Eitaro Ishigaki and SakariSuzuki’s Mural Project - Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in NY

Eitaro Ishigaki and Sakari Suzuki's Mural Project

Fig. 79. Eitaro Ishigaki, "Harlem Courthouse Mural(A part of the Emancipation of Slaves)”

Fig. 80. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

Fig. 81. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

Fig. 82. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

Fig. 83. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

Fig. 84. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

Fig. 85. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

Fig. 86. Eitaro Ishigaki, photo taken at the time of the mural painting.

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New York Shimpo reported:

“A mural of the late Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, the world’s greatest scientist and hailed after his death as the savior of mankind, was recently completed at Willard Parker Hospital. Mr. Sakari Suzuki, 34, born in Iwate Prefecture, who had studied at the California School of Fine Arts, was the master painter of the mural. After receiving this honorable selection, he spent about a year studying the late Dr. Noguchi from every possible angle. Amazingly, an unknown up-and-coming artist was able to produce the mural”.

( “Mural of Late Dr. Noguchi Completed in Honor of Painter Sakari Suzuki,” New York Shimpo, June 16, 1937).

Eitaro Ishigaki intended to produce a series of four murals in total, including these works. However, in July 1937, the WPA decided to cut off the contract with artists who did not have U.S. citizenship to cut down on expenses. As a result, Eitaro Ishigaki was dismissed from the WPA in the middle of the production of the murals. After this, work on the mural was continued by his assistants without a chief, and was finally completed in 1938. However, the depiction of people in the mural was criticized, and the mural was removed.