tamura, Keiko for being at Yasukichi Murakami’s grave and helping me listen to his voice.

Tanaka, Elly for providing the kimono and expertise needed for Yumi Umiumare / Eki Nishioka’s wardrobe support.

Terushima, Narumi for your exquisite and evocative music, being the composer / musician / sound designer for Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, understanding the social political significance of this work, and being in the same emotional space and spirit with me throughout the process.

Theatre Board, Australia Council for the Arts for providing the necessarily support in funding for this project in two of its crucial phases.

Thompson, Jacinta (former Artistic Director, OzAsia Festival) and OzAsia Festival for inclusion in the OzAsia Festival 2014.

Tominaka, Yoshie and Mioko for giving me support, practical, yet humorous advice and a home in Japan whilst researching this project.

Tsuda, Mutsumi for additional contemporary and historical photographs for this project, and on-going artistic dialogue.

Umiumare, Yumi for being (it seems not quite right to say ‘playing the part of’) the part of Eki Nishioka’s ghost in video for Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, consistently reminding me to speak my truth and to express what it is that I need to express as an artist and human being.

Watanabe, Miho for photographing our creative development showing and our publicity photographs.

Wells, Micheal  for detailed information on the Stone Houses and trusting me to complete this project.

Wells, Michael, Karen Moir and Department of Lands, Planning and the Environment for giving this project its first funding for development.

Werner, Koko  for channelling the spirit of Yasukichi Murakami, with messages, which assisted the latter stages of the script development, and filling in my then blind spots.

Wood, Joanne and the Australian National Archives, Darwin Branch, for enthusiastic help in researching Yasukichi Murakami’s records, and the Australian National Archives for permission to reproduce records held in their collection.

Yamada, Tomoko for organising the Broome Cemetery O-bon photo shoot by Takazo Nishioka’s grave.

Yu, Peter and Sarah for giving me a place to stay in Broome, Peter’s gorgeous cooking and Sarah and Nyamba Buru Yawauru‘s ongoing projects and engagements, allowing me multiple trips to Broome as well as to further my understanding of old Broome and the history of pearling.

Yura, Arisa for playing the part of Mayu in Yasukichi Murakami – Through A Distant Lens, your dedication in spending much time in dialogue with me to understand my  journey, as well as taking the time to discover photography, coming to Cowra to Yasukichi Murakami’s grave, to meet his family.

… the list to be continued.

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Murakami for recognition and rememberance for all

Unlike my usual visits to Yasukichi Murakami’s grave at the Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra,  on 9^th of March 2014, I heard many voices of those alive today, and not just the dead and buried.

(L to R) Melissa Yoko Murakami (Perth), Julie Murakami (Darwin), Reiko Ruruka Minami Murakami (Japan) , Calvin Murakami (Darwin) and Sandra Seiko Murakami (Perth). Photo by Mayu Kanamori

For sometime now I have entertained an irrational thought that Yasukichi Murakami’s ghost was calling to me to fulfill his wishes, and on this day, at least part of my irrational belief  as to his wishes came to be. Not only was his grave visited by 6 of his family members, but nearly 200 people gathered to commemorate the civilian internees who died in internment camps across Australia during World War II .

The commemoration was part of a series of events held in Cowra, NSW including a symposium, Civilian Internment in Australia during WWII: history, memories and community heritage, its related arts program, the Cowra Canowindra Civilian Internment Arts Program and an unveiling of an interpretive board with information about Japanese civilian internment in Australia during WWII at the entrance of the cemetery. This is the first time Japanese civilian internees and their families were publicly acknowledged in Australia.

(Back row L to R) Reiko (Ruruka) Minami Murakami, Calvin Murakami, Mayu Kanamori (Front row – L to R) Jacqueline Murakami and Julie Murakami. Photo by Mutsumi Tsuda

Couple of years earlier, when I first visited Murakami’s grave with Dr Lorna Kaino, we met with Dr Keiko Tamura, a historian from the Australian National University there. By Murakami’s grave, the three of us discussed how the Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra needed an interpretive board to explain to visitors that many of the people buried there were civilians like Murakami. In fact many visitors to Cowra also visit the former Cowra Prisoner of War (POW) camp site, and have heard about the Cowra Breakout, and assuming all buried at the this cemetery were Japanese POWs who died during this mass breakout. The visitors walk into the cemetery, and after seeing the graves, wonder why there are babies and children buried there.

