Or would it be a better idea for you to put me in direct
communication
with the N.
Ezra-Pound-Japan-Letters-essays
When the war broke out, he escaped from Germany, but he was stranded when his father stopped sending him money.
One day in 1914 when he did not have a penny to feed the gasometer at his flat in London, he was invited to dance at a party.
At the dinner table he sat next to an elderly gentleman who admired him highly.
But Ito could not understand English, and he asked him if he could speak in German.
After hesitation the gentleman consented, and they talked for two hours.
A few days later Ito received from that gentleman, who turned out to be Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, a letter enclosing a check for ?
20.
Pound writes of the episode in Canto 77:
So Mischio sat in the dark lacking the gasometer penny but then said: "Do you speak German? "
to Asquith, 1914.
Pound had met Ito at the Cafe Royal where the refugee artists met. He asked him to help him with the editing of the No plays in the Fenollosa notebooks, and then to help Yeats with At the Hawk's Well. Ito had himself little knowledge of the No play then, but his Japanese classmates who happened to be in London were versed in it. Tamijuro Kume and Jisoichi Kayano (Torahiko Kori)--especially the former--taught them about the No play and assisted Pound in interpreting FenoUosa's notebooks, continuing even after Ito had left for New York.
Tamijuro Kume (1893-1923), a Japanese painter, had begun taking lessons in No and Kyogen from Minoru Umewaka when he was still in primary school. His father, Taminosuke Kume, a successful businessman, had a No theatre in his large house in Yoyogi, Tokyo, where his family and guests often sang and played. Not much is recorded about his first son, Tamijuro. But according to the family legend, he began painting while he was a student at Gakushuin Middle School. He went to Europe after gradua- tion to study oil painting. During World War I, he met Pound in London, through his classmate, Michio Ito. Obviously he played a crucial part in Pound's rendering of the No plays and Dulac's production of Yeats' At the Hawk's Well. He performed utai, the vocal part of the No, at Pound's flat in
? SECTIONI: 1911-23 3
London. How much affection Pound had for him, especially after Pound lost Gaudier-Brzeska, may be gleaned from the following letters. But noth- ing much is known about the actual role he played in assisting Yeats and Pound in their research.
He returned to Japan in July 1918, vigorously worked at his "hideout" studio near Lake Yamanaka, and went to New York in January 1921 to exhibit his paintings (February 1-12). Hethen went to Paris in January 1922 and there again met Pound who arranged an exhibition for "Tami Koume" in July. Though Tamijuro Kume had a love affair in Paris, he left there in February 1923, returning to Tokyo by boat. On September 1, 1923, he was in Yokohama, again on the verge of sailing abroad, this time to America to launch a second exhibition in New York. His wife, Kiyo, and his 5-year-old son, Masayoshi, were at their villa in Koshigoe, Kamakura, planning to join him briefly at Yokohama and then see him off at the pier. However, the great earthquake occurred, just when Tamijuro Kume was in the dining room in the basement of the Oriental Hotel with a friend of his. His body was pulled out from under the bricks and ashes with his watch and rings on.
? 4 SECTIONI: 1911-23
1: Yone Noguchi to Ezra Pound ALS-1 Kamakura, Japan. 16 July 1911
Dear Mr. Pound:
As I think you may not know my work at all, I send you, under a separatecover,mynewbookofpoemscalledThePilgrimage. AsI [am]not yet acquainted with your work, I wish you will send your book or books which you like to have me to read. This little note may sound quite businesslike, but I can promise you that I can do better in my next letter to you.
Yours truly, Yone Noguchi
P. S. Iamanxioustoreadnotonlyyourpoeticalworkbutalsoyourcriticism.
2: Ezra Pound to Yone Noguchi
TLS-2 c/o Elkin Mathews, Vigo St. , London. Pmk: 2 September 1911
Dear Yone Noguchi:
I want to thank you very much for your lovely books & for your kindness in sending them to me.
I had, of course, known of you, but I am much occupied with my mediaeval studies & had neglected to read your books altho' they lie with my own in Mathews shop & I am very familiar with the appearance of their covers.
I am reading those you sent me but I do not yet know what to say of them except that they have delighted me. Besides it is very hard to write to you until I know more about you; you are older than I am--1 gather from the dates of the poems--you have been to New York. You are giving us the spirit of Japan, is it not? very much as 1 am trying to deliver from obscurity certain forgotten odours of Provence & Tuscany (my works on Guido Cavalcanti, & Arnaut Daniel, are, the one in press, the other ready to be printed).
I have sent you two volumes of poems. I do not know whether to send you The Spirit of Romance or not: It treats of mediaeval poetry in southern Europe but has many flaws of workmanship.
? SECTIONI: 1911-23 5
I can not help wondering how much you know of our contemporary poets & in what things of ours you would be likely to be interested.
I mean I do not want to write you things that you already know as well
or better than I do.
OfyourcountryI knowalmostnothing--surelyiftheeast&thewestare
ever to understand each other that understanding must come slowly & come first through the arts.
You ask about my "criticism. " There is some criticism in the Spirit of Romance & there will be some in the prefaces to the "Guido" & the "Arnaut. " But I might be more to the point if we who are artists should discuss the matters of technique & motive between ourselves. Also if you should write about these matters I would discuss your letters with Mr. Yeats & likewise my answers.
I havenotansweredbeforebecauseyourletter&yourbookshave followed me through America, France, Italy, Germany and have reached me but lately.
Let me thank you again for sending them, and believe me
3: Yone Noguchi to Ezra Pound
ACS-1 Kamakura, Japan. 22 October 1911
Dear Mr. Pound:
Many thanks for your kind letter [together] with Exultations and Can- zoni. I was glad to be acquainted with Exultations, and what a difference of your work from mine! I like to follow closely after your poetry.
Sincerely yours, Yone Noguchi
4: Mary FenoJJosa to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 159 Church Street, Mobile, Alabama. 24 November [1913]
Dear Ezra:
Your violet ray from Stone Cottage has just penetrated. Since you
Yours Very Sincerely Ezra Pound
I
? 6 SECTIONI: 1911-23
announced that you are to be there "forever," I suppose I might as well begin addressing you there. It certainly sounds good enough to be a forever,--with the aigrette of the usual "day. "
I am beginning with right now, to send you material. I am going to number the rolls, envelopes, packets, or whatever form they go in. So if you merelyletmeknowthatNo. 1hassafelyarrived--thenNo. 2--, andsoon,it will be enough to bring me "anshin," which is to say "peace of the spirit. " I fear it will go to you in a pretty mixed up condition, but the great fact is that it will all go.
