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Home , Haniwa, Initial, Isamu Noguchi, Kenzo Okada, Rosanjin, Saburo Hasegawa

CHANGING AND UNCHANGING THINGS Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar

MAY 1–JUL 14, 2019 TKTK

1 Introduction DAKIN HART AND MARK DEAN JOHNSON

3 Katsura Imperial Villa PHOTOGRAPHS BY

4 Exhibition Overview & Checklist

12 Days Spent with Isamu Noguchi

15 Remembrance of Saburo Hasegawa ISAMU NOGUCHI

17 Chronology Isamu Noguchi and Saburo Hasegawa: 1948–59 MATTHEW KIRSCH

19 Programs & Events

POSTER INSERT From the Archive “Fragments,” a letter from Saburo Hasegawa to Isamu Noguchi, August 24, 1950. 2 Hasegawa and Noguchi at Shisen-do Temple, , 1950. Photograph by Michio Noguchi. Dakin Hart and Mark Dean Johnson INTRODUCTION

CHANGING AND UNCHANGING THINGS Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan

In May 1950 Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) returned to Japan for the first time in twenty years. Within a few weeks he had reunited with his deceased father’s family; met a wide range of future collaborators; been offered an exhibition at Mitsukoshi department store; borrowed a studio; and, finding himself unexpectedly welcomed as a minor celebrity, given a number of interviews on the role he saw for Japan’s cultural heritage in the development of its postwar arts scene. The trip was a stop on what would become a multiyear, round-the-world search for the cultural significance of . He was, Noguchi said, seeking models for evolving the relationship between sculpture and society—having emerged from the war years with a profound desire to reorient his work “toward some purposeful social end.”

As unaccustomed to the attention he was receiving as he was to the over- whelming desire to belong he felt upon returning to Japan, Noguchi turned to the artist Saburo Hasegawa (1906–1957) for guidance and companionship in visiting and processing the seminal sites of Japanese culture. Hasegawa be- came Noguchi’s ambassador and confederate: making introductions and help- ing him to research the basis of the culturally hybrid works he immediately began to envision. Well-matched, they rapidly established an easy rapport. Hasegawa had spent time as a painter in Paris in the early 1930s, where he mingled with the European avant-garde and absorbed many of the same influ- ences Noguchi had. He synthesized this experience in a handful of books about Western art published in Japan, including the first in Japanese to deal with abstraction. Following World War II, which he spent in virtual exile in a rural fishing village, Hasegawa emerged as a devotee of tea ceremony and , INTRODUCTION | DAKIN HART AND MARK DEAN JOHNSON

and a , somewhat controversial postwar propo- In a piece on his Akari light (radicalized tra- nent of Japanese classical culture. With Noguchi’s encour- ditional Japanese paper lanterns) written for Art and agement and support, Hasegawa spent 1954 in New York in 1955, Noguchi, with his usual penetrating City: lecturing, exhibiting, and representing “the Orient” economy, described the intent behind them as the “true in cosmopolitan discussion about the universality of development of an old tradition.” It is a formulation that abstraction, including in conversations with Alfred Barr describes all of his forays into the material culture of old at The Museum of and on the radio. After a Japan: ceramics, the reclaimed Japanese pine bases he brief return to Japan, Hasegawa relocated to the San had made using rudimentary Japanese joinery in New Francisco Bay Area in 1955, where, as a professor at Alan York, and his variations on the Japanese garden, among Watts’s American Academy of Asian Studies and a key many others. Hasegawa’s letters to Noguchi, filled with transmitter of Japanese culture and philosophy, he haiku and a deep and knowledgeable passion for Japanese inspired members of the Beat generation. aesthetics and art history, echo this commitment. During their friendship, Hasegawa began an intensive engage- By the time Hasegawa and Noguchi met, both had been ment with ink, creating experimental , rubbings, thinking deeply for some time about the balance between and block prints—often presenting abstract work in the tradition and , and the role of indigenous and for- traditional forms of hanging scrolls and folding screens. eign influences in the development of traditional cultures. The predicate of their brief but intense friendship was a Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa thorough exploration of traditional Japanese culture within in Postwar Japan is an account of how their joint explora- the context of seeking what Noguchi termed “an innocent tion of traditional Japanese culture influenced their work. synthesis” that he felt “must rise from the embers of the The more than eighty objects in the exhibition—by turns past.” Their ongoing debate on these questions of balance, elegiac, assured, ambivalent, anguished, euphoric, and in which Noguchi tended to take the more reactive position resigned—are organized around the major overlapping 2 that Japan should look almost entirely to its own history subjects of their attention: their complex biographies, the and traditions and eschew the West in attempting to mod- landscapes of Japan, the abstracted human figure, the ernize, became the centerpiece of their bond. It seems fragmentation of matter in the atomic age, and Japan’s appropriate to invoke ’s famous quip traditional art forms. “Visiting Kyoto with Saburo,” Noguchi about how in the early development of he and wrote, “I cannot help but feel that we are observing not the Picasso “were like mountain-climbers roped together.” tail end of a tradition but the precepts for a survivable future.” 1

