{"id":11228,"date":"2022-07-12T16:37:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T23:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/?p=11228"},"modified":"2022-07-12T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T23:37:16","slug":"shinzo-abe-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/shinzo-abe-rip.html","title":{"rendered":"Shinzo Abe RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regarding the ghastly assassination of Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (1954-2022). I found the illustration for this essay in a far corner of the internet. Created by New Zealand based illustrator Joseph Qiu<\/a>, it\u2019s an artwork created in the style of a traditional Japanese woodcut.<\/p>\n

\"Shinzo
Shinzo Abe as triumphant Samurai warrior. Courtesy of artist Joseph Qiu \u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The red-sun in the background alludes to Abe\u2019s brand of Japanese nationalism, the crashing ocean waves are evocative of works by artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), while the dragon, a common motif in Japanese art, references the Chinese Communist Party. Holding a deadly katana, Abe is depicted as a victorious Samurai warrior who has tamed the beast. Qiu rendered his faux woodblock print with the digital applications Procreate and Photoshop. On his Instagram account he said he wasn\u2019t a fan of Shinzo Abe, but was \u201csorry for what happened to him and his family,\u201d noting that he wished \u201cthe world could be a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have always been infatuated with traditional ukiyo-e (\u201cpictures of the floating world\u201d), those woodblock prints created by Japanese master artists of mid-18th century Edo (now Tokyo). I wasn\u2019t the first artist to note the aesthetics of ukiyo-e. At a very early age I discovered that great European artists like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, and Mary Cassatt also shared my passion for the bold and colorful woodblock prints.<\/p>\n

As I grew older I studied master artists like Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), who gave the world stunning portraits of beautiful women\u2014and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), who gifted us with observant looks at landscapes and everyday life in old Japan. Then there was the aforementioned Hokusai, best known for his tour-de-force print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

My favorite ukiyo-e master was Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892). He worked in Japan as Westernization began when an American naval officer named Matthew Perry landed US ships in Tokyo harbor in 1853. Yoshitoshi was an artist that depicted the ugly realities of his day with the same attention he gave things beautiful. He created incredible prints of war scenes, showing feudal armies fighting with swords and spears along with bows and arrows; these were savage portrayals of combat. He produced a print series titled Twenty-eight Infamous Murders with Accompanying Verse<\/a><\/em>, that presented abhorrent, pitiless crimes committed by people from all sectors of Japan\u2019s 18th century society. These daunting works were replete with decapitations, cruel torture, and blood splattered kimono.<\/p>\n

The artist was also interested in ghost stories (kaidan), and he produced the ethereal, bone-chilling woodblock series, Thirty-Six Ghosts<\/em>. Yoshitoshi had the most influence on me since he portrayed real life\u2014no matter how unpleasant, with a courageous stoic realism; he turned heartbreaking matters into exquisite and profound works of art. In small part I credit him for my embrace of social realism in art. Which brings us to the matter at hand, the monstrous assassination of Shinzo Abe.<\/p>\n

Abe was shot in broad daylight on July 8, 2022 while giving a campaign speech in Nara City supporting candidates of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), this was just before the scheduled elections of July 10, 2022. The assassin used a crude double-barreled \u201cshotgun\u201d made of two short lengths of pipe, fixed to a wood plank with black adhesive tape, and fitted with a battery powered firing system. At the time of this writing it\u2019s not known if the killer concocted his own explosive charges or somehow managed to acquire shotgun shells in a country where any interaction with guns is illegal. The assassin fired two shots, one missed but the second felled Abe. He died in the hospital that same day.<\/p>\n

