Qualla: The Hiroshima Panels https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/n/the-hiroshima-panels-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Hiroshima Panels https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels The Hiroshima Panels: Introduction https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels/ Photo credit JunK, Public domain. The first panel is called Ghosts. Figures stumble across the surface in traditional Japanese ink wash, their bodies dissolving into smoke and shadow, arms outstretched, mouths open in silent screams. Then comes the red -- not the red of paint on a page, but the red of a city burning from the inside out, atomic fire rendered in pigment against the austere black and white of sumi-e. Iri and Toshi Maruki began painting in 1950, five years after the bombs fell. They did not stop for thirty-two years. By 1982, the husband and wife had completed fifteen panels, each standing 1.8 meters tall and stretching 7.2 meters wide, depicting the consequences of nuclear war with an unflinching intimacy that no photograph could match.

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Image: JunK | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/n/the-hiroshima-panels-wp/xn7n-the-hiroshima-panels-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Hiroshima Panels: Witnesses Who Picked Up Brushes https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels/ Photo credit JunK, Public domain. Iri Maruki was born in Hiroshima Prefecture. When the atomic bomb destroyed the city on August 6, 1945, he and Toshi entered the ruins to search for his family. What they saw there -- the charred bodies, the walking wounded with skin hanging from their arms, the mothers clutching...

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Image: JunK | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/n/the-hiroshima-panels-wp/xn7n-the-hiroshima-panels-witnesses-who-picked-up-brushes.mp3 0:06 2 full The Hiroshima Panels: Fifteen Panels, Thirty-Two Years https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels/ Photo credit JunK, Public domain. The sequence begins with Ghosts, Fire, and Water -- the first three panels completed in 1950, depicting the immediate aftermath of the bombing. Rainbow followed in 1951, then Boys and Girls, then Atomic Desert in 1952. The pace was deliberate. Bamboo Thicket and Rescue came in 19...

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Image: JunK | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/n/the-hiroshima-panels-wp/xn7n-the-hiroshima-panels-fifteen-panels-thirty-two-years.mp3 0:06 3 full The Hiroshima Panels: A Gallery in the Countryside https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels/ Photo credit JunK, Public domain. In 1967, the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels was established in Higashi-Matsuyama, Saitama Prefecture, about 60 kilometers northwest of Tokyo. This small museum in the countryside became the permanent home for the panels, an intentional choice that placed them outside the...

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Image: JunK | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/n/the-hiroshima-panels-wp/xn7n-the-hiroshima-panels-a-gallery-in-the-countryside.mp3 0:06 4 full The Hiroshima Panels: A Legacy That Traveled the World https://qualla.com/the-hiroshima-panels/ Photo credit JunK, Public domain. The Hiroshima Panels were never confined to their gallery. They toured internationally, exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1957 and shown across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In 1987, the documentary Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima, which followed the Marukis ...

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Image: JunK | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/7/n/the-hiroshima-panels-wp/xn7n-the-hiroshima-panels-a-legacy-that-traveled-the-world.mp3 0:06 5 full