Among their many shared understandings—a commit- As the world shrinks and the pressures of cultural homog- ment to cultural bridging and their wartime pacifism, for enization grow, how do we remain site specific peoples, instance—Noguchi and Hasegawa were brothers in intrin- rooted in the natural and material cultures of our places sic exile. Few psychically displaced global citizens in the on the earth? Can humanity, community, and creativity postwar world were better qualified around 1950 to nego- continue to function if all of us go global, disconnect from tiate the rocky ground between a Japan struggling with its nature, and become rootless? At any given moment, in any identity, a becoming, for better and worse, specific place, is there an ideal mix of indigenous and the international beacon of modernity, and a Europe foreign, traditional and modern content? What is the caught somewhere in the middle. Between them, Noguchi nature of wholeness in a broken world? The purpose of and Hasegawa covered an extraordinary intellectual and bringing these works together is not to demonstrate, experiential terrain, with just the right degree of comple- or even to suggest, that Noguchi and Hasegawa solved ment, difference, and overlap. Noguchi was American, but these riddles but rather to bring to life a rich conversation felt increasingly drawn to Japan. Hasegawa, Japanese on a subject that is, if anything, even more relevant today with a biracial daughter born of his French wife, was drawn than it was then. to the freedom of expression and the role of teacher available to him in the United States. Together they brought 1 Isamu Noguchi, “1949,” unpublished . The Noguchi Museum Archive. everything they had to bear on trying to process and IMAGES, FROM TOP Saburo Hasegawa, Numbers One to Ten, 1950. Lithograph. Hasegawa Family Collection. Isamu Noguchi, My Mu, 1950. Seto stoneware. The Isamu understand the problems of modernization facing Japan. Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. Katsura Imperial Villa PHOTOGRAPHS BY ISAMU NOGUCHI

Noguchi took hundreds of photographs documenting his visits with Hasegawa to many of the most significant sites of old Japan, including Katsura Imperial Villa, which had become an incredibly important reference in cross- cultural discussions of international architecture. Writing about their first visit to Katsura, immersed in its “ballet of nothingness,” Hasegawa recalled Noguchi’s enthusiasm: “He trotted around like a hunting dog with a camera.” Exhibition Overview & Checklist AREA 8 — GROUND FLOOR

The exhibition is arranged around two visual and concep- tual metaphors.

The first, roughly occupying Area 9 of the main gallery, Isamu Noguchi Saburo Hasegawa Akari 15A, 1952 Untitled, 1954 is disaggregation: the literal and figurative fragmentation Paper, bamboo, metal Ink on paper of reality being a new harrowing reality of the atomic age. Hasegawa Family Collection Matter, we learned, is particulate, mostly empty space, abstract at the molecular level, and can be atomized at the Haniwa Japan, push of a button. The loss of certitude—which evaporated period, 250-552 Isamu Noguchi with the solidity of matter—is reflected in works in which Earthenware Tsukubai, 1962 Hasegawa and Noguchi represent the world in component Collection of Granite, water Isamu Noguchi parts: language without syntax; landscape reduced to shapes; music as scattered notes; fragmentary bodies; and objects whose forms have lost contact with function. The Noguchi vessels in this section, for example, include an empty war helmet, a walking void, and a teapot that won’t Isamu Noguchi Saburo Hasegawa Garden Elements, Untitled hold water. Hasegawa’s The Harmonious suggests a score, 1958 (Wood Rubbing), but one that is visually cacophonous and axiomatically Mannari granite c. 1952 Private collection unplayable. Wood rubbing, ink on paper Tia and Mark Watts In the second half of the installation, reality somewhat Collection recoheres. Abstraction reunites in fits and starts with 4 representation. Disorganized collections of shapes form recognizable landscapes and figures. Order is not exactly restored, but the trend is towards coming together rather than spinning apart. Hasegawa’s Non-Figure , for example, teems with captivating botanical logics, as do works such as Study for a Waterfall, Bird Song, Endless AREA 11 — SECOND FLOOR Coupling, and Pregnant Bird in which Noguchi draws patterns from nature.

But I alone am dim and weak. The flow from the first part of the installation into the Others are sharp and clever, second is not meant to be progressive, teleological, But I alone am dull and stupid. or indicative of harmonious resolutions—as Hasegawa’s Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea, gut-wrenching, primitive final work Pure Suffering and Without direction, like the restless wind. Everyone else is busy, Noguchi’s Mortality, a kind of giant garden wind chime But I alone am aimless and depressed. made of bones, attest. But both artists believed that art I am different. could play an important role in repairing the world. So, (Trans. Gia-fu Feng and Jane English) though nothing in the first section is entirely abstract, and nothing in the second is entirely representational, it is hard Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi Portrait of Akari E, 1954 to resist the desire to want to dramatize the extent to which Lao-tzu, 1954 Paper, bamboo, both of them were able to pull order from chaos. Ink on paper metal Lucid Art Foundation, A broad selection of archival materials relating to Noguchi Inverness, CA and Hasegawa’s relationship is on view in Area 13. Isamu Noguchi All works The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden The Footstep, 1958 Museum, New York, unless otherwise noted. Mannari granite, pine AREA 9/10 — SECOND FLOOR

Saburo Hasegawa The Harmonious, 1953 Ink on paper, four panels Neumann Family Collection Saburo Hasegawa Saburo Hasegawa Rhapsody: Fishing Village, 1952 Symphonic Poem—Fine Day, 1951 Four-panel folding screen, ink on paper Four-panel folding screen, ink on paper The National , Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum On view: May 1– June 9 On view: June 12–July 14

Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi The Butterfly Bell Image, Dream—from Saburo Hasegawa 1956–57 Untitled, 1951 Chuang Tzu, 1956 Iron Ink on paper Ink on paper scrolls Hasegawa Family Collection Koichi Kawasaki Collection, Japan

