On Sept. 3 and 4 this year, soldiers at a Ground Self-Defense Force base in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu were joined by an improbable guest: Japan's premier feminist and antiwar artist, Yoshiko Shimada.
Maybe the GSDF didn't realize what they were getting into, as the visit was arranged through the auspices of the new Kumamoto City Museum of Contemporary Art. In any case, Shimada was allowed to tour and videotape the base. She focused on the women who serve in the GSDF -- a cheery, robust group in battle fatigues whose days are spent marching, driving military vehicles and firing big anti-aircraft guns.
"Women in Camouflage," a 15-minute video document of Shimada's stay at the base, forms part of her new exhibition of the same name, now showing at the Ota Fine Arts gallery in Shibuya.
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