Former civilian internee Evelyn Suzuki and Cowra Mayor Bill West unveils the civilian internment interpretive board at Cowra Japanese War Cemetery. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

The three of us agreed there and then to contact our mutual friend Dr Yuriko Nagata from Queensland University (UQ), the author of Unwanted Aliens: Japanese Internment in Australia During WWII (1996, UQ Press), the definitive book on this subject with the view to  bring about change. The four of us formed a group  Nikkei Australia, and with Dr Nagata as our team leader, for the next two years, worked together with the Cowra Breakout Association and other dedicated organisations and peoples to realise  these series of events.

(L to R) Dr Keiko Tamura, Mayu Kanamori and Dr Yuriko Nagata. Photo by Ben Hills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it was  Yasukichi Murakami’s ghost that inspired us to work to facilitate this social change. After all, in his lifetime, Murakami was not only a photographer and artist, but also a leader in the Japanese communities in places  he once lived: Broome, Darwin and in Tatura Internment Camp in Victoria. Not only would he want his descendants to visit his grave – his wife and his deceased children are buried in Darwin – but would like his fellow community members who are buried in this cemetery to be remembered by their descendants, and for all of us to recognise and acknowledge their history.

Having said that, one of the most outstanding aspects of Murakami’s life was that he was not only part of the Japanese community. Historians such as Dr Lorna Kaino and Kate Lance, author of Redbill  tells us that Murakami and his friend and business partner Captain A.C. Gregory have acted as mediators during series of race riots in Broome (1907. 1914 and 1920), and their lifelong friendship “calmly flout(ed) every racial barrier of Broome society.” (Lance). And as such, our symposium consisted of  internment stories from those of Japanese, Italian, German and New Caledonian backgrounds as well as of regional museum curators from Tatura, Hay and Loveday, where the internment camps once were, academic researchers, artists and creative writers who’s work deal with WWII civilian internment in Australia.

Seianji Temple, Sydney based Buddhist monks with Murakami family chanting sutra by Yasukichi Murakami’s grave. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

And  9 March was about  remembering those civilians who are buried in Cowra, regardless of their backgrounds. The ceremony began with a ceremony for Australians who died during WWII at the Australian section of Cowra’s War Cemetery, next for those buried in the Japanese section, which not only includes Japanese and Nikkei civilians, but Chinese, Indonesian and New Caledonian peoples who were interned with the Japanese. We then moved to the Cowra General Cemetery to commemorate the Javanese Indonesian political prisoners who were interned and died in Cowra.

Artists Weizen Ho and Ria Soemardjo leading the attendees through the Cowra General Cemetery from the Indonesian graves to the Japanese War Cemetery as part of a Ceremonial Performance. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Ria Soemardjo, an Indonesian Australian performer sang by the Indonesian graves, then Weizen Ho, a Chinese Malaysian Australian performer  lead the attendees  back to the Japanese section, where local youth artists Bianca Reggio and Lauren Townsend and Shigeki Sano, a Japanese  Shinto musician residing in Cowra, and Alan Schacher, an Australian performer of Jewish background performed in ceremony along with a group of Sydney based Buddhist monks from Seizanji-ji

.

Such were the events in Cowra.

Such were the wishes of Yasukichi Murakami – I believe.

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Hearing the voice of creative development

Kunihiko Hashimoto and Arisa Yura during creative development of Murakami. Photo by Miho Watanabe

 

The 3-week creative development of my Murakami project at Macquarie University’s Drama Studio began with director Malcolm Blaylock, producer Annette Shun Wah / Performance 4a, dramaturg Jane Bodie, dramaturgic consultant Dr Yuji Sone, production manager Kevin Ng, actors Kunihiko Hashimoto, Yumi Umiumare, Arisa Yura and myself, reading my manuscript matched with photographs, which somehow just passed as a “theatre script”, only because of Jane’s extensive doctoring in the 8 weeks prior.

As with my earlier performance works, how I manage to put forth an idea in blind faith, and then after doing the necessary work in small steps over a time,  finding myself in a creative space full of extremely talented and experienced performance makers is truly humbling, uplifting, and in many ways, mind-boggling. Nevertheless, thanks to my collaborators, my research into Yasukichi Murakami’s life and my search for his missing photographs was on its way to becoming a performance work.

In nervousness, I once again held conversations in my mind with Murakami’s ghost.

Have I done the right thing?  Have I made the right decisions? Do you think this is working? Sometimes I lack in clarity if these questions should end with “for you”, “for me”, “for the work itself” or “for the wider good, ” and if the difference in those question endings change  the question and its answers.