Saburo Hasegawa Civilization, 1951 Ink on paper Hasegawa Family Collection Isamu Noguchi Fence, 1952 Sogetsu Foundation, Tokyo Isamu Noguchi Sesshu, 1958 Anodized aluminum Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Isamu Noguchi gift of an Anonymous donor, Saburo Hasegawa War, 1952 1962.259 The Butterfly Dream— Shigaraki stoneware from Chuang Tzu, 1956 Sogetsu Foundation, Ink on paper Tokyo Hasegawa Family Collection Isamu Noguchi Saburo Hasegawa Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, Calligraphics, Time, 1952 dreamed I was a butterfly flying happily 1957 Ink on paper here and there, enjoying life without Iron, wood, rope, metal Hasegawa Family Collection Isamu Noguchi knowing who I was. Suddenly I woke up Space Elements, 1958 and I was indeed Chuang Tzu. Greek marble Did Chuang Tzu dream he was a butterfly, Isamu Noguchi or did the butterfly dream he was Chuang Tzu? My Mu, 1950 There must be some distinction between Seto stoneware Chuang Tzu and the butterfly. This is a case of transformation. (Trans. Gia-fu Feng and Jane English) Isamu Noguchi Saburo Hasegawa Bell Tower Profundity (Yugen), for , 1952 1950 (partially Ink on paper reconstructed 1986) Collection of Terracotta, wood Matthew Reichman AREA 9/10 — SECOND FLOOR

Saburo Hasegawa Saburo Hasegawa Flower, 1954 Environment, 1953 Ink on paper Lucid Art Foundation, Woodcut on paper Saburo Hasegawa Inverness, CA The National Museum of Art, Mountain and Water, Forming a Landscape, On view: May 1 to June 9 1954 Lithograph Hasegawa Family Collection

Isamu Noguchi Shodo Flowing, 1959 (cast 1969) Bronze

Isamu Noguchi Yoshiko-san, 1952 Iron, rope The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York; Saburo Hasegawa Saburo Hasegawa gift of Tsutomu Hiroi Katsura (Imperial Villa), Numbers One to Ten, 1951 1955 Woodcut on paper Lithograph The National Museum of Art, Hasegawa Family Collection Osaka On view: June 12 to July 14

Isamu Noguchi Akari 13A, c. 1952 Paper, bamboo, metal Isamu Noguchi Tetsubin, 1956 Iron Private collection

Saburo Hasegawa I-Ro-Ha (The Japanese Syllabary), 1954 Lithograph Tia and Mark Watts Collection

Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi Self-Portrait, 1951 Noh Musicians, Ink on paper 1958 The National Museum of Art, Aluminum, paint Osaka AREA 9/10 — SECOND FLOOR

Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi Untitled, 1954 The Curtain Lithograph of Dream, 1952 Tia and Mark Watts Shigaraki stoneware, Collection Iga glaze Isamu Noguchi Study for a Waterfall, 1961 Granite

Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi Saburo Hasegawa A World I Did Face Dish, 1952 Untitled, 1954 Not Make, 1952 Shigaraki stoneware Ink on paper Terracotta Saburo Hasegawa Sogetsu Foundation, Memorial Gallery, Tokyo Konan Gakuen, Ashiya

Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi From Lao-tzu, 1953 Enigma, 1956–57 Saburo Hasegawa Ink on paper Collection of Matthew Reichman Iron Non-Figure, 1953 Private collection Ink on paper Collection of the Oakland Their food is plain and good, their clothes Museum of California, fine but simple, their homes secure; Gift of the Women’s Board They are happy in their ways. of the Oakland Museum Association Though they live within sight of their neighbors, And crowing cocks and barking dogs are Attributed to Saburo Hasegawa heard across the way, Untitled (series of four photographic Yet they leave each other in peace while [A. I–IV]), c. 1952 they grow old and die. Photographic prints (Trans. Gia-fu Feng and Jane English) Tia and Mark Watts Collection

Attributed to Saburo Hasegawa Untitled (series of five photographic collages [C. I–V]), c. 1955 Photographic prints Tia and Mark Watts Collection

Isamu Noguchi Lessons of Musokokushi, 1962 Five bronze elements Saburo Hasegawa Attributed to Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi From Lao-tzu, Untitled (series of two photographic Variation on a 1954 prints |[H. 1–2]), c. 1953 Millstone #2, 1962 Ink on paper Photographic prints Granite Hasegawa Family Tia and Mark Watts Collection Collection AREA 9/10 — SECOND FLOOR

Saburo Hasegawa Pure Suffering, 1956 Ink on burlap Private collection

Saburo Hasegawa Saburo Hasegawa Great Chorus, Eco Sum Via Verita, 1952 c. 1955 Ink on paper Ink on paper Japan Society, Hasegawa Family New York Collection

Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi Album of Four Mortality, 1959 Poem Drawings, 1954 Balsawood Ink on paper Isamu Noguchi Hasegawa Family Collection Large Square Vase, 1952 Karatsu stoneware Isamu Noguchi Model for Garden Isamu Noguchi for Reader’s Digest Woman, 1952 Building, 1951 Bizen stoneware Plaster

Isamu Noguchi Celebration, 1952 Iron Isamu Noguchi Japan Society, New York; Isamu Noguchi Akari 1A, 1962 gift of Blanchette Hooker Man, 1952 Isamu Noguchi Paper, bamboo, metal Rockefeller, 1971, JS32.03 Bizen stoneware , 1958 Aluminum

Saburo Hasegawa From Lao-tzu, 1954 Ink on paper Isamu Noguchi Hasegawa Family Collection The Seeker Sought, 1969 Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub; Basalt It is the center hole that makes it useful. Isamu Noguchi Shape clay into a vessel; Large Walking Box, It is the space within that makes it useful. 1952 Cut doors and windows for a room; Karatsu stoneware, It is the holes that make it useful. wood dowels Therefore profit comes from what is there; Usefulness from what is not there. (Trans. Gia-fu Feng and Jane English) AREA 9/10 — SECOND FLOOR

Isamu Noguchi Akari 16A, 1952 Paper, bamboo, metal

Saburo Hasegawa Nature, 1952 Saburo Hasegawa Wood rubbing, ink on paper Zen Center Mu, 1955 Isamu Noguchi Ink on paper Mrs. White, 1952 The National Museum of Shigaraki stoneware Modern Art, Kyoto On view: June 12 to July 14

