ACC Japan held a fellowship report session by Bontaro Dokuyama and Aki Yahata, who completed a six-month fellowship in the United States last year. (Yahata participated online as she was participating in an artist residency program in Taiwan.) In accordance with their respective research themes, they traveled to and stayed in various parts of the United States, and conducted their research through a variety of experiences and encounters.


After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Dokuyama began his artistic practice focusing on Fukushima and nuclear power. In recent years, he has been researching the history of Japanese immigration and its culture, and creating works based on that research. During this fellowship, he conducted research in five cities on the West Coast and in New York, focusing on the history of Japanese immigrants and the transmission of their culture since the Meiji Restoration. On the West Coast, he participated in Bon Odori festivals organized by local Japanese American [YS1.1]communities and visited Japanese American museums and Japan towns. By actively engaging with local residents—such as joining a local table tennis club—and exchanging views with researchers, he gained firsthand insight into the distinct characteristics of each community and the varied approaches to cultural preservation.
 

Yahata, who creates multi-layered video works and installations based on the theme of “periphery” through fieldwork and interviews, conducted research on how immigrant communities in New York preserve and reinterpret their cultural traditions within the context of diaspora. She also took a road trip through Arizona, and visited several reservations guided by a Native American friend. She had an opportunity to participate in a special ceremony held exclusively within the community, making this a particularly memorable experience through the fellowship. Furthermore, having learned about the history of Japanese-American internment camps built on Native American reservations during World War II, she began to explore a new research topic while carefully considering how to engage with these complex realities. Since completing the fellowship, she has remained in contact with the Japanese Americans she met during her stay and continues to collaborate with a Native American artist.