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painting
H: 64.5 in, W: 51.5 in, Frame: 64.5 x 52 x 1.25 in
canvas
oil

Subject Tags
Concentration camps
Crosses
Death
Duty
Ghosts
Japanese Americans
Mothers
Rattlesnakes
Senninbari
Soldiers
Sons
United States. Army. Regimental Combat Team, 442nd
Watchtowers

Senninbari (Thousand Stitches)

Henry Sugimoto [bio]

New York, N.Y., ca. 1942

Gift of Madeleine Sugimoto and Naomi Tagawa, Japanese American National Museum

Henry Sugimoto Collection

Description
Stretched and framed. | Image of a ghostly outline of Nisei soldier standing in salute as he looks down at a woman holding up a senninbari with a thousand stitches (scarf of remembrance). She in maroon top and black skirt stands in front of a barbed wire fence with sign, "Block 2," in the foreground. The white scarf has a tiger's face and Japanese characters among the stiches. A rattlesnake is coiled on the other side of the fence, lower left. Dirt and dry grasses extend past the watch tower with soldier to the green trees in the background. A grey object lies in the grass next to the tower. Above trees, white crosses with one American flag appear on a field of blue at center, with red gold sky to either side. (Very similar to the painting entitled "In Camp Jerome", also by Sugimoto 92.97.9.)

Inscription
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto Written on back: "Thousand Stitches" / by Henry Sugimoto ; Upper right (In Japanese): Senninbari / 1982 / HS, NY

History
In the years following World War II, Sugimoto revisited the subject of the concentration camps many times in his art. Often repainting compositions he created during the war, he translated many works onto larger canvases and inserted new details. Issei mothers prepared their sons for war by creating a senninbari, a protective talisman made of cloth. An image is sewn onto the fabric with a thousand stiches done by many women throughout the camp. Sugimoto's sympathy for both Nisei soldiers and their Issei parents is evident in this work.

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Hirasaki National Resource Center at the Japanese American National Museum (hnrc@janm.org).