I know you are pining for hieroglyphs and ideographs: but I must keep to our plan and send the No stuff first. That is a complete book in itself-- almost think that you had better spell it Noh, as some French writers do. It looks just a little more impressive. Don't you think so? Later I will have something to say about the illustrations, but the time hasn't come, yet, for that.
If you ever see Sarojini, or write to her, wont you please say to her that if she could have sprouted a new petal every time I've thought of her, or wanted to write to her, she would be the shape and size of a chrysanthe- mum by this.
I used to think I was somewhat rushed in London, but it was a long hour of silent prayer by this! I've a million relatives, more or less, and they all feel hurt when I shut myself up even to write letters. By the way, don't forget to give me your mother's address. After Christmas I shall be wandering be- tween the cauldron of Pittsburgh and "My City, my beloved, my white! " I want to meet your mother.
Mary FenoUosa
5: Mary FenoJJosa to Ezra Pound
TLS-3 159 Church Street, Mobile, Alabama. 25 November [1913]
Dear Ezra:
Please don't get discouraged at the ragged way this manuscript is coming to you. As I said yesterday, it will all get there in time,--which is the most important thing.
For instance, chronologically, the lectures taken down by my husband, from old Umewaka Minoru are so rough, and so many abbreviations are used, that I can't send them until I have time to make quite copious notes to
-- SECTIONI: 1911-23 7
help you understand. It is going to be something of a puzzle, at best.
In these notes the initials "U. M. " are constantly used. Sometimes they are put "M. U. . " for to this day, the Japanese are a little undecided whether to place the family name first, according to their own custom, or last. In any case, whenever you see these initials together they mean the old lecturer. He was brought up in the last Shogun's court, and comes from a long line of famous Noh players. He had all the costumes, masks, literature and tradi- tions. I had thought, if ever I attempted editing the book, to begin it with this personal note of old U. M. and the Professor. (Whenever I say "Professor" I
mean E. F. F. ). He had two beautiful young sons, still living and acting whether real or adopted I am not sure, but that doesn't matter in Japan. The son who is adopted for reasons of fitness, talent, and capability of carrying on an artistic tradition is considered more real than a son who is merely of the flesh. All the great artists of old times adopted successors this way. These sons, also very often referred to in the notes, and in the studies of the Noh plays, were Manzaburo Umewaka and Takeyo Umewaka. Both were beautiful,--the former, a tall and rather stout youth, did not look unlike a picture of a cavalier by Franz Hals, and the younger, our teacher in the singing of Noh, was more like a soulful and very handsome East Indian poet than a Japanese. I hope I come across a photograph of him, but I haven't yet. However I have an excellent one of the old Umewaka to send.
I shall go over these notes of his lectures, and wherever you see new ink writing you will know that I put it.
I must explain at more length the recurring term "cats. " This would surely be a puzzler. At the back of the stage in many,--in fact most, of the pieces, there are always two queer old, old musicians that come in with funny little folding stools, sit facing each other for a moment, and then turn themselves and the stools so that they face the audience. They have weird little drums, and at intervals, during the performance, they utter the most astonishing sounds, suppressed wails, throaty gurgles, and muted banshee howls. These sounds are more like the noises of back-yard fence cats than anything else on earth, and the Professor and I got into the way of calling them "cats. " I didn't realize that he had accepted the term seriously enough to put it all through the notes. In rare cases there are sometimes four cats, or even more; but, as I remember it, always there were two. I don't believe they were ever used in the comic interludes, or "kyogen. " You will see also frequent reference to "Mr. H. " This always means little Mr. Hirata, a pupil of my husband's, who always went to the Noh performances with us, and
did the translations. I don't think much of his literary style. Neither will you. I should suggest that the examples you wish to present in full should
? ? 8 SECTIONI: 1911-23
be taken only from those pieces where the Professor has written out the Japanese words too, and given the literal translation.
Please remember, from the first, that whenever I say "suggest," I mean just that thing, and nothing more stringent. What I am hoping is that you will become really interested in the material, absorb it in your own way, and then make practically new translations from the Japanese text as rendered into Romaji. It seems going ahead of myself a little, but I might as well tell you the Noh pieces that have seemed to us most beautiful. I think that first I would place "Kinuta. " Old U. M. considered it so, and also said that it took nearly a life-time, and much prayer and fasting, to learn to sing properly. Another that the Professor specially loved was "Nishi ki gi. " "Yoroboshi" was the first I heard, really to understand, and I care a lot for it. "Hagoromo" is perhaps the favorite of all, with the average Japanese Noh lover, and is a legend strangely like the old Celtic one of the mermaid who had her magic sea-garments stolen by a mortal. "Sumidagawa" is another wonder. Most, if not all of these, are carefully translated.
This is a big enough dose for one day. When you get into it, please don't hesitate to ask me questions. I only wish I were there with you and Yeats, working on it. I am homesick for London already.
Mary FenoJlosa
6: Michio Ito to Ezra Pound
ACS-1 82 St. John's Wood Terrace, London, N. W. Pmk: 8 May 1915
Dear Ezra Pound,
Thank you very much for your letter. I understand quite well this time. I should be very pleased [tol meet you on this Sunday night, but I have been very busy now as I have an engagement at Coliseum Theater from 10th of May. Then, if I could not call you at 7 o'clock, I should come [a] little later.
Yours truly Michio Ito
-- SECTIONI: 1911-23 9
7: Mary Fenollosa to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 Kobinata, Spring Hill, Alabama. 27 February 1916
My dear Ezra:
I haven't any envelopes to go with this lovely hand laid Japanese paper--am too poor to buy any more--but I'm writing on it because the address is my permanent one in America-- From now on, into a vague future, I shall be living here, or else my widowed mother. Letters will surely be forwarded. We've had all sorts of bereavements and unpleasant things in our family. Finances in the South are poignantly rotten. Only the vile munition makers of your part of America are thriving.
Your letter was one of the very few bright spots that has come my way lately. It certainly has cheered me up. My getting to England is now so indefinite that I am going to try and get you that roll of Noh illustrations by post. Heaven knows whether it ever will reach you! As I write these Germans are battering the forts near Verdun. One has already fallen--What is going to happen to the world any way? I believe I'll go back to Japan scoop out a rock, and be a hermitess.
? 8: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 3c Warwick Ave. W. 22 March 1916
My dear Mr. Pound,
I am awfully sorry to hear that you are sick in bed. 1 received your telegraph and was pain. How are you now? To-day I tried to go and ask after your health, but I was temptated by Itow, and staing long time at Mr. Dulac's, where we study some play. I am so anxious how are you now. I hope that you are well soon.
