Toshi Maruki

Video version of the picture book 'Hiroshima no pika', based on the art pieces known as The Hiroshima Panels by Iri and Maruki Toshi

Filmed soon after the end of the Allied occupation, this documentary is an extremely valuable record of the production and nationwide tour of “The Hiroshima Panels” at the time.

After a handful of groundbreaking films detailing the tragedy and suffering of the mercury-poisoned Japanese town of Minamata, documentary master Noriaki Tsuchimoto revisits the subject of Minamata through the eyes of the celebrated husband-and-wife painting duo Iri and Toshi Maruki. Tsuchimoto follows the Marukis from their quaint homestead studio, where they paint slews of ghastly, psychotropic mural panels depicting the effects of Minamata disease, to the streets of Minamata, where they meet and paint portraits of several victims of mercury poisoning.

Japanese husband and wife muralists Iri and Toshi Maruki are known for their depictions of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their collaborative relationship is unique: one paints a painfully detailed vision of the victims of the atomic blast; the other conceals the carefully delineated brush strokes with a grey-black ink “wash.” The first artist restates the specifics of the image; the second re-conceals. Through the repetition of this process, the work emerges.

A documentary exploring all fourteen panels of The Battle of Okinawa, painted in the 1980s by husband-and-wife artists Iri and Toshi Maruki. Known for their searing anti-war works such as The Hiroshima Panels and The Nanjing Massacre, the Marukis spent six years in Okinawa gathering testimonies from survivors and visiting former battle sites. Their paintings confront the brutality of ground warfare while honoring the Okinawan belief of nuchi du takara — “life is a treasure.” Directed by Atsunori Kawamura.