Minamata Disease

The Stakes of Exposure
Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art
Namiko Kunimoto

The first major English-language study of some of Japan’s most important postwar artists

How would artistic practice contribute to political change in post-World War II Japan? How could artists negotiate the imbalanced global dynamics of the art world and also maintain a sense of aesthetic and political authenticity? While the contemporary art world has recently come to embrace some of Japan’s most daring postwar artists, the interplay of art and politics remain poorly understood in the Americas and Europe. The Stakes of Exposure fills this gap and explores art, visual culture, and politics in postwar Japan from the 1950s to the 1970s, paying special attention to how anxiety and confusion surrounding Japan’s new democracy manifested in representations of gender and nationhood in modern art.

Through such pivotal postwar episodes as the Minamata Disaster, The Lucky Dragon Incident, the budding anti-nuclear movement, and the ANPO protests of the 1960s, The Stakes of Exposure examines a wide range of issues addressed by the period’s prominent artists, including Tanaka Atsuko and Shiraga Kazuo (key members of the Gutai Art Association), Katsura Yuki, and Nakamura Hiroshi. Through a close examination of their paintings, illustrations, and assemblage and performance art, Namiko Kunimoto reveals that, despite dissimilar aesthetic approaches and divergent political interests, Japanese postwar artists were invested in the entangled issues of gender and nationhood that were redefining Japan and its role in the world.

Offering numerous full-color illustrations of previously unpublished art and photographs, as well as period manga, The Stakes of Exposure shows how contention over Japan’s new democracy was expressed, disavowed, and reimagined through representations of the gendered body.

Les luttes menées contre l’entreprise Chisso à Minamata ont marqué de manière durable les rapports entre les courants les plus radicaux du syndicalisme et les mouvements de masse contre la pollution industrielle. Elles ont été le point de rencontre de formes traditionnelles de l’action syndicale avec des mobilisations nouvelles, notamment des actions judiciaires et une production artistique de longue durée. Leur impact dans la société japonaise a été profond et durable.

This is an introduction to a paper by maverick sociologist Kazuko Tsurumi ((1918-2006),  entitled "New Lives: Some Case Studies of Minamata." The paper dates from 1987 and is based on fieldwork conducted in Minamata, Kumamoto prefecture, between 1976 and 1983. The paper introduces three of the heroes of the movement to gain redress for the victims of Minamata Disease – mercury poisoning caused by contamination of the Shiranui Sea by the town's main employer, Chisso Corporation, a major chemical maker still very much in business today. The paper contains valuable source material on the Minamata redress movement, dramatized through three extraordinary personalities. At the same time I explain that it is characteristic of Tsurumi that she also seeks to relate the case studies to her broader intellectual concerns, by identifying the three victim-activists as representatives of her typology of forms of creativity.

Minamata disease is a type of poisoning caused when mercury from a chemical factory in southwest Japan polluted the sea, accumulating in fish and shellfish, and affecting people who consumed contaminated seafood. This chapter reviews the historical background of Minamata disease and analyzes the suffering experienced by the victims of the Minamata disease incident, showing how damage to the environment caused multiple disabilities including health and livelihood impairments, poverty and discrimination, and loss of occupational meanings and identities.