Some say I am becoming mad, whilst others say I am lacking in intuition, but  Murakami’s ghost never seems to answer me immediately. And when I think I have heard his voice, I am often unsure if I heard him correctly. As at first hearing, it is difficult to tell whether I am hearing his voice, what I think his voice might be, or that his voice is heard through the filter of my own ego, or a voice from my higher self, pretending I was someone I am not quite ready to become, but wished I was, or simply the voices of others or perhaps other ghosts. So ok,  I do sound mad… but creative development, it was.

The immediate reaction of my collaborators to my “script” appeared positive. They liked it, or so I thought, which made me relax a little. On the second reading of the “script”, however many differing opinions began to surface. Some were structural, others to do with different layers of understanding of the text, material and methods. And strong those opinions were. One thing we all agreed upon was that it was important to tell the story of Yasukichi Murakami.

Yumi Umiumare during creative development of Murakami. Photo by Miho Watanabe

As we exchanged ideas and debated, the written words became spoken words, ghosts found their embodiments, images projected, and by the time composer and sound designer Terumi Narushima joined us in the second week, the “script” had gone through many changes, including the inevitable and often welcome changing back, like a dance moving to and fro between rawness and refinement, creative and receptive, intuition and understanding.

On the last week, we invited a small group of people to a work-in-progress showing.  As pathetic as this sounds, I cried a lot during this week. I was emotional, partly because of fatigue, but mostly because there was something so very moving about working with a group of talented artists who were able to take what I had grappled with for the past 3 years, create and put into shape a work which was shown to potential presenters and partners.

Yasukichi Murakami’s story is beginning to take shape. His voice is slowly being heard through a collective voice and listening of those who endeavour to hear him.

Terumi Narushima during creative development of Murakami. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

–

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

DNA and RNA: what and how of a role of artist and of being human

When I saw Kevin Murakami in Broome, my heart felt like it had stopped for a moment. The shock of seeing him took me to a place I had not prepared for. There was Yasukichi Murakami walking out of his car, I thought, approaching me to say hello.

Kevin Murakami, Broome, 2013 Photo by Mayu Kanamori

This man of course wasn’t Yasukichi Murakami nor his ghost, but his great grandson, who travelled from Fitzroy Crossing to see me during my stay in Broome. He heard me give an interview with ABC Kimberley about my search for Yasukichi Murakami’s life and work, and contacted me.

I was working with my friend Sarah Yu in Broome on another project: Jetty-to-Jetty, a heritage walking trail of Broome’s foreshore commissioned by Nymaba Buru Yawuru. My specific task was to interview members of old families of Broome in connection to places and their relationships with one another; then create audio files of stories with multiple voices, which tourists could listen to via a phone app whilst walking from the Streeter’s Jetty where hte pearl luggers used to operate from and the site of  Broome’s old Jetty, where the Town Beach is today. They are families and places Yasukichi Murakami would have had intimate knowledge of. After all, he lived in Broome for 35 years of his life. Once again, my work connects past with present and present with future through people, stories, relationships, place and space.

Kevin had driven 400 kms to just to see me. More precisely, he had come to connect with his great grandfather Yasukichi Murakami so that he can then pass on this connection to his two daughters in Perth. He came so I can give him his ancestral family photographs that I have been collecting and digitizing whilst traveling between Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Broome, Tokyo, Yokohama and Tanami in Japan for my Murakami project.

To make my art, I travel many kilometers to ask others to assist me, to receive from them information I need to carry out my work. This time, however, it was Kevin who travelled to receive information that he needed, and he in turn will pass this information on to his children.

Yasukichi Murakami, self portrait, by Yasukichi Murakami, 1905, Broome. Courtesy, Murakami Family Archives.

I felt as if this exchange touched upon something very mysterious and significant. It was as if I was given  some sort of a hint about how our creative practice, no matter how small it may be in the great scheme of things, is an important part of the whole. That this project is not only about Yasukichi Murakami nor just about my research nor about my art. That in so far as we are alive, there are things we are meant to do for something much bigger than us.

Kevin’s facial and physical features, so similar to what I have seen of Yasukichi Murakami through his self portraits reinforces these insights of being part of a continuum, in this particular case, the Murakami DNA. So then I begin not only to wonder about the role of DNA, but also the role of RNA in the scheme of things.

I remember studying biology in school. The DNA is said to be a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and  the RNA performs multiple roles in the coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes. I am not a scientist, but I think simply put DNA tells a cell what to do and  RNA carries this information for it to happen… or something similar.

Hm….

So then what and how is my role as an artist? As a human being?