I am your's great friend T. M. Koume
Devotedly yours Mary Fenollosa
---- -- 10 SECTIONI: 1911-23
9: Mary FenoUosa to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 c/o Grant-Thompson, Co. , 280 Madison Avenue, New York. N. Y. 24 July 1916
You dear Ezra:
This certainly is good news--that you have succeeded in getting McMillan to publish E. F. F. And what splendid, steadfast work you have been doing--in spite of my seeming half-beastness.
My own involved domestic troubles still continue--there are all sorts of entanglements--sickness, finances and all other ills--but I'm not going to fill space with them now. The one thing I want to get "over the foot- lights," in this letter, concerns those illustrations to Nob. The whole roll of them is here in the North with me-- I hope to be allowed to remain somewhere within reasonable distance of N. Y. for the rest of the year Haven't any definite address yet, as you will gather from the heading of this--but, for the present c/o Grant-Thompson Co. will get me with less delay than any other address
If McMillan is to bring out Nob in dignified form, I should think they might desire illustrations. --I have them all--not only pictures of high moments in the various plays--but some good ones of the conventional Noh settings--the shape of stage--the "cloud-bridge" etc. --These pictures make quite a bulky roll--short and thick--nearly as big around as 5 lb. lard bucket--if that conveys an idea
Shall I--risking English censors and German sub-marines--try to get these over to you?
Or would it be a better idea for you to put me in direct communication with the N. Y. McMillan's--and let me take the pictures down to their office? I think you are now in possession of just about all of E. F. F. 's Noh material--but if there is hope--in the future, of further volumes--I have still, stored away down at Kobinata. a priceless treasury of mss. --Chinese poetry--translations of it giving each ideograph embedded in various nuances of meaning--E. F. F. 's essays and studies of Chinese poetry--also of philosophy, civilization, etc. etc. --I cannot believe that any coming student of these things is to have E. F. F. 's peculiar advantages And China is the coming nation/ This new agreement between Japan and Russia makes it the more certain-- Let me know at once about the Noh
? illustrations-- You are an angel!
Affectionately Mary FenoJiosa
--
SECTIONI: 1911-23 11
10: Michio Ito to Ezra Pound
ACS-1 Pmk: Times Sq. Sta. . New York. N. Y. 18 August 1916
Safely arrived in New York on 13th August. New York is not so bad what I expected, but the weather is too hot for me. I couldn't tell you about New York yet as I don't know.
I will try to write you so much as I can. Will you give me answers? Kindest regard to your Mrs and mother-in-law.
Ever
from Michio
11: Mary FenoUosa to Dorothy Pound
ALS-6 c/o Grant-Thompson, Co. , 280 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 18 October 1916
My dear Dorothy Pound:
This delightful letter of yours not only puts me in possession of several opportune facts concerning the work that Ezra is doing so splendidly;--but it has accomplished--in its few pages--something even more desirable--it has given me--you! Until this letter I felt you only as the shadow of a personality--shall I confess, too, that it was an Ezra Pound shadow? !
I think the core of the real you-ness comes from the fact that twice you misspelled the word "desperate"--writing it "desparate"--which is, in- dubitably a better word.
Tell Ezra that I received the Lustra and joyed in it--Also the two copies of Certain Nohle Plays-- The excellence of Ezra's work on the Fenollosa mss. doesn't surprise me-- The only regrets connected with it are from my sideofeffort--I havefailedingettinganymorefriendlycontributionsto the endeavor-- Then, too, the royalties from my own books are falling off badly
But all this is merely by the way. 1 am in New York still. Miss Bisland arrived last week on the Lafayette-- For a few days she was a physical wreck--not only because the voyage was rough and she a bad sailor--but all the night before reaching N. Y. the ship was chased by a hellish German sub-marine-- The passengers went about in straight jackets of cork--and no one slept.
Miss Bisland and I must stay up here for a few weeks longer--but
? ---------- 12 SECTIONI: 1911-23
already we are negotiating for quarters in Southern Florida, where we plan to spend about 4 months--rushing work on a certain literary venture that promises to bring in immediate returns-- Of course no one ever knows but this, at least, is sure-- In going to Florida, 1 shall go by way of my own house in Southern Alabama--and this means that 1 can go through all the Chinese stuff, and send Ezra any or all of it--so you will see--that 1 can follow your advice and not feel "desparate"
I suppose you and Ezra never think of coming to America--I wish you would--and join us in this quiet out-of-the-world nook in Florida
For the present, the address given at the head of this letter is the only one that had better be used
ThankEzrafortheletterfromTagore--FromwhatI amhearingabout that exotic near-divinity, 1 am not going to be able to use it. The gossip about him really sounds too picturesque and absurd to be true. They say that a band of his countrymen are hounding him--and purpose to remove him violently from this incarnation--that he is hiding, incognito, somewhere in Southern California
I truely hope that I have misspelled something in this letter, but I don't dare look back for it. With bushels of love to you both.
? 12: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
APCS-1 Pmk: Maida Hill W. 8 February 1917
My dear Ezra
So sorry have not written long time as I am still ill in bed it was awful, but getting better now. I think I can call upon you soon. & I would like to have your charming lunch. Kindest Regard to Mrs.
Tami
Mary Fenollosa
? SECTION1: 1911-23 13
13: Yone Noguchi to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 Nakano, near Tokyo, Japan. 8 December 1917
Dear Ezra Pound,
Perhaps you can ask your publisher to send me a review copy of your bookonpoorGaudierBrzeska;I liketowritehimupintheJapanTimes,a daily in English--which I keep a regular literary column. Some months ago I recommended your Noh book to our readers; also I had written a Japanese article on the book. Your Noh book is now quite well-known in Japan.
Perhaps you had seen some specimens of my Noh translation; how did you like one I published in the Egoist? The Quest and the Poetry Review alsopublishedmyNohplays. I liketotalkaboutthissubjectfurtherwith you.
Yours truly Yone Noguchi
14: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 Royal Bath & East Cliff Hotel, Bournemouth. Tuesday 13 [December? ] 1917
My dear Ezra,
I came here yesterday. It is a little warmer than London but not much different. Sorrow coming down with thin rain from heaven, & sparkling to my ears "So live bravely. " But I am not strong enough to do work. Sorrow! Agony! I am absolutely each by sentimentalism. Send to me nice poems? I shall be cheery then.
good bye your's friend Tami
? 14 SECTIONI: 1911-23
15: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-4 Royal Bath & East Cliff Hotel, Bournemouth. Friday [16 December? 1917]
My dear Ezra,
Thank you very much for your letter, poems, and kindness. I was so pleased when I received them. The poems are rather difficult to understand for me. I can see the meaning, but my poor english will not understand the important subtle part. It is great a shame. But your kindness comforts me more than your interesting poems. I feel better day by day. So I think can see you soon at your place.