Saburo Hasegawa block Saburo Hasegawa for ‘Nature,’ 1952 Nature, 1952 Isamu Noguchi Section of tree trunk Two-panel folding screen, Bird Song, 1952 Tia and Mark Watts ink on paper Collection (cast 1985) The National Museum Bronze of Modern Art, Kyoto On view: May 1 to June 9

Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi Endless Coupling, Young Mountain, Pregnant Bird, 1958 Isamu Noguchi 1957 1970 Greek marble Akari BB1-30DD, Iron Aji granite 1962 Paper, bamboo, metal

Isamu Noguchi Studies for a doncho (theater curtain), Isamu Noguchi c. 1953 Cloud, 1959 Mulberry paper on plywood Aluminum Kawashima Textile Museum

Noguchi was commissioned by Jimbei Kawashima IV, the president and owner of the Kawashima Textile Co. in 1954 to design a doncho (theater curtain) for Toyoko Hall in Junzo Sakakura’s Tokyu Kaikan in Shibuya, Tokyo. Working in Kawashima’s home, Noguchi made six studies in paper , one of which, “Yukyo (eternal vastness),” was chosen. Used for more than thirty years, the curtain was destroyed in 1985 when the hall was demolished. Saburo Hasegawa Two of the six studies are being shown at a time. Distance, 1952 Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Gift of Nobuko and Joe Brotherton in appreciation of James Cahill Isamu Noguchi Sesshu, 1958 Anodized aluminum Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; gift of an Anonymous donor, 1962.259 Saburo Hasegawa Nature, 1952 Two-panel folding screen, ink on paper The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto On view: May 1 to June 9 Days Spent with Isamu Noguchi Saburo Hasegawa

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It was a valuable experience for me to make a trip to the , published, many of them on . Kansai 2 region with Mr. Isamu Noguchi and spend time By any measure, he is no amateur when it comes to together before and afterwards. I find it too precious, Japanese art. even distasteful, to hastily summarize our trip and friend- ship. Yet, in light of my forgetfulness, I would like to note During our trip, a general-interest magazine asked Mr. a few things here as reminders. Noguchi to contribute an article, and he ordered me to ghostwrite it. Despite his busy schedule, he took time Mr. Noguchi holds Okakura Tenshin, to type talking points for me. I drafted a text under his Originally published with whose writing he is very famil- as “Isamu Noguchi name in Japanese and showed him my clumsy English iar, in high regard. tono hibi,” Sansai translation of it. In it, I wrote, “I [Noguchi] earnestly hope (August 1950). During his brief stay in Japan nine- that Japan should not repeat the foolishly extreme West- teen years ago, he worked at the ernization that the country undertook in the Meiji period studio of ceramicist Mr. Uno for a few months and worked [1868–1914].” He changed this part as follows: “I earnest- in Nara with Dr. Warner. ly hope that Japan should take another look at itself and rediscover itself.” He then told me, “Because the situation Having avidly read Dr. Daisetz T. Suzuki’s Zen and Japa- now may be worse than the Meiji period.” nese Culture, he returned a copy of an English translation to me while hospitalized prior to our trip to Kansai. Indeed, we had fervently argued this point at an inn in Nara. I argued, “Today, as always, some He also started a book by Bruno Taut before our depar- think about Japan, taking another look at it and rediscov- ture. He finished reading it in the train westward. ering it. So, Japan is alright.” To this, he countered, “If so, Of course, he read all the English texts that his father, those people must now immediately speak up, with an ever louder voice. Otherwise, something terrible will hap- I myself love to tell him about Rikyu, Basho, Ryokan, and pen. It may be meddlesome of me, but just as Fenollosa Ogawa Usen. He is happy to hear about them. Recently, and Okakura did, I want to speak up myself.” My response he started saying, “Dadaist Duchamp is just like Ryokan.” was, “Please do.” He told me that he would definitely find a reproduction of He has a profound passion for old Japan. He firmly be- Sesshu’s Long Landscape Scroll, a photograph of the lieves that taking another look at it and rediscovering it is stone age clay figure, and Ogawa Usen’s book, How to the way to save Japan and make Japan contribute to the Draw Haiga,7 and buy them to bring home. Often remem- art and culture of the whole world. bering Buson’s haiga painting in ink that he saw in Kyoto, he would praise it. He is far purer than I am. I have become keenly aware of this fact while traveling with him, and visiting him and be- During the trip, he would often discuss the true meaning ing visited by him. of “leisure 閑,” “poverty 貧,” and “nothingness 無,” specifi- cally as a critique of the materialist civilization that It occurred to me that I should show him a reproduction pervades today’s world. Having learned about Ryokan bit of Sesshu’s Long Landscape Scroll (Sansui chokan),3 but by bit from me and seen the reproduction of the lay I didn’t show it to him then, since I thought it better for him monk’s calligraphy, he began to show a strong interest in to see it in a calmer environment.4 When he visited me at “foolishness 愚.” Of course, as a rebellion against contem- my humble home, I swept the room, spread a piece of felt porary culture. on the floor, and laid open the reproduction of Sesshu’s scroll. His excitement at seeing it was beyond description. He is familiar with Laozi and Zhuanzi. He once proudly told me, “A friend of mine has just published the best On the same day, I also showed him the picture postcard English translation of Laozi.” of a clay figure from Japan’s stone age (published by the ), which I treasured and always He has a magnificent Leica camera with a wide lens and kept near my desk. He was so touched by it that he kept a telephoto lens. With this camera, he avidly photo- on drawing it on Japanese paper with ink and brush. Even graphed important historic architecture, ranging from the though he was very exhausted by nighttime, he begged Katsura Detached Palace to the temple Ryoanji, from the me, “Show me the Sesshu again,” and intently gazed at it. Taian, a teahouse believed to be designed by Rikyu at the Feeling so worn out, he would mumble, “Let’s go to bed, temple Myokian in Yamazaki, to a garden designed by already.” Yet, he would return to look at it, again, saying, Katagiri Sekishu at the temple Jikoji in Yamato Koizumi. “Just a few more seconds...” As though sighing, he uttered He aspires to capture the unity of a building and a gar- words of appreciation about the composition, about the den—which is to say, the beauty of truly synthesized for- brushwork, about the Japanese’s master’s distinct de- malism. He would hang this camera from his shoulder, ployment of the dian tai fa technique,5 about the painter’s carrying under his arm a calico furoshiki bundle contain- humanity revealed in his work. ing paper and ink, brush and ink stone. In addition, at the temple Yakushiji in Nara, he spent half a day to learn the He always sees the back of a work. He cannot stop seeing technique of takuhon rubbing. it without seeing it through. He loves calligraphy. But if the calligrapher is not a fine person, he would not like his , drawing, takuhon. These three mediums brush. That is why he loves the calligraphy of past Zen allow him to record what he loves. monks. He once admired some calligraphy written by He also spends every available moment on practicing Dr. Nishida Kitaro6 on the frame at the temple Myoshinji, writing hirakana syllabary. Or, poring over a book on haiku which was the residence of Professor Hisamatsu Shin’ichi, by Freis.8 who studies Zen philosophy. I have long been troubled by the similarities and dis- He often talks about the great Dadaist . similarities between modern art, especially , He also loves to talk about Brancusi, his sculpture teach- and tea ceremony, haiku, and calligraphy. However, er, as well as Mondrian, Klee, and Miro. the moment I met Mr. Noguchi, my concern evaporated. ‘DAYS SPENT WITH ISAMU NOGUCHI’ BY SABURO HASEGAWA