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Listen to the ABC Kimberley interview here: http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/05/20/3762857.htm?site=kimberley

Archives and collective memory

Even with my white cotton gloves on, as required  by the  NT Archives to view original documents, I feel my heart pounding with magical force when I sense that I may be touching original photographs printed by Yasukichi Murakami, the man who has been the centre of my creative work for the last 26 months.

Françoise Barr, Research Librarian, NT Archives
Photo by Mayu Kanamori

I had taken my first step to involve myself in this project the day after the Great Tohoku Earthquake in Japan (11.03.11), when I met Dr Lorna Kaino at the Astor Theatre in Perth. Standing with a glass of wine in a noisy foyer after a piano concert by Les Ferers, I briefly chatted with her about collaborating on a project about historical Japanese photographers in Australia; thus I began my journey;  that  of being a contemporary Japanese born photographer working in Australia in search of Yasukichi Murakami’s life and work.  Since then, the creative force has gently unfolded, step by step, from A to B, B to C, C to D, and I recently found myself yet again sifting through thousands of photographs with the help of one very dedicated and experienced archivist, librarian, and for me, a great teacher, Françoise Barr at the NT Archives. Her knowledge of research and archiving fills the gap of my lack, and her warmth of character gives me the strength to carry out this inconspicuous, and potentially, a lonely fruitless task.

Mayu Kanamori at NT Archives
Photo by Françoise Barr

I am looking for Murakami’s photographs which disappeared from official Australian history. Many of his photographs disappeared because of reasons which could be conveniently viewed through the framework of branches in Asian Australian studies, a view of Australian history through certain racialised filters, and or of those of Japanese diasporic studies, regarding unresolved aspects of Japanese involvement in WW2. It is fair to say that Murakami, having lived through racially oppressive times of the White Australia Policy, having been interned during the war, then dying whilst interned, would have contributed to the loss of his photographs. However truth never seems to fully surface when it is required of the researcher to present a coherent viewpoint and framework. Truth isn’t that clear cut. Truth is messy. And this may be one of the reasons why I am making art about Murakami, and my initial proposal to write a thesis was had not been accepted by academy.

There are many  reasons a photographer’s work disappears from history. The first and foremost seem to be the photographer’s attitudes toward their own work. That is to say whether Murakami understood the importance of his documentation for posterity, and furthermore, if he had thought that signing or stamping the back of his prints before they left his studio, attributing his part in the work was important for furthering his income, status or other gains. From my research to date, it seems that he encased his photographs in a cardboard border with his name on it during his early career at the Nishioka Photographic Studio (c. 1900- 1915), but unlike popular practice of photographers in Darwin during the late 1930’s, back of his prints seem to have not been stamped with the name of his studio. It is difficult to tell for sure, and I would need to spend further days in Darwin, next time at the NT Library to view original photographs to draw this conclusion. I have already viewed well over 7000 images on-line, but the back of the photographs are not part of the NT Library’s on-line collections.

There are other factors at play, such as whether his surviving family members placed similar importance to his photographs. Murakami’s photography was a means for him to earn a living and support his family, not so much a work of art, an investment in his name as an artist. My current lack of  knowledge of details of  the Australian Copyright Act of 1905 prevents me from even hypothesising where Murakami stood in regards to his copyright practices. The current Australian Copyright Act 1968 which contemporary photographers may adhere to came well after Murakami’s death in 1944.

Other factors that need consideration when understanding how a photographer’s work may disappear in time include how intermediary archivists such as amateur historians and private collectors conducted their part in the archival process, and or where the focus existed in standard archiving policies of the time. An example of this is when photographic albums were not kept as albums, but were taken out of their albums and mixed with others by subject matter before being donated to the official archives, or when archivists in the field photographed the original photographs for the official archives, but not have photographed the back of the prints.

Last month I was given the opportunity by Australian Japanese Association of Northern Territory (AJANT) to give a talk at Darwin’s Museum & Art Gallery Theatre, explaining this project, and calling for assistance in finding Murakami’s photographs. This event has prompted me to give interviews to ABC Darwin local radio and the Sunday Territorian. As a result, the word is out – there is a search on for Murakami’s photographs. I would like the people of Darwin to help find them, because Yasukichi Murakamis story is part of Darwin’s story, the town’s collective memory of their pre war history, forgotten because of the violence of war, and this project may help us remember together.

Sunday Territorian photographer Katrina Bridgeford with Julie Murakami. On the table are Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Julie Murakami and Mayu Kanamori on Sunday Territorian. Story by Nicole Mills

In the mean time, the people who came to the talk gave me leads to follow. Each stone is being turned over – one at a time. Step by step.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Yasukichi Murakami’s Diving Suit Part 1

“He was not a man who was taken in by the modern cameras of that time like the Leica or 35mm. He considered that to be toys,” is how Joe Kisaburo Clement Murakami remembers his father’s ways with the camera. I think of the changes in cameras these days with smart phones and apps, and wonder if my carrying around my digital SLR is similar to Yasukichi Murakami’s insistence on being a “ big camera man. Big format”.

