Photo — Elias Djemil
The Ōta River and its tributaries flow through the city of Hiroshima, where they separate before reaching the Seto Inland Sea. In the heart of this delta is the Aioi, a bridge that has a giant T shape when seen from above. This distinct design made it the target of the first atomic bomb dropped on humanity.
The seven streams of the Ōta River correspond to seven stories from 1945 to 1995 about plagues afflicting the second half of the 20th century: concentration camp deaths, with the Nazi concentration camps as one of the most extreme examples; nuclear deaths, which began with a blinding flash in the Japanese sky one morning in August 1945; and viral deaths, which, with AIDS, marked the end of the millennium.
As one story leads to the next, a common theme emerges: the quest for meaning and peace when facing death and horror. It’s driven by characters who reject sensuality and laughter in the face of adversity: a Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) living with her wounds; an illusionist whose mediocre tricks nevertheless cheer those he is interned with; a performer who discovers the Middle Way in an unexpected place… And then there’s the young Western dancer who came to learn butō and now finds himself, 50 years after the bomb, contemplating Miyajima’s torii—the sacred gate that seems to float on the water where the seven streams of the Ōta River flow into the Hiroshima Bay.
