Listening to Stone

30. SHINBANRAISHA

1. Yoshiro Taniguchi, “A Meeting to Isamu Noguchi,” in Isamu Noguchi Sculptures, exhibition catalogue (Tokyo: Minami Gallery, 1973).

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ashton, 126.

5. Sc W, 31.

6. Shinbanraisha/A Cultural Memory, exhibition brochure (New York: Noguchi Museum, 2006), n.p.

7. Taniguchi, “A Meeting to Isamu Noguchi.”

8. Ibid.

9. IN and Yoshiro Taniguchi, “The Faculty Retreat of Keio University,” clipping of article in an unidentified Japanese magazine, February 1952, NA.

10. Ibid.

11. Ashton, 96.

12. Priscilla Morgan, interviewed by the author, New York City, May 23, 2006.

13. BM, 17.

14. Duus, 216.

15. IN, preface to a book on Tsutomu Hiroi, carbon copy of manuscript, NA.

16. Tsutomu Hiroi, “A Masterwork United to the Cosmos,” in Isamu Noguchi, Human Aspect as a Contemporary: 54 Witnesses in Japan and America (Shikoku Shimbun, Japan: 2002), 48.

17. Winther-Tamaki, “The Ceramic Art,” 23.

18. Hiroi, “A Masterwork United to the Cosmos,” 48.

19. Ibid., 49.

31. MITSUKOSHI EXHIBITION

1. The Oriental Decorative Ceramic Sculpture Research Institute was recommended to Noguchi by the Japanese painter Tamiji Kitagawa (1894–1989), whom he had met in Mexico in 1936. Since Kitagawa had family connections at Seto, he made the arrangements for Noguchi to work there.

2. IN, “Notes by the Artist on His Recent Work in Japan,” Arts and Architecture 67, no. 11 (November 1950): 26–27.

3. Cummings interviews, 60.

4. Sc W, 31–32.

5. Winther-Tamaki, “The Ceramic Art,” 26.

6. BM, 17.

7. Ibid.

8. Quoted in Winther-Tamaki, “The Ceramic Art,” 26.

9. Mainichi shinbun, September 12, 1950, quoted in Duus, 217.

10. Sadao Wada, “Isamu Noguchi no koto,” Atorie 28 (November 1950): 46–51, quoted in Duus, 218–19.

11. In 2006 Shinbanraisha was reinstalled upstairs. In spite of efforts made to keep the same atmosphere, it was a site-specific sculpture planned to be integrated with Noguchi’s garden design. Noguchi’s concept is thus very much changed.

12. IN and Taniguchi, “The Faculty Retreat.”

13. Ibid.

14. Kenzo Tange, “A True Man of the World,” in Isamu Noguchi, exhibition catalogue (Tokyo: Minami Gallery, 1973), n.p.

32. YOSHIKO YAMAGUCHI

1. Sc W, 32.

2. BM, 18.

3. Cummings interviews, 55.

4. Ibid., 60.

5. KK, 112.

6. A. D., “Noguchi: Traveling Sculptor Pauses in Japan,” Interiors, March 1951, 140–45, clipping, NA.

7. IN, “Theater of Heroes and Phantoms,” Harper’s Bazaar, June 1952, clipping, NA.

8. Antonin Raymond, letter to IN, October 25, 1950, NA.

9. Antonin Raymond, letter to IN, November 22, 1950, NA.

10. The kimono show at the Brooklyn Museum was designed by Noguchi’s friend Chiyo Tanaka, to whom Noguchi had given advice about how to make traditional Japanese clothing function better in a Western milieu. Noguchi had also been instrumental in securing this venue for the show by recommending Tanaka’s work to his sister Ailes’ husband, Herbert Joseph Spinden, curator of American Indian and Primitive Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

11. Duus, 224.

12. Ibid.

13. Ian Buruma, “Haunted Heroine,” Interview, September 1989, 124–27.

14. Winther-Tamaki, “The Ceramic Art,” 32.

15. Yoshiko Yamaguchi, Ri Koran: Watashi no Hansei (Half My Life as Ri Koran), quoted in “History of Hiroshima: 1945–1995,” part 2, p. 3, www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/mediacenter. (Bert Winther-Tamaki put the quote this way: “You must have suffered during the war … I too suffered during the war between America and Japan.” “The Ceramic Art,” 32.)