I met Joe in his apartment in Tsunashima, a suburb near Yokohama. Joe was born in Australia, and one of the few pre war Japanese allowed to stay in Australia after he was released from internment with his family during WW2 as an enemy alien. He went to Japan in the 1960’s to learn Japanese, and later found work as a translator for a Japanese company and for books such as Letters from the End of the World: A Firsthand Account of the Bombing of Hiroshima.

Joe Murakami as a child in Broome. Photo by Yasukichi Murakami. Joe Murakami today. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Joe Murakami was born in 1927, around the time when Yasukichi was putting his final improvements to his diving suit design, which he had first patented in 1926. Joe was keen to tell me about his father’s invention.

“I think I used to be a pretty inquisitive boy so I used to ask him all sorts of questions. Even when I was six or seven. And he would give me always some sort of answer. Later I found interest in his diving dress. He told me that the crux of his invention was the regulator that regulated the breathe according to the depth of the diver without the diver having to have to manipulate any valves. That I remember.”

In Broome where Murakami had lived since 1900, many men, including his brother-in-law Masutaro Asari, who travelled with Murakami to Australia in 1897, have died diving for pearls in old-fashioned diving suits. For many years Yasukichi Murakami continued experiments to create a safer diving suit.

Murakami’s improved diving suit design patented the year Joe was born, and he was invited by Heinke, manufacturers of the traditional diving dress to visit London to develop a prototype of his design, but for some reason, did not go. Some say it was because he wanted to stay with his family. Some say it was because his friend and business partner Captain A.C. Gregory did not want Murakami to leave his side.

Murakami’s patent fell due for renewal whist he was interned during the war and he was not able to renew it. In 1943, a French engineer Émile Gagnan patented scuba apparatus with identical mechanisms to that of Murakami’s.

I remember Murakami’s attempt at Australia’s first cultured pearl farm with Captain Gregory and how the authorities had closed it down. Joe said that Johnny Chi Snr in Broome told him that he remembers seeing a successful cultured pearl from Murakami’s failed pearl farm. That makes two inventions in Australia by Yasukichi Murakami, unattributed to his genius due to “course” of history. Perhaps this blog and project can contribute to the flow of history in a fairer way – here and now.

Continued.

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Diasporic condition

Every two hours a slow local train stops at Tanami station, a small seaside village near the very southern tip of Honshu Island. This is where photographer Yasukichi Murakami was born, and left at the age of 17 in 1897 to sail to Australia.

The old Tanami port where Yasukichi would have farewelled his family is only a few hundred meters away from where the Murakami family home once stood. Yasukichi would have grown up looking out to sea everyday watching the men of Tanami leave, many who sailed overseas to find work in places like Hawaii and Australia on indentured contracts.

Old Tanami port. The stone wall of the Murakami family home can be seen on the far left. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Reiko “Ruruka” Minami, Yasukichi Murakami’s grand-daughter met me at Tanami station. Ruruka is about my age, and like me, an artist, a performance maker. She performs in sign language whilst my performances use photographs to communicate.

Ruruka Minami at Tanami station. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Ruruka took me to her family home to meet her mother, Yasuko Pearl Minami (nee Murakami). Travelling to meet a 89-year-old woman whilst carrying on my iPad a photograph of young Yasukichi induces my mind to play tricks, creating an illusion as if I am meeting Yasukichi’s mother, but this woman is his daughter.

Yasukichi Murakami’s photo travelled with me to his hometown in Tanami, Wakayama, Japan. The eucalyptus bark and nuts were found at Yasukichi Murakami’s gravesite in Cowra, NSW. Self portrait photo of Yasukichi Murakami by Yasukichi Murakami, Courtesy of Murakami Family Archives. Photo by Mayu Kanamaori

Yasuko Pearl who was born in Broome, Western Australia and married a man from Tanami whilst they were both interned in Tatura, Victoria during WWII. She is the third born between Yasukichi and his wife Theresa Shigeno.

In her home, Yasuko Pearl showed me many original photographs taken by her father Yasukichi Murakami. In Australia, these photographs were lost when Yasukichi and his family were arrested in Darwin in 1941 for being an enemy alien. But Yasukichi throughout his life had sent his photographs to his mother in Japan, allowing us to see what life was like for Yasukichi during his lifetime.