Am writing play, about Fox. It might be waste of paper, but, somehow it is nice english lesson to me. So I do.
The sun shines every day here, nice & warm, but awfully vulgar here. Many uninteresting people. Skate rink cinema. Old gloomy men & women. And especially the hotel is so expensive about ? 10 a week. I am sure those horrid things send me back to London soon.
(I couldn't write until to-day. Sunday).
I feel to go back London, beginning of this week. To-day is Sunday, many horrid rude officers crowded in the dining room. I felt sick again when I saw one of those groups.
It was such a nice day to-day. I kissed to the sun shine as much as I want.
Now I must ask you to help me about my studio, am going to leave there end of this month. And Madam Karina advised me to stay there. There are two rooms third floor of her house. It is quite cheap 19s, a week. But I don't like her husband. So am hesitating about it.
Tell me what do you think that idea.
I am sure shall get back in one or two days. & I will join with your dinner party. Send my greeting to your dearest Mrs.
good night Tami
16: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-2 Royal Bath & East Cliff Hotel, Bournemouth. Thursday [1917]
My dear Ezra,
I am going to home this afternoon, am waiting the taxi now. in one hour
? SECTIONI: 1911-23 15
I shall be offended by the sea. But I feel cherry when I think of the life of town. I shall change my life & start work very hard. Am just going to say good bye to the sea. & I will tell her your love too.
Well, my dear Ezra. We can see very soon, shalln't we.
I will call upon you to-morrow afternoon or Saturday morning. Am getting quite strong, but sometimes not.
HowI shallbepleasedwhenshallseeyou.
I hope you are quite well & waiting my visit. Remember me to Mrs Pound.
17: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 9 & 10 Marble Arch. W. Sunday [1 January 1918? ]
My dear Ezra,
First of all, we will send our greeting of New Year to both of you.
We were enjoied very much last night. I hope we did not disterve your work. We are so envious the piecefull atmosfair, which you emit around us.
We hope you would come & see us soon. Kind Rememberence from Toshi.
18: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 Yoyogi mura, Toyotamagun, Tokyo 5 July 1918
My dear Ezra,
Yours Tami K.
I have just got home. I found myself rather funy as many of my old friends has passed away.
It is not pleasant at all my Japanese life.
Though1 haveagoodbrother,whoadmiredyourphoto,whichCoburn kindly let me have.
I got home day before yesterday, and still very busy for visiting and received many people.
Please let me write again when shall have more spare time. Please send my love to Mrs. Pound. with Love,
Tami
Yours Ever Tami
? 16 SECTIONI: 1911-23
19: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
APCS-2 [Mt. Fuji, Lake Yamanaka? ] 29 August 1918
My dear Ezra,
This is where I am staying now. fresh air. beautiful sun. birds singing, and the view is simply splendid. Hope you will come next week end, won't you?
Tami
20: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-5 Yoyogi, Yoyohata, Tokyo, Japan, east from your side. 21 December 1918
MY DEAREST FRIEND ON THE EARTH,
Thank you ever so much for your wonderful letter, received just this minute.
I am so pleased to hear from you about the London news. & very glad to know that you are working so very hard. I have painted about a dozen of the pictures since I have come back, and some of them are most wonderfull. I will send few of them to International and London group. If I will send them to you first, will you arrange for me?
I missed you and London life so much. I should love to come again. I suppose London is very glorious after this horrid war. How our London people are pleased! I am sure!
Toshi is not well ever since, staying at hospital. She is so pessimistic and broken our engagement. I am so disapointed. I lose my light, hope and enjoyment of the life.
I can not help to send away the sadness from my life.
I never go out to the town, always keep myself in the studio. However, the life is tragedy itself. Can't be helped.
Pleas write to me often, will you? You can't imagine how much your
letter would please me. I read it as if a hunger stand front of a dinner table.
By, By, yours ever Tami
Rememberence to Mrs. Pound.
? SECTION1: 1911-23 17
21: Tami Koume to Ezra and Dorothy Pound APCS-1 [n. p. ] 1 January 1919
22: Michio Ito to Ezra Pound
TLS-3 Michio Itow's School, 121 West 83rd Street, New York City. 19 December 1920
Dear Ezra:
Forgive me, I have been neglected for many years to write to you. I hope you are quite well. I do not know, how to begin this letter, it's already four years, since I left from you, there is thousand things happened to me during these years, and I should like to tell you all about it, but, it's impossible to write.
SinceI cametoNewYork,thereweremanypeopleswhoaskedmeto perform "Noh drama" to the American public, but I hesitated to do this, on account of my imperfect English, as I find the real value of "Noh Drama" would be lost to the western public, if performed in the Japanese language; also, 1 did not find any actors or musicians who has suitable training to take part in this kind of drama; for these reasons 1 could not perform this before. Two years ago, I started my school here in New York, with an idea to make dancer as an artist. Through study with my pupils, 1 find a strong possibility to carry out "the Noh drama's movement," for the Western stage, as the Universal drama.
? 18 SECTIONI: 1911-23
So, last summer I took twenty-five pupils, and went in a mountain in East Stroudsburg, PA. and we worked very hard on the Noh drama. Of course,yourbook"NOH"I hadalwaysinmyhand.
We stayed two months in the mountain, we were very pleased with our study. Beginning of October, we came back to New York, then, I picked out fifteen pupils from my school and formed a group of players, we have no name yet, because our idea in forming this group is not [tol copy or imitate the Japanese Noh drama or Greek drama, we are going to produce modern drama, on the same foundation as the Greek drama and Noh drama, our production will belong to the universe.
Our players production is not for the momentary art, we want to build up play which will last forever: so we will work on the one drama until so durable, that our production would be beyond criticism and would have to be what they assert the Japanese Noh drama to be for all time.
Our fifteen players are studying English diction and chanting, Dalcroze Eurhythmies for training of Rhythm and solfege (ear training) and dancing as material foundation, so we are all musicians, actors, chorus, we hope that in the future we will become as professional actors. First, we did not wish to perform our study before public during period of our studies, but as we need money so badly for our studies, so we are planning to give our first performance about end of January 1921. 1 am going to give program of three Japanese Noh drama and one Kyogen.
