Overview

This book is the most comprehensive publication to date of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani (1920–2012), a Japanese American artist raised in Hiroshima, Japan. From Nihonga (“Japanese-style”) paintings to intricate collage works crafted on the streets of New York, Mirikitani’s art narrates a life shaped by war, displacement, survival, and collaboration. Drawing from the formal traditions of Japanese painting and the raw immediacy of urban materials, his poignant oeuvre offers a critical narrative of twentieth-century transpacific history and unexpected modes of transnational artistic exchange. This volume features 163 color illustrations alongside scholarly essays and reflections that frame Mirikitani’s practice as both artistic achievement and political intervention. Maki Kaneko’s introduction situates the exhibition within the artist’s distinctive “street Nihonga” aesthetic—a collaged form of artmaking, storytelling, and community collaboration. Contributors Noriko Murai, Scott Tsuchitani, Yukinori Okamura, and Kris Ercums offer wide-ranging perspectives, including the transnational legacy of Nihonga, the memory politics of Japanese American incarceration, the evolving lineage of “A-bomb art,” and the curatorial process behind the exhibition. Linda Hattendorf and Masa Yoshikawa, Mirikitani’s close friends and documentarians, provide intimate insights into his life and art. At once scholarly and inviting, Street Nihonga encourages readers to encounter Mirikitani not as an artist of the margins but as a radical reinterpreter of convention and a witness to histories often left untold. This catalogue remains open-ended—a living collage and a call to engage with Mirikitani’s extraordinary life and work.

Full Product Details

Author:   Maki Kaneko ,  Kris Ercums
Publisher:   Amsterdam University Press
Imprint:   Amsterdam University Press
ISBN:  

9789048570423

ISBN 10:   9048570425
Publication Date:   28 February 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Director’s foreword – Saralyn Reece Hardy, Marilyn Stokstad Director, Spencer Museum of Art Acknowledgments Note to the reader Introductory essay: Street Nihonga: In Pursuit of Collage Aesthetics and Collaboration – Maki Kaneko Color plates: Sidewalk stories Street nihonga Tule Lake memory-scape Multiple ground zeros Affinities and connections Entangled memories Interpretive texts for twelve select works Linda Hattendorf, Masa Yoshikawa, and Maki Kaneko Essays: The paradox of nihonga in the art of Mirikitani – Noriko Murai Tule Lake troubles – Scott Tsuchitani When “A-bomb art” goes beyond borders – Yukinori Okamura; translated by Daisuke Murata Curation and collage: Lived experience in the art of Mirikitani – Kris Imants Ercums Making The Cats of Mirikitani – Linda Hattendorf List of select exhibitions Contributors Index

Reviews

Author Information

Maki Kaneko is Associate Professor in the Kress Foundation Department of Art History at the University of Kansas. She has published on Japanese and Japanese diaspora artists from the 1930s to the present, including Mirroring the Japanese Empire: The Male Figure in Y.ga Painting, 1930–1950 (2015). Kris Imants Ercums is Curator of Global Contemporary and Asian Art at the Spencer Museum of Art. His curatorial practice bridges historical and contemporary perspectives, with a focus on transnational exchange. He has organized exhibitions and residencies highlighting global Asian artists and themes of modernity, queerness, and speculative futures.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions