By Cathy Hirano

Sorry for the long silence. It may seem strange to write about the Setouchi International Art Festival when it is almost over but there is one island that really needs to be shared – Oshima. I returned to the island of Oshima (See June 16 article) twice, once in September and once more at the end of October.

I found each visit profoundly thought provoking. As few people have the chance to visit this island, let me share some of the experience. There were no stunning works by famous or up-and-coming artists there. Instead the art project offered a door into the lives of people who have endured great suffering and still found meaning in life; a unique opportunity to step into the lives and history of a community that was isolated for close to a century.


Photo : Oshima Island

Oshima has been a sanatorium for people with Hansen’s disease (aka leprosy) since 1909. There was no effective cure until the early 1980s and because people mistakenly believed the disease to be highly contagious and sexually transmitted, lepers were shunned. This social stigma was aggravated in Japan by laws that enforced segregation. Those who developed the disease were wrenched from their communities, struck from the family register as though they were dead and sent to sanatoriums where they lived as outcasts, waiting to die with no hope of a cure. Some were only children. Marriage was forbidden at first and then later permitted on condition that the couples were sterilized. In the beginning, the Oshima sanatorium director came from the police department and the inhabitants were essentially prisoners, unable to leave.


Photo : View from the breakwater – dormitories in the distance.

Segregation finally ended in 1996 and Oshima residents are now free to leave the island, but most stay put, despite being cured. This is understandable when you consider that the average age of the inhabitants is 80, that many have been crippled by the disease or by aging, and that they were ostracized for much of their lives. Japanese people living in Takamatsu have told me that it is also hard for them to visit the island. Some still feel fear or guilt and others just don’t know what to expect. These factors hinder the reintegration of people from the sanatorium into society.


Photo : Catching the boat to Oshima

The Oshima art project did a tremendous job in bridging that gap by bringing people to the island and by offering a vehicle for residents to share their experience with visitors. A lot of visitors! The boat only seats 50 and it only goes 3 times a day yet the first day I went, which was a weekday, over 100 people visited the island. The project conveyed a strong sense that the residents want us to know what life was like in those difficult days of segregation before there is no one left to tell their stories. And their lives were presented in a gentle and accessible way that invited us to question and think.


Photo : Gallery 15

The exhibit at Gallery 15, entitled “Old Things, Things We Couldn’t Part With”, was a good example. Project director Nobuyuki Takahashi chose this theme because the residents were not permitted to leave anything to posterity – no children, no belongings.


Photo : Art project director Nobuyuki Takahashi

No family members came to collect their ashes when they died. Instead, the residents made informal agreements with each other to tie up any loose ends, which generally meant disposing of their belongings. Thus there are few mementos left from the past. When they learned what Takahashi wanted to do, the residents began bringing things they had kept, including the belongings of people who had passed away and things that they themselves treasured, each one with a story. These were arranged in Gallery 15, an empty dormitory, as a testimony to the residents’ lives. The tools they developed to function with their disabilities demonstrated great ingenuity and mementos, such as an enormous collection of photographs taken by a resident, suggest positive memories despite the hardship; an appreciation for life and the beauty of nature.


Photo : Former dormitory apartment housing an exhibit

Other objects quietly attested to the suffering of the island’s inhabitants. The most striking of these stands in front of the gallery – a stone table used for dissecting the bodies of residents who died.


Photo : Dissecting table in front of Gallery 15

When they entered the sanatorium, all residents had to sign a form “consenting” to be autopsied and this table was where it was done. Twenty-five years ago the table was cast from a cliff into the sea. Some residents told Takahashi it was still there, exposed at low tide, and with great effort, it was brought to shore. Its silent form, cracked down the middle, speaks volumes.


Photo : Dissecting table as it was found on the beach. (Photo by Nobuyuki Takahashi)

Considering the subject matter, this project could have been depressingly morbid, but, in fact, it wasn’t. There was no blame directed at anyone. Just an invitation to open our minds and hearts to learning about what it means to be human. As one of my Japanese friends from Takamatsu said, “Without the art festival, we never would have visited the island. We would have continued to live in separate worlds, not knowing each other. Art and the festival acted as the medium that brought us together, softening the edges to make the reality of what happened easier to bear.”


Photo : Looking out from the island (Photo by Kazumi)

Please Note:
The art project is now over, at least for the time being, but you can still visit the island. The boat is free but you will need to contact the National Sanatorium Oshima Seishoen to get permission to go. The phone number is 087-871-3131 (Japanese only). Here is the Japanese website as well: http://www.hosp.go.jp/~osima/index1.html


*Many thanks to Nobuyuki Takahashi for information and photos. Thanks also to Kazumi for sharing photos.

* Gentle Art Project (Yasashii Bijutsu Project): This term was coined by Nagoya Zokei University and is not limited to the project in Oshima. It refers to art projects in which the hospital, artists and designers collaborate to create a medical environment that promotes peace of mind and institutions that are open to the community. The university’s students and graduates are implementing such projects in other locations as well. See: http://setouchi-artfest.jp/en/artist/yasashii_bijutsu_project/