The program will be:
SHO/O KAGEKIYO HACOROMO BUSU
The above three Noh drama, I should like to use from your book. Will you allow us to use them? My plan is going to perform twice in a week, about four weeks. Also I am planning [to] go back to Japan with my players, next summer, and we will stay in Japan three months.
So Mischio sat in the dark lacking the gasometer penny but then said: "Do you speak German? "
to Asquith, 1914.
Pound had met Ito at the Cafe Royal where the refugee artists met. He asked him to help him with the editing of the No plays in the Fenollosa notebooks, and then to help Yeats with At the Hawk's Well. Ito had himself little knowledge of the No play then, but his Japanese classmates who happened to be in London were versed in it. Tamijuro Kume and Jisoichi Kayano (Torahiko Kori)--especially the former--taught them about the No play and assisted Pound in interpreting FenoUosa's notebooks, continuing even after Ito had left for New York.
Tamijuro Kume (1893-1923), a Japanese painter, had begun taking lessons in No and Kyogen from Minoru Umewaka when he was still in primary school. His father, Taminosuke Kume, a successful businessman, had a No theatre in his large house in Yoyogi, Tokyo, where his family and guests often sang and played. Not much is recorded about his first son, Tamijuro. But according to the family legend, he began painting while he was a student at Gakushuin Middle School. He went to Europe after gradua- tion to study oil painting. During World War I, he met Pound in London, through his classmate, Michio Ito. Obviously he played a crucial part in Pound's rendering of the No plays and Dulac's production of Yeats' At the Hawk's Well. He performed utai, the vocal part of the No, at Pound's flat in
? SECTIONI: 1911-23 3
London. How much affection Pound had for him, especially after Pound lost Gaudier-Brzeska, may be gleaned from the following letters. But noth- ing much is known about the actual role he played in assisting Yeats and Pound in their research.
He returned to Japan in July 1918, vigorously worked at his "hideout" studio near Lake Yamanaka, and went to New York in January 1921 to exhibit his paintings (February 1-12). Hethen went to Paris in January 1922 and there again met Pound who arranged an exhibition for "Tami Koume" in July. Though Tamijuro Kume had a love affair in Paris, he left there in February 1923, returning to Tokyo by boat. On September 1, 1923, he was in Yokohama, again on the verge of sailing abroad, this time to America to launch a second exhibition in New York. His wife, Kiyo, and his 5-year-old son, Masayoshi, were at their villa in Koshigoe, Kamakura, planning to join him briefly at Yokohama and then see him off at the pier. However, the great earthquake occurred, just when Tamijuro Kume was in the dining room in the basement of the Oriental Hotel with a friend of his. His body was pulled out from under the bricks and ashes with his watch and rings on.
? 4 SECTIONI: 1911-23
1: Yone Noguchi to Ezra Pound ALS-1 Kamakura, Japan. 16 July 1911
Dear Mr. Pound:
As I think you may not know my work at all, I send you, under a separatecover,mynewbookofpoemscalledThePilgrimage. AsI [am]not yet acquainted with your work, I wish you will send your book or books which you like to have me to read. This little note may sound quite businesslike, but I can promise you that I can do better in my next letter to you.
Yours truly, Yone Noguchi
P. S. Iamanxioustoreadnotonlyyourpoeticalworkbutalsoyourcriticism.
2: Ezra Pound to Yone Noguchi
TLS-2 c/o Elkin Mathews, Vigo St. , London. Pmk: 2 September 1911
Dear Yone Noguchi:
I want to thank you very much for your lovely books & for your kindness in sending them to me.
I had, of course, known of you, but I am much occupied with my mediaeval studies & had neglected to read your books altho' they lie with my own in Mathews shop & I am very familiar with the appearance of their covers.
I am reading those you sent me but I do not yet know what to say of them except that they have delighted me. Besides it is very hard to write to you until I know more about you; you are older than I am--1 gather from the dates of the poems--you have been to New York. You are giving us the spirit of Japan, is it not? very much as 1 am trying to deliver from obscurity certain forgotten odours of Provence & Tuscany (my works on Guido Cavalcanti, & Arnaut Daniel, are, the one in press, the other ready to be printed).
I have sent you two volumes of poems. I do not know whether to send you The Spirit of Romance or not: It treats of mediaeval poetry in southern Europe but has many flaws of workmanship.
? SECTIONI: 1911-23 5
I can not help wondering how much you know of our contemporary poets & in what things of ours you would be likely to be interested.
I mean I do not want to write you things that you already know as well
or better than I do.
OfyourcountryI knowalmostnothing--surelyiftheeast&thewestare
ever to understand each other that understanding must come slowly & come first through the arts.
You ask about my "criticism. " There is some criticism in the Spirit of Romance & there will be some in the prefaces to the "Guido" & the "Arnaut. " But I might be more to the point if we who are artists should discuss the matters of technique & motive between ourselves. Also if you should write about these matters I would discuss your letters with Mr. Yeats & likewise my answers.
I havenotansweredbeforebecauseyourletter&yourbookshave followed me through America, France, Italy, Germany and have reached me but lately.
Let me thank you again for sending them, and believe me
3: Yone Noguchi to Ezra Pound
ACS-1 Kamakura, Japan. 22 October 1911
Dear Mr. Pound:
Many thanks for your kind letter [together] with Exultations and Can- zoni. I was glad to be acquainted with Exultations, and what a difference of your work from mine! I like to follow closely after your poetry.
Sincerely yours, Yone Noguchi
4: Mary FenoJJosa to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 159 Church Street, Mobile, Alabama. 24 November [1913]
Dear Ezra:
Your violet ray from Stone Cottage has just penetrated. Since you
Yours Very Sincerely Ezra Pound
I
? 6 SECTIONI: 1911-23
announced that you are to be there "forever," I suppose I might as well begin addressing you there. It certainly sounds good enough to be a forever,--with the aigrette of the usual "day. "
I am beginning with right now, to send you material. I am going to number the rolls, envelopes, packets, or whatever form they go in. So if you merelyletmeknowthatNo. 1hassafelyarrived--thenNo. 2--, andsoon,it will be enough to bring me "anshin," which is to say "peace of the spirit. " I fear it will go to you in a pretty mixed up condition, but the great fact is that it will all go.
I know you are pining for hieroglyphs and ideographs: but I must keep to our plan and send the No stuff first. That is a complete book in itself-- almost think that you had better spell it Noh, as some French writers do. It looks just a little more impressive. Don't you think so? Later I will have something to say about the illustrations, but the time hasn't come, yet, for that.