Ruruka Minami and Pearl Yasuko Minami looking at old photographs. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Whilst looking through these old photographs we came across a family photograph taken in Tanami. It is the only photo I have seen of Yasukichi and his mother Yasu in Japan along with Theresa and 5 five of his 9 children. I am told that this photo was taken in Tanami when Yasukichi returned to his place of birth. I know from his immigration records that this was 1925.

Yasukichi Murakami and family in Tanami, Wakayama Prefecture. 1925.
Left to right: Yasu Murakami, Frances Yasunosuke Murakami, Theresa Shigeno Murakami, Bernadette Yoshiko Murakami (baby), Pearl Yasuko Murakami, Kathleen Masuko Murakami (standing), Richard Jukichi Murakami and Yasuichi Murakami. Photo by Yasukichi Murakami. Courtesy, Murakami Family Archives

Yasukichi’s father Jubei Murakami was a successful man. Unlike other men from Tanami, Yasukichi did not need to leave home to find work. I imagine Yasukichi left home full of youthful energy, looking forward to his adventures ahead. I too remember when I first left Tokyo to come to Australia in 1981. I too did not need to come to Australia.

His family home was on what would have been the best part of the village, along the main road in the centre of town. There is still a stone fence facing the sea today, which had belonged to the Murakami family. This block is now sub divided into three lots with houses on each end and a vacant block in the middle. This vacant block is now owned by Yasuko Pearl.

When Yasukichi returned to Japan in 1925, he found that the Murakami family had fallen on hard times and their property had been sold to others. With money he had earned in Australia, Yasukichi bought back part it and housed his mother there. This is the vacant block owned by Yasuko Pearl today.

Hearing this story made me a little teary. It was not so much that I was moved by the actions of a faithful son, but that of the diasporic condition.

It is recorded in Yasukichi’s unsuccessful Australian application for naturalization in 1939 that he had returned to Japan for “holidays” in 1925. It is our diasporic condition that touches my heart. Whilst others enjoy their holidays in exotic and fun-filled destinations, when people like Yasukichi, myself and so many of us who have crossed the seas go on our holiday, we mostly go back to where our loved ones live, and we do what we will to reconnect and rekindle that love. And then we move back to another life with other loved ones.

The day I left Tanami, Ruruka decided to perform for her grandfather Yasukichi Murakami on this vacant block of land that she would most probably inherit one day. I videoed her performance to take back to Australia and to play it back by Yasukichi’s grave in Cowra.

Ruruka Minami performing in sign on the stone wall by her family block. Still image from video by Mayu Kanamori

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

* For Ruruka Minami’s Shuwa Nikki (Sign Language Diary), click here.

* For more on the diasporic condition via a speech transcript for the Japanese on the Move, a project by Ingrid Piller and Kimie Takahashi, click here.

Archivists and heritage experts

Julie Murakami and I began our search for Yasukichi Murakami’s life and photographs he has left behind at the Northern Territory office of the National Archives of Australia. Thankfully the archivist who assisted us was supportive, encouraging and enthusiastic, giving us an auspicious start to our research. She helped us with clues about how to tackle the massive archives that held the records of our national heritage. A local woman of Aboriginal and Chinese descent, she was also interested in her own family history, searching for information about her Chinese grandfather. She told us that research can be addictive, and watching her navigate the massive web of our archives, continuously clicking her mouse, following one lead after another, made me think that this could indeed be a portrait of an addict. But then again, I think it may be my own delusional tendencies that needed a reality check: I was beginning to believe that it was the spirits of those buried underneath the vaults of our archives that possessed us to so passionately dig into our hidden histories.

Archival Officer Joanne Wood at National Archives, NT Office. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

At the Heritage Branch of the Northern Territory’s Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, we met a dedicated and very helpful heritage expert who had some years ago written a report about the heritage listed building in Cavanaugh Street in Darwin’s Central Business District, commonly known as the Stone Houses. In the report is the name Murakami as one of the occupants of this building in the early 1940’s. It is by coincidence that he had answered the phone when I rang to seek some help in locating where Yasukichi’s photographic studio may have been. Such coincidences make me feel that the spirits are with us, and once again, I find the need to remind myself not to be carried away.

At the Northern Territory Archives Service we met an archivist who awakened us to the broader and more meaningful implications of the search for Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs. So professional was her approach to her trade, it made clear to us her dedication to public service, beyond the servicing of Julie and I and her current array of clients / researchers, but for the generation after and the generation thereon after.