I am now seeing an open road before me, although I still He is too busy now. Still, I hope that one day his schedule have no concrete idea as to how to go forward on this will ease up and he will write me a letter, perhaps from his road. studio in New York, about his deep and keen observations on what he saw in Japan—about Sesshu, about Rikyu, He often utters an original idea, out of the blue. about Basho, about Ryokan, about Usen . . . I long for When the fires destroyed the Golden Hall of the temple the day when the artist I dearly love will candidly and Horyuji in Nara, I was devastated to see its horrific after- seriously tell us how contemporary Japanese art should math. Yet, he consoled me by saying, “That’s still beautiful,” awake and make a new step. and continuing, “In fact, until I saw its burnt ruinous state, (Translated by Reiko Tomii) I myself hadn’t perhaps known Horyuji was such beautiful architecture.”

When I told him about Rikyu’s four ideals of tea ceremo- ny—“harmony 和, respect 敬, purity 清, and simplicity 寂”— he immediately responded in agreement, “That’s a mag- nificent ideal.” When we talked about the burnt Horyuji, I explained to him the two meanings of sabi 寂 ( = “simplicity”): One relates to sabishii ( = “lonely”) and the other, sabi ( = “metallic rust”), with the latter implying the loving senti- ment for a rusty, thus aged and bruised, state of things. Upon hearing this, he smiled in complete satisfaction, sharing his detailed observation on the relationship between humans who change nature and nature that changes artifice.

“You who praise the beauty of the burned Horyuji are more Japanese than I am in light of your love for sabi.” To this comment, he responded with a sign of embarrass- ment and silence. He then retorted, “It is Arp who has the Japanese mind.” 2 Kansai is a western region 12 Isamu Noguchi, around Osaka that probably at Katsura Imperial Not just Arp. He talks with love and respect about such encompasses Kyoto and Nara. Villa, c. 1950. Unknown photographer. 3 A fifteenth-century giants of modern art as Klee, Brancusi, Mondrian, and masterpiece of ink painting. PAGE 15 Hasegawa and Noguchi with Hasegawa’s painting Duchamp. Listening to him, I begin to feel that the truly 4 Hasegawa refers to Noguchi’s time in the hospital. Music of Moonlight (Dogu) at spiritual and subjective expression of art that once exist- the Fourth Art Group Exhibition 5 A Chinese ink technique ed in the East and in Japan is today becoming something (Bijutsu Dantai Rengo Ten), using dots. Tokyo Metropolitan Art of the West, while the East and Japan are forgetting and 6 A prominent thinker who Museum, 1950. Unknown losing it. established the Kyoto School photographer. of philosophy. PAGE 16 Hasegawa (left) and I feel that he is daily answering my questions concerning 7 A simple abridged painting Michio Noguchi (3rd from left) that accompanies and interacts with unidentified woman and modern art and Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) in with a haiku poem. man at Hekiunso Nomura Villa, Kyoto, Japan. Photograph by Japan today. 8 Hasegawa’s identification of the author is unclear. Isamu Noguchi. PAGE 19 Hasegawa (second Ultimately, the issue boils down to the depth and height from right) and Noguchi of spirituality and the strength of execution. It is only (far right) at a nodate tea ceremony in Nara, 1950. through urgent reflection and awakening; there exists no Images from The Noguchi other way to come to a solution. He makes me under- Museum Archive. stand this basic fact again and again. Remembrance of Saburo Hasegawa Isamu Noguchi

