ABSTRACT
JAPAN AND ASIA Shimada Yoshiko’s print-etching was published on the cover of the 1994 September/October issue of Asian Art News, a publication in English from Hong Kong (Figure 14.1). The image can be identified as the late Japanese emperor Hirohito, though his face is burnt out, not to be represented, and the hollow face is marked with a big cross. Shimada uses an old photograph of Hirohito in military uniform, which was treated as a sacred icon in wartime Japan. The whole piece is tainted with rusty red, which is reminiscent of blood. The magazine is widely distributed in Southeast Asia but rarely in Japan. I must stress a dramatic contrast: what happened in Hong Kong would never happen in Japan. No art magazine in Japan will use an artwork including the emperor’s image to illustrate the cover for fear of ultranationalist attack. Censorship to avoid the use of the emperor’s image has been internalized by artists. Few artists dare to use the image. This specific piece by Shimada is visually too controversial to be reproduced on a cover. In contrast, in Hong Kong and other Asian countries which were once ruled by Japan, Shimada’s image can be properly shares and appreciated as an explicit representation of the artist’s negation of the iconic divinity of the emperor.1