If you ever see Sarojini, or write to her, wont you please say to her that if she could have sprouted a new petal every time I've thought of her, or wanted to write to her, she would be the shape and size of a chrysanthe- mum by this.
I used to think I was somewhat rushed in London, but it was a long hour of silent prayer by this! I've a million relatives, more or less, and they all feel hurt when I shut myself up even to write letters. By the way, don't forget to give me your mother's address. After Christmas I shall be wandering be- tween the cauldron of Pittsburgh and "My City, my beloved, my white! " I want to meet your mother.
Mary FenoUosa
5: Mary FenoJJosa to Ezra Pound
TLS-3 159 Church Street, Mobile, Alabama. 25 November [1913]
Dear Ezra:
Please don't get discouraged at the ragged way this manuscript is coming to you. As I said yesterday, it will all get there in time,--which is the most important thing.
For instance, chronologically, the lectures taken down by my husband, from old Umewaka Minoru are so rough, and so many abbreviations are used, that I can't send them until I have time to make quite copious notes to
-- SECTIONI: 1911-23 7
help you understand. It is going to be something of a puzzle, at best.
In these notes the initials "U. M. " are constantly used. Sometimes they are put "M. U. . " for to this day, the Japanese are a little undecided whether to place the family name first, according to their own custom, or last. In any case, whenever you see these initials together they mean the old lecturer. He was brought up in the last Shogun's court, and comes from a long line of famous Noh players. He had all the costumes, masks, literature and tradi- tions. I had thought, if ever I attempted editing the book, to begin it with this personal note of old U. M. and the Professor. (Whenever I say "Professor" I
mean E. F. F. ). He had two beautiful young sons, still living and acting whether real or adopted I am not sure, but that doesn't matter in Japan. The son who is adopted for reasons of fitness, talent, and capability of carrying on an artistic tradition is considered more real than a son who is merely of the flesh. All the great artists of old times adopted successors this way. These sons, also very often referred to in the notes, and in the studies of the Noh plays, were Manzaburo Umewaka and Takeyo Umewaka. Both were beautiful,--the former, a tall and rather stout youth, did not look unlike a picture of a cavalier by Franz Hals, and the younger, our teacher in the singing of Noh, was more like a soulful and very handsome East Indian poet than a Japanese. I hope I come across a photograph of him, but I haven't yet. However I have an excellent one of the old Umewaka to send.
I shall go over these notes of his lectures, and wherever you see new ink writing you will know that I put it.
I must explain at more length the recurring term "cats. " This would surely be a puzzler. At the back of the stage in many,--in fact most, of the pieces, there are always two queer old, old musicians that come in with funny little folding stools, sit facing each other for a moment, and then turn themselves and the stools so that they face the audience. They have weird little drums, and at intervals, during the performance, they utter the most astonishing sounds, suppressed wails, throaty gurgles, and muted banshee howls. These sounds are more like the noises of back-yard fence cats than anything else on earth, and the Professor and I got into the way of calling them "cats. " I didn't realize that he had accepted the term seriously enough to put it all through the notes. In rare cases there are sometimes four cats, or even more; but, as I remember it, always there were two. I don't believe they were ever used in the comic interludes, or "kyogen. " You will see also frequent reference to "Mr. H. " This always means little Mr. Hirata, a pupil of my husband's, who always went to the Noh performances with us, and
did the translations. I don't think much of his literary style. Neither will you. I should suggest that the examples you wish to present in full should
? ? 8 SECTIONI: 1911-23
be taken only from those pieces where the Professor has written out the Japanese words too, and given the literal translation.
Please remember, from the first, that whenever I say "suggest," I mean just that thing, and nothing more stringent. What I am hoping is that you will become really interested in the material, absorb it in your own way, and then make practically new translations from the Japanese text as rendered into Romaji. It seems going ahead of myself a little, but I might as well tell you the Noh pieces that have seemed to us most beautiful. I think that first I would place "Kinuta. " Old U. M. considered it so, and also said that it took nearly a life-time, and much prayer and fasting, to learn to sing properly. Another that the Professor specially loved was "Nishi ki gi. " "Yoroboshi" was the first I heard, really to understand, and I care a lot for it. "Hagoromo" is perhaps the favorite of all, with the average Japanese Noh lover, and is a legend strangely like the old Celtic one of the mermaid who had her magic sea-garments stolen by a mortal. "Sumidagawa" is another wonder. Most, if not all of these, are carefully translated.
This is a big enough dose for one day. When you get into it, please don't hesitate to ask me questions. I only wish I were there with you and Yeats, working on it. I am homesick for London already.
Mary FenoJlosa
6: Michio Ito to Ezra Pound
ACS-1 82 St. John's Wood Terrace, London, N. W. Pmk: 8 May 1915
Dear Ezra Pound,
Thank you very much for your letter. I understand quite well this time. I should be very pleased [tol meet you on this Sunday night, but I have been very busy now as I have an engagement at Coliseum Theater from 10th of May. Then, if I could not call you at 7 o'clock, I should come [a] little later.
Yours truly Michio Ito
-- SECTIONI: 1911-23 9
7: Mary Fenollosa to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 Kobinata, Spring Hill, Alabama. 27 February 1916
My dear Ezra:
I haven't any envelopes to go with this lovely hand laid Japanese paper--am too poor to buy any more--but I'm writing on it because the address is my permanent one in America-- From now on, into a vague future, I shall be living here, or else my widowed mother. Letters will surely be forwarded. We've had all sorts of bereavements and unpleasant things in our family. Finances in the South are poignantly rotten. Only the vile munition makers of your part of America are thriving.
Your letter was one of the very few bright spots that has come my way lately. It certainly has cheered me up. My getting to England is now so indefinite that I am going to try and get you that roll of Noh illustrations by post. Heaven knows whether it ever will reach you! As I write these Germans are battering the forts near Verdun. One has already fallen--What is going to happen to the world any way? I believe I'll go back to Japan scoop out a rock, and be a hermitess.
? 8: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 3c Warwick Ave. W. 22 March 1916
My dear Mr. Pound,
I am awfully sorry to hear that you are sick in bed. 1 received your telegraph and was pain. How are you now? To-day I tried to go and ask after your health, but I was temptated by Itow, and staing long time at Mr. Dulac's, where we study some play. I am so anxious how are you now. I hope that you are well soon.
I am your's great friend T. M. Koume
Devotedly yours Mary Fenollosa
---- -- 10 SECTIONI: 1911-23
9: Mary FenoUosa to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 c/o Grant-Thompson, Co. , 280 Madison Avenue, New York. N. Y. 24 July 1916
You dear Ezra:
This certainly is good news--that you have succeeded in getting McMillan to publish E. F. F. And what splendid, steadfast work you have been doing--in spite of my seeming half-beastness.
