Artist Profile - Akiko Iimura

The Community of Images exhibition provided an opportunity to conduct research into Akiko Iimura’s legacy as writer, translator, and filmmaker. With help of Kentaro Taki of the Videoart Center Tokyo and Yukishige Takesue, former colleague of Akiko’s at OCS, we dug into her films and news articles. We were able to locate Akiko’s original films at the Iimura’s studio in Tokyo, some of which have now been digitized. Takesue dug into the OCS archive and identified key articles in which she reported on the avant-garde arts scene in the 1980s and 1990s.

Akiko Iimura (b. 1936) is a writer, translator and filmmaker who spent much of her life in New York. During her study at Waseda University, from which she graduated in 1958, Akiko Iimura met Takahiko Iimura in the film club at the university.

Takahiko left for the U.S. in 1966 and joined the Filmmakers’ Coorperative in New York. He felt that he could not return to Japan easily due to his sense of responsibility as a member of the Coop. Akiko could not leave Japan easily because of her work, but she joined him a year later. Immersed in the local creative community, Akiko began to take interest in film, often exchanging opinions with Takahiko and eventually making films with Takahiko. They collaborated on several projects, including Blinking (1970), Double Portrait (1973-87) and I Love You (1973-87). Her own film works include Mon Petit Album (1973), a poetic film set to the music of Jacques Bekaert, and Late Lunch (1985). In the Community of Images exhibition we are presenting Mon Petit Album (1974) , Akiko’s original film work, and Taka and Ako (1966), a collaborative film the Akiko and Takahiko made by filming each other and using album photographs.

In the early 1970s, Akiko was an active reporter on and translator of the New York underground scene for both Bijutsu techō and Eiga hihyō. She was also instrumental in translating the writings of Jonas Mekas into Japanese, including Movie Journal: The Rise of the New American Cinema, 1959-1971 and I Had Nowhere to Go. She became the editor-in-chief of New York's Japanese-language newspaper OCS News from 1982-1995.

Akiko was a strong supporter of the underground film scene in New York and often wrote on it during her time at OCS. She recalls first meeting Mekas outside the Anthology Film Archives in SoHo while waiting for a film to start. Someone handed her a red rose and she looked up to find that it was Mekas!

As part of the research for this exhibition, we looked into Akiko Iimura’s work during her tenure at OCS. As the editor-in-chief, she had a column called Akiko Iimura’s Notebook. Below are some of her articles.

Yuishige Takesue’s essay on Akiko is below the articles.

“Making movies that gush out blood when cut: film-poet Jonas Mekas” (January 19, 1996)

“Downtown Arts Festival and the history of SoHo in memory” (September 12, 1997)

Yukishige Takesue, on Akiko Iimura

Akiko Iimura graduated from Waseda University with a degree in French Literature. She worked in the editorial department of Shiseido's corporate culture magazine Hanatsubaki (Camellia flower) and counter culture magazine Hanashi no Tokushu (Talking Features), in the 60~70s, before moving to New York. In 1980, Akiko joined the editorial board of the Japanese-language newspaper OCS News; she became editor-in-chief in 1982 and remained for 13 years until 1995.

Akiko admired Yasuharu Hanamori (1911-1978), the first editor-in-chief of the Japanese lifestyle magazine Kurashi no Techo (handbook for living) (first published in 1948). During her time as editor-in-chief of OCS News, she worked to enhance the paper as a lifestyle information magazine for Japanese people living in the U.S. She also worked on the development of art, film, music, and other fields of interest to the Japanese community. At the same time, the magazine introduced art, movies, and music coverage, and published numerous critical articles, as well as reportage articles and editorials on political and social issues. It was like a Japanese version of the Village Voice, a New York-based culture newspaper that was at the height of its popularity at the time. The magazine was no doubt influenced by the editorial policy of Kurashi no Techo, which also published many articles contributed by cultural figures.

Akiko's husband was Takahiko Iimura (1937-2022), known for his experimental films. Takahiko had been living and working in New York's East Village since the 1960s. Akiko is also a member of the generation that was baptized into the counterculture of the 1960s. Some of Mr. Takahiko's works feature Akiko.

Takahiko was in contact with cutting-edge artists from Nobuhiko Ōbayashi (filmmaker, 1938-2020) to Yoko Ono. Since the ‘60s, New York was a cultural center or center of origin, and many cultural figures and artists from Japan visited the city. They were the main source of information for OCS News.

