In July of 2005, I wrote about Myth of Tomorrow, a long lost but rediscovered mural by famed Japanese artist, Taro Okamoto. Painted in Mexico between 1968 and 1969, Okamoto’s mural depicting the horrors of nuclear war was located in the lobby of what was to be a luxury hotel, but the building was never completed and the mural - painted on large panels - was put into storage and subsequently lost. In 2003 the panels were found abandoned in a warehouse, and arrangements were made to ship them to Japan for restoration and eventual display - that day has arrived, but the great masterwork has yet to find a permanent home.

Mounted on the street in a special protective housing, the mural has been on free public display in Tokyo’s Shiodome district since July 10th where it has so far been viewed by tens of thousands of people. The director of the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Akiomi Hirano, has offered the gigantic mural to any public institution willing to put it on permanent display, but because of its massive size (18 feet by 98 feet) there have been few takers. The municipal governments of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have turned down the opportunity to display the mural, siting lack of funds to build an appropriate site for the work as well as space limitations. Still, Hirano is hopeful the mural will find a permanent home by 2011, the 100th anniversary of Taro Okamoto’s birth.

The following Japanese language websites offer more information about Okamoto’s mural. The Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun Partnership website is displaying an animated gif that shows the artist creating his mural in 68 - as well as a collection of still pictures. The Nippon Television Network Corporation also presents a series of still photos. The Chugoku Shimbun reports that a full scale image of Okamoto’s mural was projected on the wall in front of the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima during the memorial for the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan.

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