Shishû 詩集 Natsu No Tegami 夏の手紙.
1937. Item #88836
Kitasono Katue 北園克衛, poet & Onchi Kōshirō 恩地孝四郎, artist. Shishû 詩集 Natsu No Tegami 夏の手紙. . Tôkyô, Aoi Shobô, Shôwa 12 [1937] Folio, 30.0 X 22.0 cm, #11 of 200 copies printed.
The binding, the typography, the illustrations, all combine as a fluid visual container for Kitasono's brilliant poems. Interesting to compare this work to the other collaboration (done by the same publisher a year later) of Onchi Kōshirō 恩地孝四郎 (1891-1955) and Kitasono Katue 北園克衛 (1902-1978), SABOTEN-TÔ. On an interesting side note, when Kitasono sent a copy of this book to his friend Ezra Pound, for whom he had obtained a lucrative position for the JAPAN TIMES as Italian correspondent, the latter confessed he could not even begin to read it (his Chinese was poor and his Japanese non-existent).
Kitasono Katue 北園克衛, born Hashimoto Kenkichi 橋本健吉 in 1902, came to age as an artist in Tokyo in the wake of the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. With an eye toward international art movements, he was influenced by all of the major -isms of the 20th century, and was at the forefront of the Surrealist movement in Japan. He was known for his poetry and later, “Plastic Poetry,” which conversely influenced the international Avant Garde community. His creativity spanned both poetic and visual art forms and he was known as a poet, photographer and graphic designer.
We refer you to the several works of John Solt, both translations and critical essays, as well as several exhibitions dedicated to Kitasono mounted here and in Europe, as well. See also the LACMA online ref accessed June 2021 https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/kitasono-katue-surrealist-poet
Fine condition, complete as issued. We can locate only two institutional holdings, the British Museum and Mount Holyoke College. We have handled a another copy of this work, which had a wraparound case, but research indicates that was not an original case, but was commissioned later, perhaps by the original collector. Complete and lovely.
Price: $2,750.00