My own involved domestic troubles still continue--there are all sorts of entanglements--sickness, finances and all other ills--but I'm not going to fill space with them now. The one thing I want to get "over the foot- lights," in this letter, concerns those illustrations to Nob. The whole roll of them is here in the North with me-- I hope to be allowed to remain somewhere within reasonable distance of N. Y. for the rest of the year Haven't any definite address yet, as you will gather from the heading of this--but, for the present c/o Grant-Thompson Co. will get me with less delay than any other address
If McMillan is to bring out Nob in dignified form, I should think they might desire illustrations. --I have them all--not only pictures of high moments in the various plays--but some good ones of the conventional Noh settings--the shape of stage--the "cloud-bridge" etc. --These pictures make quite a bulky roll--short and thick--nearly as big around as 5 lb. lard bucket--if that conveys an idea
Shall I--risking English censors and German sub-marines--try to get these over to you?
Or would it be a better idea for you to put me in direct communication with the N. Y. McMillan's--and let me take the pictures down to their office? I think you are now in possession of just about all of E. F. F. 's Noh material--but if there is hope--in the future, of further volumes--I have still, stored away down at Kobinata. a priceless treasury of mss. --Chinese poetry--translations of it giving each ideograph embedded in various nuances of meaning--E. F. F. 's essays and studies of Chinese poetry--also of philosophy, civilization, etc. etc. --I cannot believe that any coming student of these things is to have E. F. F. 's peculiar advantages And China is the coming nation/ This new agreement between Japan and Russia makes it the more certain-- Let me know at once about the Noh
? illustrations-- You are an angel!
Affectionately Mary FenoJiosa
--
SECTIONI: 1911-23 11
10: Michio Ito to Ezra Pound
ACS-1 Pmk: Times Sq. Sta. . New York. N. Y. 18 August 1916
Safely arrived in New York on 13th August. New York is not so bad what I expected, but the weather is too hot for me. I couldn't tell you about New York yet as I don't know.
I will try to write you so much as I can. Will you give me answers? Kindest regard to your Mrs and mother-in-law.
Ever
from Michio
11: Mary FenoUosa to Dorothy Pound
ALS-6 c/o Grant-Thompson, Co. , 280 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 18 October 1916
My dear Dorothy Pound:
This delightful letter of yours not only puts me in possession of several opportune facts concerning the work that Ezra is doing so splendidly;--but it has accomplished--in its few pages--something even more desirable--it has given me--you! Until this letter I felt you only as the shadow of a personality--shall I confess, too, that it was an Ezra Pound shadow? !
I think the core of the real you-ness comes from the fact that twice you misspelled the word "desperate"--writing it "desparate"--which is, in- dubitably a better word.
Tell Ezra that I received the Lustra and joyed in it--Also the two copies of Certain Nohle Plays-- The excellence of Ezra's work on the Fenollosa mss. doesn't surprise me-- The only regrets connected with it are from my sideofeffort--I havefailedingettinganymorefriendlycontributionsto the endeavor-- Then, too, the royalties from my own books are falling off badly
But all this is merely by the way. 1 am in New York still. Miss Bisland arrived last week on the Lafayette-- For a few days she was a physical wreck--not only because the voyage was rough and she a bad sailor--but all the night before reaching N. Y. the ship was chased by a hellish German sub-marine-- The passengers went about in straight jackets of cork--and no one slept.
Miss Bisland and I must stay up here for a few weeks longer--but
? ---------- 12 SECTIONI: 1911-23
already we are negotiating for quarters in Southern Florida, where we plan to spend about 4 months--rushing work on a certain literary venture that promises to bring in immediate returns-- Of course no one ever knows but this, at least, is sure-- In going to Florida, 1 shall go by way of my own house in Southern Alabama--and this means that 1 can go through all the Chinese stuff, and send Ezra any or all of it--so you will see--that 1 can follow your advice and not feel "desparate"
I suppose you and Ezra never think of coming to America--I wish you would--and join us in this quiet out-of-the-world nook in Florida
For the present, the address given at the head of this letter is the only one that had better be used
ThankEzrafortheletterfromTagore--FromwhatI amhearingabout that exotic near-divinity, 1 am not going to be able to use it. The gossip about him really sounds too picturesque and absurd to be true. They say that a band of his countrymen are hounding him--and purpose to remove him violently from this incarnation--that he is hiding, incognito, somewhere in Southern California
I truely hope that I have misspelled something in this letter, but I don't dare look back for it. With bushels of love to you both.
? 12: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
APCS-1 Pmk: Maida Hill W. 8 February 1917
My dear Ezra
So sorry have not written long time as I am still ill in bed it was awful, but getting better now. I think I can call upon you soon. & I would like to have your charming lunch. Kindest Regard to Mrs.
Tami
Mary Fenollosa
? SECTION1: 1911-23 13
13: Yone Noguchi to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 Nakano, near Tokyo, Japan. 8 December 1917
Dear Ezra Pound,
Perhaps you can ask your publisher to send me a review copy of your bookonpoorGaudierBrzeska;I liketowritehimupintheJapanTimes,a daily in English--which I keep a regular literary column. Some months ago I recommended your Noh book to our readers; also I had written a Japanese article on the book. Your Noh book is now quite well-known in Japan.
Perhaps you had seen some specimens of my Noh translation; how did you like one I published in the Egoist? The Quest and the Poetry Review alsopublishedmyNohplays. I liketotalkaboutthissubjectfurtherwith you.
Yours truly Yone Noguchi
14: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 Royal Bath & East Cliff Hotel, Bournemouth. Tuesday 13 [December? ] 1917
My dear Ezra,
I came here yesterday. It is a little warmer than London but not much different. Sorrow coming down with thin rain from heaven, & sparkling to my ears "So live bravely. " But I am not strong enough to do work. Sorrow! Agony! I am absolutely each by sentimentalism. Send to me nice poems? I shall be cheery then.
good bye your's friend Tami
? 14 SECTIONI: 1911-23
15: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-4 Royal Bath & East Cliff Hotel, Bournemouth. Friday [16 December? 1917]
My dear Ezra,
Thank you very much for your letter, poems, and kindness. I was so pleased when I received them. The poems are rather difficult to understand for me. I can see the meaning, but my poor english will not understand the important subtle part. It is great a shame. But your kindness comforts me more than your interesting poems. I feel better day by day. So I think can see you soon at your place.
