Chinbin Western: Representation of the Family depicts the fictional lives of two families in Awa, a mining area in Nago on the island of Okinawa. Despite strong opposition from local residents, a massive land reclamation project is being carried out for the expansion of a US military base in nearby Henoko. Yamashiro’s work is set in a village near a mountain that has been desertified by soil mining for the Henoko land fill. On the one hand, a young husband working for the soil mine struggles with anxiety and stress while trying to build the ideal family he and his wife dream of. On the other, an elderly man and his granddaughter guard the shrine honoring the “heaven’s boat” that is said to have led their ancestors to the village. The title of the work refers both to the Spaghetti Western film genre of the 1960s and ’70s and chinbin, a local Okinawan dish. The work also interposes elements from classic opera and Okinawan poetry, ryuka, and draws on local tradition and identity through reference to myths and folktales.
