TOKYO BAY PROJECT | 1991
CHIBA, JAPAN

Photos: Yoshi Hashimoto

Sponsored by the Maki Gallery in Tokyo, Hashimoto participated in this outdoor sculpture exhibition situated on a natural beach area at the mouth of Tokyo Bay on the Pacific Ocean.  Grounded in an ethos that focuses on interrelationships, Hashimoto drew upon the cross-cultural, political, and historical aspects of this site while building an installation incorporating the historic architecture and natural plant materials at the location.  

At the site were two structures which were World War II Japanese military embankments used as lookouts to guard against an American invasion of the Japanese capitol.  These former military structures had, more recently become a local dumping ground filled with trash and graffiti.

Hashimoto, a bi-lingual foreign resident in Japan at the time, conscious of her foreign/American status, created a sanctuary to examine the issues of conciliation in a place initially created for hostilities, more recently used as a container for the discarded. She had recently returned from a two-month residency at a traditional pottery village in northeast Thailand.  The visions of the wandering monks draped in saffron-colored robes, and the sparse, clean sanctuaries of the Thai countryside were fresh in her mind and set the tone for this work.