The Myth of Tomorrow Edit

(Japan)  Artwork

( fr ) TOKYO, Nov. 17 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The late artist Taro Okamoto's giant mural depicting the moment of an atomic-bomb explosion was unveiled Monday for public viewing as it was permanently installed on the wall of a walk-through of the Keio Inokashira Line's Shibuya Station in Tokyo. The "Myth of Tomorrow," a 5.5 meters by 30 meters mural, was placed in the walk-through inside the Shibuya Mark City emporium, an area where some 300,000 people walk by every day. The piece was painted by Okamoto (1911-1996) from 1968 to 1969 as a mural for a hotel in Mexico City but it became unaccounted for as the hotel owner's business faltered. The mural was discovered in a warehouse in a suburb of Mexico City in September 2003 and was restored in Toon, Ehime Prefecture. Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, the city of Suita in Osaka Prefecture and the city of Hiroshima were competing to host the mural, which features a burning skeleton under a mushroom cloud. The Shibuya Ward government won the competition in March. Okamoto is known for his work "Tower of the Sun" that was built for the Japan World Exposition 1970 in Osaka.