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Hasegawa Saburo was my friend who I met in the spring Our friendship continued and we often took trips to Kyoto of 1950 when he became my guide and interpreter under where we would stay with his friend Hirayama Ryutaro. the sponsorship of the Mainichi Newspaper. This was Zen was our particular interest, and with him ceremonial when I arrived in Japan after the war and was invited to tea. I remember how enthusiastic he was when after speak and travel around Japan. It was fortunate and innumerable cups in many places we came to the house to our mutual advantage which at that time was to find of Mushakoji and was served “Yugen,” 9 (and) the spirit of things (past). The Orient had with plain warm water. This he Unpublished manuscript, always represented that valuable frontier for me and said was the ultimate, beyond c. 1976, The Noguchi Hasegawa when I met him was already turning away from affectations and show, more like Museum Archive. his previous interest in European culture and art toward the true purpose of tea—“of the Noguchi’s handwritten corrections are indicated a rediscovery of his own country. He had just exhibited a poor man wanting nothing in his by parentheses. canvas with the Modern Bijitsu Ten with a small Jomon10 hut”. Hasegawa would tell me figure in the corner. of Ryokan san with special pleasure. For myself coming from the opulent West, this That initial trip took us to Ise, Nara, and Kyoto, which is was my primary instruction(:) The enjoyment of Haiku and routine, excepting that ours must have been exceptional. the understanding of Nature. A teacher, in the process of learning­ himself and in re- membering his own origins is indeed exceptional. I myself In 1952 I established a household in Kita-, must also have served as a catalyst in having all this pour thanks to the kindness of Kitaoji. Hasegawa had forth, away finally from the misery of war, and the burned moved to nearby Chigasaki and we often saw each other, city. For a teacher a student is necessary. resuming our everlasting conversation. At one point we spent a week doing Zazen every evening at Enkakuji. ‘REMEMBRANCE OF SABURO HASEGAWA’ BY ISAMU NOGUCHI

My life, however, was badly split between Japan and The fact is I saw less of Hasegawa san in America. He America. My reality, today’s reality, was after all in the went off to San Francisco and then returned to Japan. West, however I might aspire to the ideals of the East. In When I next saw him he explained that it had become life as in art I lived in a no man’s land between the two. impossible for him to stay. A total gap in sympathy had Hasegawa san on the other hand when he shortly got to developed. All he was asked to do was to report on the America arrived with no such doubts. He only became artistic activities of the West. They were definitely not more obviously Japanese, a representative of old Japan, interested in any thoughts of his on Zen. The result was that is. He regularly wore Kimono. No evidence remained that he moved his family off to San Francisco where he of his Western painterly past. There was just sumi, paper, joined the faculty of Institute. I had no occa- tales of ”Koan”, of Basho and of course Ryokan san. sion to go there, nor did I see him before I heard of his untimely death. Soon he was immersed in the interest and good will of many artists. Among them was Franz Klein [sic], photo- If I am asked about his influence on America, I should say graphs of whose work I had taken to Japan and which it was very substantial, and that it is still alive in the de- Hasegawa had introduced in the magazine “Bokubi”. It veloping regard for the lessness of material things. In the seemed as though he had finally found his true audience world of art, he was a valuable link in the transformation and fellowship. of values taking place between Japan and America.

I remember one occasion when I introduced him at the “Club”.11 Thereupon he got up on a table and announced 9 Yugen is a term from Japanese aesthetics meaning dim, deep, or mysterious or, in he would give a discourse on the Rose Sutra. He held a some contexts, referring to a profound sense of the beauty of the universe and the sadness of human suffering. rose in his hand and remained in absolute silence. After 10 The prehistoric Jomon period in Japan is traditionally dated from 14,000 to 300 BCE. perhaps an hour I was asked to aro(u)se him, to the great 11 The Eighth Street Club in New York, a venue popular among artists where Hasegawa annoyance of the large audience. gave at least four lectures on Zen in 1954. Chronology | Isamu Noguchi and Saburo Hasegawa: 1948–59 Matthew Kirsch

This chronology focuses on the relationship SEPTEMBER In a letter to Noguchi in 1953 between Isamu Noguchi (born Los Angeles, New York, Hasegawa asks about new JANUARY Hasegawa’s first solo exhibition , 1904) and Saburo Hasegawa work and confides, “I am all alone here— in the United States opens at the New (born Yamaguchi, Japan, September 6, 1906) as you noticed it—I like Sesshu, Rikyu, Gallery, New York; the artist is unable to and the little-known events of Hasegawa’s Basho, and Ryokan far too much. But travel for the show, so Noguchi attends years in the United States. I will continue to walk my way.” He adds, the reception and speaks in his stead. “Please do not forget to tell M. Marcel MAY Hasegawa accepts an invitation Duchamp that there is a fellow who 1948 from the American Abstract Artists to respects him in Japan. Keep the Sesshu FEBRUARY Hasegawa mentions Noguchi organize a selection of work by Japanese scroll and kakemono always with you in an article about developments in artists for the group’s annual exhibition with good care, please.” avant-garde art in the United States at the Riverside Museum, New York, the that appears in Mizue (Watercolor). DECEMBER The Museum of Modern Art, following year. New York, exhibits childhood drawings DECEMBER Hasegawa publishes “Modern by Hiroshi Nishida, the son of Shinichi 1950 Art Exposition in Japan” in Arts & Nishida (a friend of Noguchi and MAY On Noguchi’s return to Japan for the Architecture magazine, singling out Hasegawa), alongside Fernand Léger’s first time in almost twenty years, he is sculptures by Tsutomu Hiroi, Noguchi’s Le Cirque. Letters indicate Noguchi and welcomed by many artists and architects. friend and chief assistant in Japan. Hasegawa worked together to arrange At a lecture given under the auspices of the exhibition. Hasegawa’s work is included in the the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun he is exhibition Chusou to Gensou: Hishajitsu introduced to Hasegawa. kaiga wo dou rikai suruka (Abstraction 1951 JUNE Under the sponsorship of Mainichi and fantasy: How to understand Hasegawa’s essay “Katsura-rikyu wo 17 Shimbun, Noguchi and Hasegawa travel to nonfigurative [nonrealistic] painting) at chusho suru” (Making Katsura Imperial Ise, Nara, and Kyoto to visit temples and the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Villa abstract), discussing his visit to the gardens. site with Noguchi, appears in Geijutsu SUMMER Hasegawa and Noguchi visit shincho (Art currents). Hasegawa begins 1954 Chigasaki with family and friends to see a correspondence with . JANUARY Hasegawa travels to New York Noguchi’s childhood home. to install the work (including his own) NOVEMBER Noguchi is invited by architect of the Japan Abstract Art Club (Nihon AUGUST 18–30 Noguchi’s first solo and the mayor of Hiroshima Abusutorakuto Ato Kurabu) as part of exhibition in Japan is held at the to participate in the design of a monument the American Abstract Artists’s annual Mitsukoshi department store. It includes commemorating victims of the atom bomb exhibition at the Riverside Museum a painting by Hasegawa in a framing in the city’s Peace Park. Their plan is in March. This is the first exhibition of device designed by Noguchi. rejected in February 1952. Asian abstract art in the United States. AUGUST 24 Hasegawa sends a letter In New York, Hasegawa stays with to Noguchi along with a handwritten 1952 a junior-high-school friend and works transcript he entitles “Fragments,” which JUNE Hasegawa’s Rhapsody: Fishing in Kline’s studio. He leads numerous includes a biography of the Zen monk Village (page 5) is included in the tea ceremonies, including one where Ryokan (1758–1831) annotated with exhibition Contemporary Art of Japan he meets Marcel Duchamp. Mr. and Mrs. translations of meaningful words. at the California Palace of the Legion John D. Rockefeller III purchase one of Honor, San Francisco. The exhibition AUGUST 30 In a letter, Hasegawa of Hasegawa’s painted folding screens, later travels to St. Louis, Los Angeles, congratulates Noguchi on his Mitsukoshi and his essay “Five Calligraphic Drawings” , and Santa Barbara, CA. exhibition, thanks Noguchi for giving him appears in the magazine New World the courage to make art, tells of starting DECEMBER Hasegawa reviews Noguchi’s Writing alongside works by Louis a canvas that will be “calligraphy in color,” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Armstrong, , and others. and asks Noguchi to let him know when Art, Kamakura, in Bokubi (Beauty of ink) Noguchi will depart from Tokyo. magazine. The exhibition brochure includes statements by Hasegawa, Noguchi, and ceramicist and chef Kitaoji Rosanjin. CHRONOLOGY | ISAMU NOGUCHI AND SABURO HASEGAWA: 1948–59

