Title:
Going to America
Creator/Contributor:
Sugimoto, Henry
Date:
1980
Identifier:
92.97.105
Format:
painting
oil on canvas
New York, N.Y.
Inscription:
Signed in medium, bottom left corner: H. Sugimoto; poem written in Japanese on upper right of painting, translated: A man
with ambition leaves his village; / Unless he accomplishes his mission, / He will not return. / The place where he buries
his ashes / Does not have to be his homeland. / For man, there are green mountains everywhere. / (Gessho Shaku). Written on
back: "Going to America"/32 x 25 1/2
Description:
Stretched and framed. A young man leaves Japan for the United States. Focal point is a young man dressed in knee-length dark
yukata with white design, blue obi and yellow geta standing with right arm raised and hands clenched. He gazes off to the
right of viewer. Labeled "Beikoku yuki" (Going to America) in the upper left corner, a white bundle tied with rope sits at
his feet. In the lower left, a man in a grey yukata and geta raises his hand in farewell while a woman in brown covers her
face with a white cloth. In the upper left background Wakayama Castle resides at the top of a green hill with a river, Ki
no Kawa, at its base. Midground right, a large bridge stands as a large wave passes under it, a figure is visible in water.
Above it, four lines of a Japanese poem on reddish background.
Historical Note:
Some sixty years after leaving Japan, Sugimoto completed a series of paintings meant to document and interpret the history
of Japanese immigrants in the United States. This work, though it was created long after Sugimoto arrived in the United States,
was no doubt inspired by his own experience, and portrays a young man leaving Japan for America.
Subject:
Emigration and immigration
Japanese
United States
Japan
Parents
Sons