A group of Taiwan students are traveling to Japan Feb. 24 to petition for the return of a statue by renowned local sculptor Huang Tu-shui.
Huang, Taiwan’s first student to attend Tokyo University of the Arts, created the sculpture in the 1920s of Japanese medical pioneer Takagi Tomoe, who was responsible for plague control in colonial Taiwan (1895-1945).
While in Japan on a study trip, the 20 students from National Changhua Senior High School in central Taiwan will meet with the widow of Tomoe’s grandson, play her the famous Japanese children’s song “Red Dragonfly” and present the petition to persuade her to donate the statue to Taiwan.
“Three years ago, during a study trip, the students found Tomoe’s 90-year-old grandson, who owned the sculpture and related materials,” school head librarian Lu Hsing-chung said.
After the grandson passed away last year and the school learned that his widow intended to dispose of his art collection, including the statue, it was decided that the school would mount a campaign to have the masterpiece returned to Taiwan.
The students began to practice playing “Red Dragonfly” and created a petition detailing the historical and educational significance of the work to Taiwan.
According to Lu, the widow has already agreed to receive the students and to discuss the conditions for returning the statue to Taiwan.
Huang was born in 1895 in Taipei City’s Wanhua District. His work was the first by a Taiwan citizen to be included in the collection of the University of Tokyo. He died at 36 and was interred in Japan, leaving behind a modicum of works now highly prized by collectors.
The pupils will also visit Tokyo-based Waseda University to research Taiwan students who studied at the university during the colonial period and their involvement in the movement to return Taiwan to the ROC.
The students have been making a study trip to Japan every year for the past five years. The trips are sponsored by school alumni, Acer Inc. Chairman Stan Shih and Ballerina Co. Ltd. President Patrick Sun. (SDH)
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