\"Detail
Detail of Shinzo Abe. Courtesy of artist Joseph Qiu \u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not much has been reported about the 41-year-old assassin, but I don\u2019t expect to hear the truth anytime soon. Abe had many enemies. He considered the Chinese Communist Party to be a serious adversary and he repeatedly defended Taiwan as an independent nation, sovereign, democratic, and free\u2014Abe strengthened Japan\u2019s military, infuriating both Communist China and Japan\u2019s left. He created a solid working relationship with former President Trump\u2014leaving American liberals apoplectic. Liberal National Public Radio (NPR) in reporting on Abe\u2019s murder, referred to him in a tweet as a \u201cdivisive arch-conservative,\u201d which interestingly enough was the stance of the Chinese Communist Party. Because of the massive negative online feedback by stunned Japanese and American citizens alike, NPR deleted their tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former President Trump immediately offered condolences to the family of Shinzo Abe; Trump actually issued two heartfelt statements regarding Abe\u2019s death. This was followed by condolences from world leaders. *President Biden was belated in offering condolences; don\u2019t think the Japanese didn\u2019t notice. In his message Biden said: \u201cWhile there are many details that we do no yet know, we know that violent attacks are never acceptable and that gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.\u201d Except there is no \u201cgun violence\u201d crisis in Japan. According to the National Police Agency of Japan in 2021 there was a single gun-related death in Japan. Again, don\u2019t think the Japanese didn\u2019t notice Biden\u2019s bewildering remark, which was really aimed at American liberals.<\/p>\n

On July 10, 2022 Japan\u2019s voters gave a sweeping two-thirds supermajority in Japan\u2019s parliamentary elections to the Liberal Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. The win clears the way for the LDP to amend Japan\u2019s pacifist constitution<\/a>, which forbids the nation from having armed forces that can operate overseas, and bans the \u201cuse of force as a means of settling international disputes.\u201d With Communist China making its muscle felt in the Indo-Pacific region, it seems most Japanese are feeling nervous about not having a modern army, air force and navy.<\/p>\n

The murder of Shinzo Abe was more than an attack on Japanese democracy, it was another indication of civilization sliding into chaos and war. Abe\u2019s killing was a huge shock to the people of Japan, and its repercussions will be felt globally. On the night of Abe\u2019s killing, Chinese on the controlled social media of Communist China celebrated his death<\/a>, calling the assassin a \u201chero.\u201d Japanese twitter was full of grieving messages comparing Abe to John F. Kennedy, the US President killed by an assassin in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22, 1963. I watched the TV news coverage of JKF\u2019s murder in real time in \u201863 as a 10-year-old. His slaying marked the start of a violent age\u2014I\u2019m getting an unpleasant sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n

If you have never heard of \u201cDuck and Cover<\/a>,\u201d don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s back. On July 11, 2022, officials of the New York City Emergency Management Department launched a public service video<\/a> recommending what \u201cimportant steps\u201d people should take in the event of a nuclear attack. The advice sounded as if officials expected only minor structural damage and a few burned trees. At the end of the message the video\u2019s young black female presenter said: \u201cAll right, you\u2019ve got this.\u201d Oh yeah, sure… we\u2019ve got this. Nuclear War? There goes my career!<\/em> I\u2019ve got news for you, if a Russian Sarmat hypersonic missile<\/a> with its 10 or more atomic warheads ever slammed into the Big Apple, New York and the entire US East Coast would be obliterated. Communist China is presently working on its own hypersonic atomic missiles.<\/p>\n

The present is beginning to look a lot like the past. The tired old adage attributed to Mark Twain is applicable here: \u201cHistory doesn\u2019t repeat itself but it often rhymes.\u201d That notwithstanding, the free verse of today\u2019s poetries are like marching boots and thundering missiles blotting out blackened skies. Take another look at Joseph Qiu\u2019s artwork of Shinzo Abe as Samurai warrior. The dark clouds are ominous, lightning streaks the grayish heavens. The sea is stormy and hazardous.<\/p>\n

But that dragon… is it slain or merely sleeping?<\/p>\n

\"Detail
Detail of dragon artwork. Courtesy of artist Joseph Qiu \u00a9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regarding the ghastly assassination of Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (1954-2022). I found the illustration for this essay in a far corner of the internet. Created by New Zealand based illustrator Joseph Qiu, it\u2019s an artwork created in the style of a traditional Japanese woodcut. The red-sun in the background alludes to Abe\u2019s brand of Japanese nationalism, the crashing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prints-posters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}