Part VIII.b: The Miracle Pine Tree, Rikuzentakata, Japan
slide presentation (excerpted from the in-development book Unnatural Disaster)
Initially presented at The Asian Art Society of Australia talk series Nature in Japan, Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, 2018
Presented as a Zoom keynote for Mutable Technologies - Tracing Changing Environments, RMIT University, Melbourne & ICC & Musashi University, Tokyo, 2021
Depicting Nature
Nicholas Poussin - French Landscape With A Calm (1651); Hubert Robert - Demolition of St. Jean Church in Greve (1800)
Caspar David Friedrich - Sea of Ice (1824); W. M. Turner - Slave Ship (1840)
John Martin - The Great Day Of His Wrath (1853); Claude Monet - Water Lilies (1916)
Controlling Nature
Robert Smithson - Spiral Jetty (1970); Christo - Valley Curtain (1972)
Walter de Maria - Earth Room (1977); Joseph Beuys - 7000 Oaks (1982)
Thomas Hirschhorn - Too Too-Much Much (2010); Olafur Eliasson - River Bed (2014)
Ai Weiwei - Straight (2013)
Siting Rikuzentaka
Satellite views & maps
Destroying Rikuzentaka
Map of Japan; Japan Meteorological Bureau wave height simulation
3/11 tsunami striking the pine grove; the aftermath
Preserving Ippon Matsu - The Miracle Pine
Partially cleared site with protected pine tree covering; sectioning the pine tree
Sectioning the pine tree; fully cleared site
Marketing of The Miracle Pine
The pine tree in Noh theatre design
Transporting & reconstructing the pine tree from Rikuzentakata
Reassembling the fabricated pine tree on site
Visiting The Miracle Pine
The site with cleared zones, cyclone fences, extant bridge, new water lock, general construction
Reconstructing The Miracle Pine
The fabricated pine tree with memorial stone & adjacent destroyed youth hostel
Reconstructing Rikuzentaka
The Rikuzentakata sea wall
Memorial grave stones awaiting relocation; earth conveyor
The Bridge of Hope earth conveyor system, Kesenuma
Reconstructing Tohoku
Ishinomaki (2011 & 2013)
Minamisoma (2011 & 2013)
Natori (2011 & 2013)
Otsuchi (2011 & 2013)
Minamisanriku (2011 & 2013)
Rikuzentakata (2011 & 2013)
Ippon Matsu - Rikuzentakata (2013)
Reconstructing Nature
Shimomura Kanzan - Autumn Among Trees (1907)
The Night Walker from Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1996)
The Great Tohoku North East Earthquake & Tsunami (2013)
The Forest King Spirit growing a tree in Hayao Miyazaki's Tottoro (1988)