Hiroshima Bugi: Atomu 57

by Gerald Vizenor

Hiroshima Bugi is an ingenious kabuki novel that begins in the ruins of the Atomic Bomb Dome, a new Rashomon Gate. Ronin Browne, the humane peace contender, is the hafu orphan son of Okichi, a Japanese boogie-woogie dancer, and Nightbreaker, an Anishinaabe from the White Earth Reservation who served as an interpreter for General Douglas MacArthur during the first year of the American occupation in Japan.

 

Ronin draws on samurai and native traditions to confront the moral burdens and passive notions of nuclear peace celebrated at the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima. He creates a new calendar that starts with the first use of atomic weapons, Atomu One. Ronin accosts the spirits of the war dead at Yasukuni Jinga. He then marches into the national shrine and shouts to Tojo Hideki and other war criminals to come out and face the spirits of thousands of devoted children who were sacrificed at Hiroshima.

 

In Hiroshima Atomu 57 acclaimed Anishinaabe writer Gerald Vizenor has created a dynamic meditation on nuclear devastation and our inability to grasp fully its presence or its legacy

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Gerald Robert Vizenor is an Anishinaabe writer and scholar, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Director of Native American Studies. With more than 30 books published, Vizenor is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico.

Reviews

[may · Rating 4 out of 5]

To save myself writing a whole opinion on Kabuki Theatre, here’s a boiled down overview of the very basics: “Kabuki is an art form rich in showmanship. It involves elaborately designed costumes, eye-catching make-up, outlandish wigs, and arguably most importantly, the exaggerated actions performed by the actors.” [1]

Vizenor, through the stripped back and vivid languages of native storytelling, explores the histories of culture and state in Japan, centring around the zero-point; a use and impact of atomic weaponry.
The book channels (constantly shifting in and out of) Pre- and Post-Modern technique and outlook, whilst presenting a colourful and erratic sequence of actions living up to the ‘Kabuki Novel’ idea.

We see the Pre-Modern: streamlined and spiritual dream language that thrusts the words out of the page into imaginative orbit. Extravagant and often nonsensical poses of the actors. Surreal warps in dialogue and location.

We also see the Post-Modern: The delivered manuscript and author as a device for storytelling, analysis and commentary. Heavy exploration of Post- and Pre-atomic war through literature, philosophy, film, biography… rippling down the chain to present day in order to see their impact on the cultural sphere of consciousness.

As the book progresses (executed very well) these two mirroring entities, and inherently two cultures of east and west, seem to shatter and co-mingle their fragments more and more.

Reminded of what’s done in; Mangled Hands and WTV’s Seven Dreams, Otherworld Barbara, Volume 1 for the surreal dream-like sequences and shifts between realities, and some of my favourite Art Theatre Guild (& Co.) films that take great inspiration from the Kabuki aesthetic and structure, rolled into one.

[1] Japan Guide - Kabuki

[pyrus ‧ ₊˚୨୧ ₊˚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

the process of reading this book is torture, but i’m glad i read it. it has an interesting and unique take on war and peace. if you hate yourself, take the time to get through it so you can have the insightful knowledge it provides.

[Christy George · Rating 2 out of 5]

I try. I really do try to find value in every piece of written word. Therefore, it elicits a true anger in me when authors feel the need to be so pretentious and overwrought in their work. Why? If you have a message to convey, wouldnt it be more effective if the common reader could actually understand it? This elite brand of educated, scholarly, high brow work just did not work for me. There were just words on a page. Nonsensical, attempting to be deep and poetic but falling short. This author is a professor and a scholar. I would hate to be in any of his classes.

[Annika Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s something about the cadence