“Grandma, didn’t you die of lung cancer?”
“Oh really? How unlucky.”
This is an excerpt from an episode of Yudai Kamisato’s compilation of horror stories. Pertemuan, or The Meeting, was the title. This broadcast is part of the Open Ideas: Artists Talk #5 event on Tuesday (2/11) at 07.00 p.m which is broadcast via Zoom and Live YouTube.
Once upon a time, an Okinawan citizen met the spirit of his grandmother who had died the previous day. Instead of it becoming a tense meeting, it ended anecdotally because the grandmother had just remembered her death. “In Okinawa, ghosts and monsters are told to coexist with humans,” said Yudai.
Okinawans are used to living side by side with danger. Not only monsters and ghosts but the tsunami was also used as a companion. Motoyuki Shitamichi, an archaeologist-cum-artist from Okinawa, presented his work. Displayed at the Biennale Jogja XVI Equator #6 2021, mounted on the 3rd-floor wall of the Jogja National Museum, this work is named Tsunami Boulder.
The tsunami Rock. Michi said that in Okinawa there are frequent tsunamis. Then, the tsunami lifted large rocks from the seabed to the coast. Through nine black-and-white video panels, Michi displayed different tsunami rocks.
“Life took over the rocks,” Michi said. Literally, the tsunami rocks were indeed filled with life. Birds laid eggs there, fishermen sat on them while throwing their fishing rods. In fact, one stone has been documented as being explored by goats.
Symbolically, culture and legends revolve around the tsunami stones. There is a stone that is used as a marker of the area. Some are worshiped. “In the plains, round tsunami rocks are scattered. It’s an anomaly so people made a cult around it,” said Michi.
Before meeting the tsunami rock archives in 2014-2015, Michi’s reflection began on the 2011 Japan Tsunami. In an area in Eastern Japan, Michi found the wreckage of a stray ship in a residential area.
Although in the end the shipwreck was moved, Michi’s imagination was still sparked. “What if the ship stays there? What kind of adaptations will be made by the local residents?” he asked. This idea led Michi to another alternative artifact: the tsunami stone in Okinawa.
With the tsunami and its horror stories, Okinawans live side by side. Is this the work of the Pacific War, as moderator Elia Nurvista said so that Okinawans think that danger is a daily thing? Who knows. But, from Yudai and Michi, we know that in Okinawa, tsunamis are rife and ghosts are no longer a surprise.