Am writing play, about Fox. It might be waste of paper, but, somehow it is nice english lesson to me. So I do.
The sun shines every day here, nice & warm, but awfully vulgar here. Many uninteresting people. Skate rink cinema. Old gloomy men & women. And especially the hotel is so expensive about ? 10 a week. I am sure those horrid things send me back to London soon.
(I couldn't write until to-day. Sunday).
I feel to go back London, beginning of this week. To-day is Sunday, many horrid rude officers crowded in the dining room. I felt sick again when I saw one of those groups.
It was such a nice day to-day. I kissed to the sun shine as much as I want.
Now I must ask you to help me about my studio, am going to leave there end of this month. And Madam Karina advised me to stay there. There are two rooms third floor of her house. It is quite cheap 19s, a week. But I don't like her husband. So am hesitating about it.
Tell me what do you think that idea.
I am sure shall get back in one or two days. & I will join with your dinner party. Send my greeting to your dearest Mrs.
good night Tami
16: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-2 Royal Bath & East Cliff Hotel, Bournemouth. Thursday [1917]
My dear Ezra,
I am going to home this afternoon, am waiting the taxi now. in one hour
? SECTIONI: 1911-23 15
I shall be offended by the sea. But I feel cherry when I think of the life of town. I shall change my life & start work very hard. Am just going to say good bye to the sea. & I will tell her your love too.
Well, my dear Ezra. We can see very soon, shalln't we.
I will call upon you to-morrow afternoon or Saturday morning. Am getting quite strong, but sometimes not.
HowI shallbepleasedwhenshallseeyou.
I hope you are quite well & waiting my visit. Remember me to Mrs Pound.
17: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-1 9 & 10 Marble Arch. W. Sunday [1 January 1918? ]
My dear Ezra,
First of all, we will send our greeting of New Year to both of you.
We were enjoied very much last night. I hope we did not disterve your work. We are so envious the piecefull atmosfair, which you emit around us.
We hope you would come & see us soon. Kind Rememberence from Toshi.
18: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-3 Yoyogi mura, Toyotamagun, Tokyo 5 July 1918
My dear Ezra,
Yours Tami K.
I have just got home. I found myself rather funy as many of my old friends has passed away.
It is not pleasant at all my Japanese life.
Though1 haveagoodbrother,whoadmiredyourphoto,whichCoburn kindly let me have.
I got home day before yesterday, and still very busy for visiting and received many people.
Please let me write again when shall have more spare time. Please send my love to Mrs. Pound. with Love,
Tami
Yours Ever Tami
? 16 SECTIONI: 1911-23
19: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
APCS-2 [Mt. Fuji, Lake Yamanaka? ] 29 August 1918
My dear Ezra,
This is where I am staying now. fresh air. beautiful sun. birds singing, and the view is simply splendid. Hope you will come next week end, won't you?
Tami
20: Tami Koume to Ezra Pound
ALS-5 Yoyogi, Yoyohata, Tokyo, Japan, east from your side. 21 December 1918
MY DEAREST FRIEND ON THE EARTH,
Thank you ever so much for your wonderful letter, received just this minute.
I am so pleased to hear from you about the London news. & very glad to know that you are working so very hard. I have painted about a dozen of the pictures since I have come back, and some of them are most wonderfull. I will send few of them to International and London group. If I will send them to you first, will you arrange for me?
I missed you and London life so much. I should love to come again. I suppose London is very glorious after this horrid war. How our London people are pleased! I am sure!
Toshi is not well ever since, staying at hospital. She is so pessimistic and broken our engagement. I am so disapointed. I lose my light, hope and enjoyment of the life.
I can not help to send away the sadness from my life.
I never go out to the town, always keep myself in the studio. However, the life is tragedy itself. Can't be helped.
Pleas write to me often, will you? You can't imagine how much your
letter would please me. I read it as if a hunger stand front of a dinner table.
By, By, yours ever Tami
Rememberence to Mrs. Pound.
? SECTION1: 1911-23 17
21: Tami Koume to Ezra and Dorothy Pound APCS-1 [n. p. ] 1 January 1919
22: Michio Ito to Ezra Pound
TLS-3 Michio Itow's School, 121 West 83rd Street, New York City. 19 December 1920
Dear Ezra:
Forgive me, I have been neglected for many years to write to you. I hope you are quite well. I do not know, how to begin this letter, it's already four years, since I left from you, there is thousand things happened to me during these years, and I should like to tell you all about it, but, it's impossible to write.
SinceI cametoNewYork,thereweremanypeopleswhoaskedmeto perform "Noh drama" to the American public, but I hesitated to do this, on account of my imperfect English, as I find the real value of "Noh Drama" would be lost to the western public, if performed in the Japanese language; also, 1 did not find any actors or musicians who has suitable training to take part in this kind of drama; for these reasons 1 could not perform this before. Two years ago, I started my school here in New York, with an idea to make dancer as an artist. Through study with my pupils, 1 find a strong possibility to carry out "the Noh drama's movement," for the Western stage, as the Universal drama.
? 18 SECTIONI: 1911-23
So, last summer I took twenty-five pupils, and went in a mountain in East Stroudsburg, PA. and we worked very hard on the Noh drama. Of course,yourbook"NOH"I hadalwaysinmyhand.
We stayed two months in the mountain, we were very pleased with our study. Beginning of October, we came back to New York, then, I picked out fifteen pupils from my school and formed a group of players, we have no name yet, because our idea in forming this group is not [tol copy or imitate the Japanese Noh drama or Greek drama, we are going to produce modern drama, on the same foundation as the Greek drama and Noh drama, our production will belong to the universe.
Our players production is not for the momentary art, we want to build up play which will last forever: so we will work on the one drama until so durable, that our production would be beyond criticism and would have to be what they assert the Japanese Noh drama to be for all time.
Our fifteen players are studying English diction and chanting, Dalcroze Eurhythmies for training of Rhythm and solfege (ear training) and dancing as material foundation, so we are all musicians, actors, chorus, we hope that in the future we will become as professional actors. First, we did not wish to perform our study before public during period of our studies, but as we need money so badly for our studies, so we are planning to give our first performance about end of January 1921. 1 am going to give program of three Japanese Noh drama and one Kyogen.
The program will be:
SHO/O KAGEKIYO HACOROMO BUSU
The above three Noh drama, I should like to use from your book. Will you allow us to use them? My plan is going to perform twice in a week, about four weeks. Also I am planning [to] go back to Japan with my players, next summer, and we will stay in Japan three months.