Julie Murakami at NT archives. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

Meeting with archivists and heritage experts have inspired my processes of art making to take shape in a very different way to what I had imagined. I am unsure how to put it in words just at the moment, but I do know that it will be an important part of the story I am about to tell of Yasukichi Murakami’s life and work. The current clues point towards how an individual photographer / image maker takes part in service of the collective memory of future generations, how our archival practices take part in this process, and how art making can make a difference. It all sounds very grand and perhaps very vague, but I can begin in small specific ways: by suggesting corrections when noticing an error in the records, whenever possible requesting digitization and opening of records which are yet to be opened, and to encourage wider public access to the treasures and secrets hidden in our archives.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

The Family Photo Album

Julie Murakami shared her family album she had inherited from her great-uncle Peter Sakichi Murakami. When he passed away, Julie said to her aunty, “Please don’t throw away the photos.” And so the family photo album was entrusted to her, and Yasukichi Murakami’s photographs of his wife and children survived another generation.

Julie allowed me to copy photograph these precious family photographs for this project. There was a photograph of Yasukichi’s wife Theresa sitting on a cart with their oldest daughter Kathleen Masuko Murakami, Julie’s grandmother. As I looked through the viewfinder onto this photograph to photograph it, I intuitively knew the exact spot Yasukichi had focused on – the eyes of young Kathleen. I too focused on her eyes, and she was returning my gaze. Or was it Yasukichi’s gaze? Through the viewfinder, for a moment, I thought was Yasukichi. Or was it Yasukichi’s ghost photographing through me?

Theresa Shigeno & Kathleen Masuko Murakami in Broome, Western Australia circa 1920. Photo by Yasukichi Murakami. Courtesy of Julie Murakami.

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Julie Murakami

Julie Murakami and I met in a restaurant in Rapid Creek, a suburb of Darwin for a Japanese meal. After sharing with her my efforts to date of locating photographs Yasukichi Murakami had left behind, she helped me with the family tree on her father’s side of her family, starting with Jubei and Yasu, Yasukichi’s parents from Tanami in Wakayama Prefecture.

Yasukichi married Theresa Shigeno and had nine children, six boys and three girls. Julie is the daughter of David Yoshiji, who is the second son of Kathleen Masuko and Yoshio Murakami. Kathleen Masuko is the oldest daughter of Yasukichi and Theresa. Julie’s father David Yoshiji Murakami was born in an internment camp in Tatura.

Julie had contacted me last year by commenting on this project blog, letting me know that she was Yasukichi’s great granddaughter. Since then we have kept contact by email, exchanging information about her great-grandfather, and we decided to join forces in our search of his legacy.

Rapid Cafe at Rapid Creek Business Village. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

-Posted by Mayu Kanamori

In Cowra finding Murakami’s grave

My collaborator Dr Lorna Kaino and I drove through the Blue Mountains, past Bathurst and arrived in Cowra in search for Yasukichi Murakami’s grave.

My first visit to Cowra was in 1997 when I arrived at the Japanese Gardens to install fifty photographs from my exhibition Unseen Faces of Japan which had been exhibited at the Japan Cultural Centre Sydney (Japan Foundation) six months earlier. Since then I have been here a dozen times, and as years pass and my understanding of history, war, peace, and people have deepened, so has my understanding of Cowra.

Yasukichi Murakami is buried in the Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra. All Japanese people who died in Australia during WWII are buried here. Unknown airmen, POWs and civilian internees, like Murakami.

His grave somehow feels out of place.

Lorna commented that she somehow had been expecting a monument more outstanding as he was an outstanding figure in our minds. Yet like all graves around the world associated with war, his grave looks identical to everyone else’s, all neatly in a row one after another. Even with all his achievements and leadership, friendships with people in high places along with his 47 years in this country, none of it made any difference in the end.

But then again, every single person here buried would have a story to tell, a mother and a father, people they loved and people who loved them, even the 3 day old baby and the unknown airman who air raided Darwin. When I remember this I realise that Murakami, although may have a common grave like everyone, else has earned his name. He is in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. And here we are, Lorna and I, searching and finding his grave 67 years after his death.

Yasukichi Murakami’s grave at Japanese War Cemetery, Cowra. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Visual collaboration in the cemetery part 2

As promised, Tomoko Yamada directed the photo shoot that took place at the Japanese Cemetery in Broome.

Emulating the historical photograph of Yasukichi Murakami and his friends taken on the eve of the Bon celebrations sometime in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s, Tomoko stood in place of the buddhist priest who was present, myself in place of Murakami, my friend Cauline Masuda, the oldest daughter of the oldest Japanese former pearl diver in Broome Akira Masuda, Tomoko’s friends Yurie Tamagawa, Mia Tucker and Michiyo Tucker stood by Takazo (Tomasi) Nishioka’s grave.