One of the most notable figures of the time was Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), a Lithuanian-born American and master of experimental film. Aliko’s husband, Takahiko Iimura, made his New York debut in 1965 with his experimental film AI (Love) (music by Yoko Ono), which was highly praised by Jonas Mekas in the Village Voice. Takahiko's relationship with Mekas also led him to connect with Akiko. Akiko was  a regular reader of Mekas' column in the Village Voice. Mekas also contributed to OCS News. Later, she translated Mekas's film diary into Japanese, Mekas' Film Diary: The Origins of the New American Cinema 1959-1971 (Film Art, 1974, 1993) and Mekas' Refugee Diary (Misuzu Shobo, 2011). Through Takahiko, Akiko also became acquainted with Yoko Ono. He interviewed Yoko and John Lennon shortly after Yoko Ono's 1971 exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art, where he was also present. John was killed by a bullet in 1980, but Akiko’s relationship with Yoko continued, and she contributed New Year's greetings and other articles to OCS News. Akiko lived in the East Village for a long time, but in 2018 she left her familiar New York home and returned to Japan to live in Tokyo. Takahiko died in 2022. They had no children together. (Text by Yukishige Takezue, former OCS News editor-in-chief.)


　飯村昭子氏は、早稲田大学仏文科卒業後、資生堂の企業文化誌「花椿」やミニコミ誌の草分け的存在で60~70年代のカウンタカルチャーを代表する雑誌「話の特集」などの編集部で働いたのち、ニューヨークに移り住む。日本クラブの会報誌の編集をしていたが１９８０年に日本語新聞「ＯＣＳニュース」編集部に入った。１９８２年に編集長となり１９９５年までの13年間、勤めた。
　飯村氏は尊敬する人物として日本の「暮らしの手帖」（１９４８年創刊）の初代編集長・花森安治（１９１１～１９７８）をあげており、ＯＣＳニュース編集長時代は在米日本人向けの生活情報誌として紙面の充実を図った。一方で、アートや映画、音楽などの紹介や批評文を数多く掲載、さらに政治や社会問題のルポ記事や論説も積極的に取り入れた。さらなが当時、全盛を誇ったニューヨークのカルチャー誌『ヴィレッジボイス』の日本版のようであった。「暮らしの手帖」でも文化人の寄稿文が多数掲載されており、その編集方針に影響を受けていたのは間違いないだろう。
　昭子氏の夫は実験映画で知られる飯村隆彦氏（ 1937～2022）である。隆彦氏は６０年代からニューヨークのイーストビレッジに居を構え、活動をしていた。昭子氏も６０年代のカウンターカルチャーの洗礼を受けた世代である。隆彦氏の作品の中には昭子氏が出てくるものがある。
　隆彦氏はヨーコ・オノから大林宣彦まで、先鋭的な芸術家との交流があった。昭子氏も寺山修司、深沢七郎、上草甚一などの書き手や和田誠、横尾忠則など当時新鋭のイラストレーターたちが集う「話の特集」の編集部で働いていたことから、彼らとも交流があったと思われる。８０年代から９０年代にかけて、ニューヨークは文化の中心あるいは発信地であり、日本からの文化人や芸術家が訪問すると飯村夫妻を訪れる人たちがたくさんいた。６０年代から培われたこうした人脈がＯＣＳニュースの誌面でも生かされたわけである。
　そのなかでも特筆されるのがリトアニア生まれのアメリカ人で実験映画の巨匠、ジョナス・メカス（１９２２～２０１９）だ。夫の飯村隆彦氏は1965年に発表した実験映画『AI（ラブ）』（音楽ヨーコ・オノ）がビレッジボイス誌上でジョナス・メカスに高く評価されニューヨーク・デビューを果たす。隆彦氏とメカスとの関係から、昭子ともつながる。昭子氏はビレッジボイスのメカス氏のコラムの愛読者でもあった。メカス氏はＯＣＳニュースにも寄稿している。そしてその後、訳書『メカスの映画日記：ニュー・アメリカン・シネマの起源 1959-1971』（フィルムアート社、1974、1993）『メカスの難民日記』（みすず書房、2011）として結実する。
　また隆彦氏を通じてヨーコ・オノ氏とも知り合う。１９７１年のエバーソン美術館でのオノ・ヨーコの個展終了直後、隆彦氏はヨーコとジョン・レノンにインタビューするが、この時も同席している。ジョンは１９８０年に凶弾に倒れ死去するが、ヨーコとはその後も関係は続き、OCSニュースにも新年の挨拶などヨーコは寄稿している。明子氏は長らくイーストビレッジに住んでいたが、２０１８年、住み慣れたニューヨークを後に日本に帰国し東京に住んだ。隆彦氏は２０２２年に死去。二人の間に子供はいない。（文・武末幸繁・元OCSニュース編集長）