Super Buddahead

Roger Shimomura, artist

born 1939

Super Buddahead, 2012

Where object was made: Lawrence, Kansas, United States

Material/technique: color lithograph

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 750 x 255 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 29 1/2 x 10 1/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 852 x 332 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 33 9/16 x 13 1/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 40 x 20 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2019.0028

Not on display

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By portraying himself as the caped hero in this print, Shimomura asserts his true national identity as an American while also confronting the paradox that his outward Asian appearance characterizes him as a foreigner in his own country. Noting that his image interrogates “whether Superman must be Caucasian to be complete,” he also explains that the “term buddhahead was a
World War II term used by the Japanese American soldiers among themselves.”