8 Mutation Ideogram

8 MUTATION of the IDEOGRAM Kitasono Katue died of lung cancer-he had been a chain smoker much of his adult life-on June 6, 1978, at the age of 75, after having been hospital ized for two months. In homage to Katue, the members of the VOU Club (which disbanded shortly after Karue's death) compiled Kitasono Katue and VOU (1988).1 The book contains a section ofletters and short articles by sev eral ofKatue's literary friends from Europe and the Americas that provides a vivid picture of his reputation among the international avant·garde. James Laughlin, poet and publisher of New Directions books, wrote: For forty years or more, Kitasono Katue was a most valuable link between the liter· ary cultures of Japan and the United States. The magazine "You" was, to my knowledge, the only one which made a systematic effort over the years to present Western avant garde culture to Japan. And his contribution to the dissemination of visual poetry was especially great. He was a man of high taste and sensibility.2 Eugen Gomringer, one of the founders and chief theorists of the interna tional "concrete poetry" Q: gutaishi) movement, contributed a heartfelt mes sage to Kitasono Katue and VOU: as i have in this moment no better word or poetical expression in honour to our dead friend, and in honour to all those who continue in his spirit, i wanted to say how much all concret poets ( digne de ce nom!) are owing to kitasono katue. we were always very proud to have a brother like him in japan and i remember quite well the surprise when i first saw one of his poems printed in brasil (by the help of the noi gandres friends), because this was just the same spirit we felt in writing our own concret poetry. i think that the memory for kitasono katue will help all of us to never forget what concret poetry really wanted to be, how pure, simple and rich all in one it can be. he was- he is a great concret poet = a great poet.3 Mutation of the Ideogram 251 Concrete poetry is a type of verse in which words (or parts of words) are manipulated visually through the use of typography, color, or line arrange ment to augment the intellectual and emotional content for esthetic effect. The concept was to take poetry from the confines of the book and display it as art. Variously referred to as "imaged," "shaped," "cubist," or "pattern po etry," concretism emphasizes spatial design over conventionally printed poetry. In the 1950s concrete poetry became an international movement with considerable impact on semiotics, design, painting. and photography.4 Kenneth Rexroth, in his contribution to the festschrift, succinctly con cludes, "Katue was, for many years, the only Japanese poet known to the in ternational literary community."5 Rexroth does not pinpoint which years Katue was Japan's sole literary ambassador, but we can imagine that he meant the four decades from 1938 until his death. Echoing Laughlin, Rexroth alludes to Katue's dual role as importer and exporter ofavant-garde poetry. He was certainly the poet who did most to introduce modern poetry-"the inter· national idiom"-to Japan, in superlative translations .... Not only that, but he was open to Uapanese] writing of what was then the youngest, post Pacific War, gen eration which was often very unlike his own .... Furthermore, he was himself an ex cellent poet-a true leader and exemplar. Not least, his "concrete" poem, ringing the changes on "white" in several languages, is the best thing of its kind anywhere.6 Katue simultaneously occupied two positions in the West: first, as repre sentative of avant-garde Japanese poetry in general and, second, as a fellow participant ("brother") in the international avant-garde, a loose network with less definable boundaries than those of the YOU Club, but analogous in that poets found camaraderie in confronting the same theoretical issues, in fluencing one another's work, and being published together in journals worldwide.7 Since the remarks of Laughlin, Gomringer, and Rexroth were made to commemorate Katue, their friend, after his death, we can expect them to be laudatory. Nevertheless, they give a good idea of how his peers perceived him. Besides Ezra Pound and the three Western poets quoted above, Katue corresponded with Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, Charles Olson, and Robert Creeley, all of whom were part of the New Directions network. Katue also exchanged books with Tristan Tzara and Andre Breton in Paris and sent VOU to a number ofliterati around the globe. As a consequence of his ever-expanding literary connections, Katue's drawings and poetry (in English translation) gradually gained wide exposure. .

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