Strange how one thing leads to another unexpected turn of events. In search of Murakami has lead me to collaborate with Tomoko to create this contemporary photograph of Japanese diasporic women in Broome.

Then as a result of this photo shoot I have decided to organise a fundraising event at my friends’ Yuga Cafe & Gallery in Glebe, Sydney so that a Japanese buddhist priest could travel to Broome to read a sutra and hold a kuyo ceremony during the next Bon season.

The Japanese Cemetery in Broome is in need of a buddhist priest.

Tomoko Yamada, Yurie Tamagawa, Cauline Masuda, Mayu Kanamori, Mia Tucker and Michiyo Tucker by Takazo (Tomasi) Nishioka’s grave at Japanese Cemetery, Broome. Photo directed by Tomoko Yamada, taken with timer & tripod.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Murakami’s photographic studio

Yasukichi Murakami’s studio must have been around where Bungalow Bar or where Camdons Broome Pearls and Fine Jewellery stands now.

In search of where Murakami’s photographic studio may have been, I walked up and down around the block between Canravon St, Short St, Dampier Terrace and old Johnny Chi Lane in Broome’s Chinatown. Because of advertisement records in old phone books, we know that Nishioka’s Emporium where Eki started her photographic studio at the back of the shop had its address in Canarvon St. But back of the emporium where the studio was may have faced Dampier Terrace or the old Johnny Chi Lane. That would have been very early 1900s.

Carol Tang Wei, the co author of The Story of the Chinese in Broome has created a map of China Town circa 1935 – 1940 based on her mother’s memories. In her map there is a Japanese photographer’s studio on Dampier Terrace, three doors down from the corner of Short St. Is it possible that Murakami’s photographic studio moved their premises between his earlier days in Broome and just before he moved to Darwin? Perhaps the studio always remained in the same spot — either where the Bungalow Bar or next door where the Camdons Broome Pearls and Fine Jewellery stands today.

Bungalow Bar and Camdon’s on Dampier Terrace, China Town, Broome. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

On the morning of my departure from Broome, my long time close friend and fellow photographer Jon Armstrong and I met in China Town. It was Jon who taught me how to use Final Cut Pro to tell stories with still photographs. I asked him to photograph me in front of the Bungalow Bar on Dampier Terrace.

There is a photograph of young Murakami held at the Broome Museum. It must have been Eki who photographed him. The caption on the photograph reads: Murakami Aged 21. Photo taken outside Nishioka Store. Item Dated 1st May 1901. Eki was the one who brought the camera to Australia and she taught Murakami how to take photographs. To ask Jon to photograph me in front of the Bungalow Bar seemed to me like the most natural thing to do.

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori

Yu’s Chinese door

For the last four weeks I have lived in Sarah and Peter Yu’s home. Whilst being away from home, battling out my days chasing Murakami, fighting self-doubt, wondering if this project is getting anywhere, Peter and Sarah have been my family. They have not only given me a bed and a desk to write my blogs from, but fed me polyethnic Broome food (Asia meets saltwater county – such as fresh white fleshed salmon fishcakes with bok choy, mushroom soy and chili mud crabs) and kept me feeling loved throughout. In a very Yu family style, their dinner table has been full of people – family, friends and visitors from all over the world. People of all colors, shades, hues, saturations, foregrounds and backgrounds occupy their outdoor dining area with a large dining table.

Wondering how best to photograph my hosts, I was browsing through the Yamamoto Collection of photographs, donated in 1999 to Noreen Jones by Noriko Yamamoto. I decided it would make sense that I asked Sarah and Peter to pose for me much like some of the portraits from this collection in front of their Chinese doors which separate their private quarters from their outdoor dining and entertainment area. These doors Sarah found in Perth speak the of the Chinese side of Peter’s heritage – the other side being of Yawuru people of Broome. Sarah was born in New Castle, NSW and of English decent, met Peter in whilst working in Kunanurra thirty years ago, and never left the Kimberley since.

Yasukichi Murakami’s portrait work from the Nishioka Emporium /Photographic studio showed how many Japanese married couples were photographed in Broome in the early 1900’s – Japanese people mostly married each other. In early 2000’s, however married couples are no longer of the same ethic origin, especially in Broome.

Sarah and Peter Yu in traditional studio portrait style pose in front of their Chinese door. Photo by Mayu Kanamori

– Posted by Mayu Kanamori