FEBRUARY Hasegawa gives a lecture 1956 (1955), and work by Shinichi Nishida, at New York’s Eighth Street Club, where Hasegawa’s solo exhibition at the Oakland Kenzo Okada, and others. he is introduced by Kline. Noguchi Art Museum features his calligraphy of “Sabro Hasegawa: Artist of the Controlled introduces him at a later talk at . poetic passages produced as site specific Accident,” a series of essays compiled works. MARCH Noguchi is commissioned by the in memory of the artist by the Oakland Art Kawashima Textile Company to design APRIL 28–MAY 6 Hasegawa organizes a Museum, is planned but goes unpublished. a theater curtain (doncho) for Toyoko Hall multifaceted exhibition at the Oakland Art OCTOBER 28–DECEMBER 1 Hasegawa’s in Tokyo (see page 9). Museum for the Bunka Sai festival Non-Figure (1953) is included in the featuring his own work, pieces by Noguchi MARCH 16 Hasegawa participates in exhibition Art in Asia and the West at the and ceramicist J. B. Blunk, haniwa on loan “Abstract Art around the World Today” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. from Tokyo University of the Arts and at the Museum of Modern Art, a panel Noguchi’s Tiger (1952), in Kasama works in sumi by the Zen monks Ryokan, discussion including Kline, , stoneware, is included as well and is later Hakuin, and Sengai. Coinciding with the Alfred H. Barr Jr., and others. acquired by the museum. Bunka Sai festival, another Hasegawa MARCH 21 Hasegawa’s solo exhibition at solo show at KPFA Gallery in Berkeley, Contemporaries Gallery in New York opens. California, is the radio station’s inaugural 1958 exhibition. JUNE 26–AUGUST 7 Hasegawa’s work is NOVEMBER Hasegawa presents a talk included in two major exhibitions: Modern on Zen with the painter Matsumi “Mike” SEPTEMBER Hasegawa is joined by his Abstract Japanese Calligraphy, which Kanemitsu at the Eighth Street Club. wife, Kiyoko, and three children in the opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New Soon thereafter he leaves New York for San Francisco Bay Area. York, and travels to the Contemporary San Francisco, where he gives a talk DECEMBER Hasegawa undergoes an Art Museum, Houston, and the San on television station KRON-TV. operation for a cancerous lump in his Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and NOVEMBER 23, 1954–JANUARY 9, 1955 mouth. Contemporary Painters of Japanese The exhibition Isamu Noguchi: Origin in America, opening at the Institute is on view at the , New York. of Contemporary Art, Boston, and 1957 traveling to the Des Moines Art Center. JANUARY 29 Alan Watts, writing from the 1955 American Academy of Asian Studies in NOVEMBER In New York, with the Hasegawa receives a solo exhibition in the San Francisco, updates Noguchi on assistance of the architect Shoji Sadao, gallery of Gump’s department store in Hasegawa’s treatments, including a stint Noguchi begins a series of sculptures San Francisco; is included in the exhibition at Hoxsey Clinic in Dallas (financed by one formed by cutting, scoring, and bending Dai-san-ki Nihon kokusai bijutsu-ten of Hasegawa’s students); he also details single sheets of aluminum, including one (Third Japan international art exhibition) plans for an exhibition at the Willard titled Sesshu (page 10), for an upcoming at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Gallery in New York. exhibition at the Stable Gallery, New York. and curates and exhibits in Nichi-Bei The gallery declines to exhibit the FEBRUARY Hasegawa’s work is featured Chusho bijutsu-ten (Abstract art exhibition: sculptures, which are later shown in the in the exhibition Contemporary Art in Japan and U.S.) at the National Museum exhibition Weightlessness at the Cordier- Japan and Sabro Hasegawa at the San of Modern Art, Tokyo. In addition, his work Warren Gallery, New York, in May 1961. Francisco Museum of Art and in a solo is displayed alongside that of Al Copley exhibition at the Oakland Art Museum. and Michel Seuphor in An Exhibition of 1959 Calligraphy as an Art Expression at Rose MARCH 11 Hasegawa dies in San Francisco. Hasegawa receives a posthumous Fried Gallery, New York. APRIL 23–MAY 6 Hasegawa memorial exhibition at the Rose Rabow Gallery, SEPTEMBER Hasegawa begins teaching exhibition held at the Willard Gallery, San Francisco. at the California College of Arts and New York. Crafts (now California College of the Arts) Hasegawa’s essay “Abstract Art in Japan in Oakland. Today” appears in the book The World of Abstract Art. Illustrations in the book include Noguchi’s Strange Bird (1945), Hasegawa’s Space (Oriental Abstraction) Programs & Events

