Atmosphere | Takeshi Tokitsu | Self published 2025 [SIGNED]

In 2025, Japan will mark 80 years since its defeat in the war and the 100th anniversary of the Showa era. The turbulent Showa era, marked by war and defeat, rapid economic growth, and a bubble economy, has seen a gradual transition from the peaceful "postwar" era to the Heisei and Reiwa eras. The pressure to conform and totalitarianism that surfaced with each society shaking event such as: the death of Emperor Showa, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the COVID-19 pandemic exposed a lurking wartime atmosphere in the shadows of tranquil times.

This work superimposes wartime and postwar newspapers with Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of State Shinto that functioned as a tool to motivate the nation to wage war, and photographs of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic. By eliminating the element of time and discovering visual similarities between the present and the past, this work visualizes the underlying atmosphere that permeated Japanese society.