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This
detail from the Hiroshima Panels
by Iri and Toshi Maruki depicts a young women participating
in the annual commemoration of those killed in the
atomic holocaust. During the evening of the 6th, thousands
of people line the Ota River in Hiroshima to float
small paper lanterns out to sea. Each lantern is lite
by a single candle and bares the name of someone killed
during the bombing. The act is thought to console
the spirits of the dead, and this beautiful ritual
continues right up to the present day. The
artists also wrote prose to accompany their visual
works.
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An
excerpt from their poem, Floating Lanterns,
reads: "On
August 6 every year, the seven rivers of Hiroshima
are filled with lanterns. Painted with the names
of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers... they
float on their way to the sea. Almost there, pushed
back. Flames snuffed out. Darkly coming back in
pieces. Tossed by ocean waves. Years ago, the
rivers were filled... not with floating lanterns,
but with the corpses of those mothers, fathers,
sisters, brothers."
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