Little Tokyo Public Art - Lucky Yoon

 THE SITE

For my site, I chose to look at public art within Little Tokyo. I live about 8 minutes away from Little Tokyo. The reason why I decided on Little Tokyo as the site for my project is my familiarity with and history in the town. I'm originally from Hawai'i, and used to dorm at Cal State LA during my first two years of college. In my third year of college, I moved to an apartment in Monterey Park, and now reside in Lincoln Heights for my current year at Cal State LA. Throughout all these different places I've lived, Little Tokyo has been a constant place within my life. Little Tokyo is my favorite spot to hang out with friends, get food, or spend time alone. I have also worked in Little Tokyo for several years, juggling several different jobs within the town. It's through my time working that I grew familiar with the town and the public art within Little Tokyo. Through personal interest, I was able to learn about the history of Little Tokyo and resonate with the many beautiful artworks in this little town, which ultimately led to my decision for this project. 

FIELD WORK 

When looking at the different public art in Little Tokyo, I chose an artwork that I felt showed the history and impact of Little Tokyo. The artworks in Little Tokyo tell a story of the importance of the town and the culture seen in every part of the town. 

'Home is Little Tokyo' Mural 
 'Home is Little Tokyo' mural is a historical artwork that lies in the main plaza, across from the Japantown metro station. It has been portrayed for over 130 years and represents the history of struggles that Little Tokyo residents have gone through. The lead artist of this mural is Tony Osumi, with contributions made by artists Sergio and Jorge Diaz. This mural took over three years to complete and had almost 500 contributions from individuals, groups, and organizations. Many Japanese residents are represented in this mural, showcasing many experiences of the Japanese immigrants. Some specific groups of representation are the Shin Issei immigrants from Japan post-WWII. During the making, they requested depictions of Mt. Fuji and cherry blossoms to remind them of their homeland. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Within the artworks of Little Tokyo, there are patterns and similarities evident in the various pieces, the most obvious similarity being the representation of Japanese culture. Whether informational or abstract, all the forms of public art in Little Tokyo offer pieces of Japanese culture and history. Since Little Tokyo is a historic town where Japanese immigrants resided, many of the historic artworks were either made or contributed by Japanese immigrants. Within each artwork, you can find information on the struggles the citizens of Little Tokyo had to go through to fight for the town that is loved by many today. Public art in Little Tokyo receives funding from a combination of sources. Some sources of funding are federal grants from organizations, government funding, private donations, and community fundraising. 

PROPOSAL

When looking at the artworks and the Little Tokyo community as a whole, there are many things I enjoy and commemorate, but there are also issues that need to be addressed. On the bright side, Little Tokyo offers a sense of community that is missing in many towns. This could be due to the amazing pieces of artwork and culture that linger in every part of the town. Little Tokyo has done a great job of portraying the sense of community and camaraderie that the first Japanese immigrant residents strived for. Within each artwork, you can sense the hard work and message that the original residents of Little Tokyo wanted to convey. 

In regard to issues that need to be addressed, there are many things I've seen in my time at Little Tokyo, both big and small, that I would like to see changed. The biggest issue I personally feel needs to be addressed is the amount of graffiti. When walking through Little Tokyo, you'll notice many forms of graffiti on the ground, the walls, the doors of businesses, and even historical monuments. I feel this needs to be addressed because the graffiti being put on places in Little Tokyo is not a form of art, but rather a defacement of art. If the individuals of the graffiti had a certain artistic message they wanted to portray, it was not well received and instead negatively affected people who did nothing wrong. 

A change that I would like to propose in order to address this issue and highlight the beauty of Little Tokyo would be to reinforce laws and regulations against graffiti. This could be done by constructing a new piece of public art speaking out on the current issues that Little Tokyo faces. With the recent LA riots and many businesses in Little Tokyo struggling because of it, I feel that portraying art to speak out against these issues would help. Creating a mural that showcases the new experiences of Little Tokyo along with the culture could help show people that Little Tokyo is an innocent community that doesn't deserve to be damaged because of everything happening around the town. Some ideas I have on artwork could be a mural representing the peaceful parts of the LA riots and protests with words like "Stand Up for Little Tokyo". 

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