PUBLIC PROGRAMS JUNE 2, 4 PM; JUNE 7, 6:30 PM OFFSITE & JUNE 15, 3:30 PM MAY 3, 6:30 PM & MAY 12, 3:30 PM JUNE 8, 4 PM Center of Attention Center of Attention Japan Boom, 1954, New York Join a conversation on Saburo Hasegawa’s Join a conversation on Isamu Noguchi’s The Japan Society 19 The Harmonious (1953). Free with admission. Sesshu (1958). Free with admission. 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY JUNE 9, 1 PM In 1954, Japan had an enormous MAY 11, 3 PM Curator’s Tour cultural impact on through Noguchi Talks: Marc Keane and Co-curator Mark Dean Johnson, Dakin Hart, artists Ruth Asawa, Saburo Hasegawa, Matthew Kirsch on Japanese Gardens and Matthew Kirsch lead a tour of the Isamu Noguchi, Kenzo Okada, ceramicist/ Marc Keane, landscape architect and garden exhibition. Free with admission. calligrapher Kitaoji Rosanjin and architect scholar, and Matthew Kirsch, Curator of Junzo Yoshimura. Specialists explore Research at The Noguchi Museum, present JUNE 13, 6:30 PM the sensational Japan Boom that occured a discussion on the Japanese garden as Changing and Unchanging Sound before the global 1960s. $15. Tickets both inspiration and point of departure Musical performance featuring the premiere available through japansociety.org. for Isamu Noguchi in the last few decades of a newly commissioned work by Anne of his career. Free with admission; Leilehua Lanzilotti, works by Kaija Saariaho RSVP to [email protected]. and Juri Seo, and improvisations based on FAMILY PROGRAMS by Saburo Hasegawa. Lanzilotti MAY 18, 1 PM is joined by Johanna Lundy on French horn, JUNE 2, 11 AM–2 PM Curator’s Tour and the Argus Quartet. Free; RSVP to Open Studio: Photograms Senior Curator Dakin Hart leads a tour [email protected]. of the exhibition. Free with admission. JULY 7, 11 AM–2 PM JUNE 16, 1–5 PM Open Studio: Brush and Ink MAY 19, 1–5 PM Hands-On at Noguchi: Block-print Stamping with Taisan Tanaka Hands-On at Noguchi: Art-making workshop for adults led by artist Hand-building with Clay Families with children ages 2 to 11 are invited Marie Lorenz. $20 members/$30 non- Art-making workshop for adults to explore the galleries, then make art in the members. Advanced registration required. led by teaching artist Luned Palmer. studio. These Open Studio sessions are free $20 members/$30 non-members. JULY 14, 1 PM as part of Community Day (first Sundays Advanced registration required: Curator’s Tour June–September). noguchi.org/programs. Dakin Hart, Senior Curator, and Matthew Kirsch, Curator of Research, lead a tour of the exhibition. Free with admission. Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan is organized by The Noguchi Museum and co-curated by Dakin Hart and Mark Dean Johnson, with Matthew Kirsch.

VENUES

Yokohama Museum of Art January 12–March 24, 2019

The Noguchi Museum May 1–July 14, 2019

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco September 27–December 8, 2019

CATALOGUE

The exhibition is accompanied by two publications from University of California Press: the exhibition catalogue and The Saburo Hasegawa Reader, a free anthology available for download at ucpress.edu.

FRONT COVER Screen diptych (now lost) by Saburo Hasegawa, installed with Isamu Noguchi’s ceramic wall sculpture Skin and Bones (1950) and Akari light sculpture at Noguchi’s studio in Kita Kamakura, Japan, c. 1952. The Noguchi Museum Archive. INSIDE FRONT COVER Travel photograph (detail) by Saburo Hasegawa from a visit to Yugang Grottoes at Datong, Shanxi province, China, 1938. Courtesy of Bert Winther-Tamaki. INSIDE BACK COVER Travel photograph (detail) by Isamu Noguchi from a visit to a temple, possibly in Kyoto, c. 1950s. The Noguchi Museum Archive. BACK COVER Saburo Hasegawa (left) with Isamu Noguchi and at the Urasenke Konnichi-an estate, Kyoto, c. 1952. Photograph by Michio Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archive. Unless otherwise noted, images © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, NY / (ARS).

The exhibition is made possible through the lead support of the Terra Foundation for American Art. Generous transportation assistance has been provided by ANA (All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.). Major support has also been Printed in received from the National Endowment for the Arts, the E. Rhodes and by Linco Printing (brochure) Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and The Japan Foundation. The exhibition and Prestone (poster) is also supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. © 2019 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York

The Noguchi Museum 9-01 33rd Road, Long Island City, NY noguchi.org

This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of scholar Koichi Kawasaki, on whose work the legacy of Saburo Hasegawa rests assured.