16. Shirley Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs, English translation in NA. I am grateful to Jenny Dixon for sending me this translation.

17. “Isamu-san and Shirley Too,” Time, November 3, 1952, 76.

18. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

19. “Isamu-san and Shirley Too,” 76.

20. Aline B. Louchheim, “Noguchi and Sculpture Gardens,” The New York Times, September 30, 1951.

21. Sc W, 163.

22. BM, 18.

23. Sc W, 32.

24. IN, “Japanese Akari Lamps,” in Essays and Conversations, 102.

25. Ibid., 103.

26. Louchheim, “Noguchi and Sculpture Gardens.”

27. BM, 19.

28. Louchheim, “Noguchi and Sculpture Gardens.”

29. BM, 20.

30. New York Journal American, October 7, 1951, clipping, NA; and Aline B. Louchheim, “UN Turns Down Funds For ‘Super’ Playground,” The New York Times, October 8, 1951.

31. BM, 21.

32. Louchheim, “Noguchi and Sculpture Gardens.”

33. Thomas B. Hess, “The Rejected Playground,” Art News, April 1952.

34. Sc W, 33.

35. Paul Goldberger, “Gordon Bunshaft, Architect, dies at 81,” The New York Times, August 8, 1990; and Paul Goldberger, “Gordon Bunshaft: A Man Who Died Before His Time,” The New York Times, August 19, 1990.

36. Sc W, 172.

37. Friedman, Imaginary Landscapes, 47.

38. Sc W, 164.

39. Duus, 232.

40. Yoshiko Yamaguchi with Sakuya Fujiwara, Looking Back on My Days as Ri Koran (Li Xianglan) (1987). I am grateful to Katsumi Yokobori of the Japan Foundation for giving me an oral translation of the section of the book dealing with Noguchi.

41. Sc W, 164.

42. BM, 21.

33. KITA KAMAKURA

1. Sc W, 32. In Hiroi’s recollection, Noguchi became aware of Rosanjin’s pottery when he, Hiroi, and Tange stopped at a restaurant in Nagoya on their way to Hiroshima. Noguchi had admired the dishes and had asked the waitress who made them. When he learned that it was Rosanjin, he decided that he must meet him. Tsutomu Hiroi, interviewed by the author, Tokyo, October 24, 2009.

2. Sc W, 32.

3. IN, “The Road I Have Walked,” 102.

4. Sc W, 32.

5. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

6. Duus, 246.

7. BM, 22.

8. IN, “Projects in Japan,” Arts and Architecture (October 1952): 24–26, excerpt reprinted in Essays and Conversations, 96–98.

9. Essays and Conversations, 96.

10. Sc W, 33.

11. IN, “Entre Oriente y Occidente,” Sumario, April 1994, 22, NA. Translation by the author.

12. IN, letter to Jeanne Reynal, autumn 1951, Archives of American Art, reprinted in Duus, 259.

13. IN, “On the Artist Teshigahara Sofu,” typed manuscript, October 17, 1977, NA.

14. BM, 3.

15. Betty Pepis, “Artist at Home,” The New York Times Magazine, August 31, 1952, 26.

16. IN, Shuzo Takiguchi, and Saburo Hasegawa, Noguchi (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1953), n.p.

17. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

18. Winther-Tamaki, “The Ceramic Art,” 36.

19. IN, “The Road I Have Walked,” 102.

20. IN, untitled essay in the exhibition catalogue for Noguchi’s 1952 show at the Kamakura Museum of Modern Art, n.p., reprinted in Essays and Conversations, 37–38.

21. Duus, 248.

22. Ibid.

23. IN, Takiguchi, and Hasegawa, Noguchi, n.p.

24. Hidetaro Ozeki, interviewed by the author, Gifu, Japan, October 29, 2009.

25. Ian Buruma, “Back to the Future,” The New Yorker, March 4, 1999, 32.

26. Ian Buruma, “Between Two Worlds,” The New York Review of Books 52, no. 10, June 9, 2005.

27. Sc W, 33.

28. IN, “On Washi,” in Sukey Hughes, Washi: The World of Japanese Paper (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha, 1978), 26.

29. Tomotsu Ogata, “Isamu Noguchi: The Wandering Artist,” Japan Illustrated (Summer 1974).

30. IN, “The Meaning of Akari,” in Space of Akari and Stone (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986), English translation of 1985 exhibition catalogue published by Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo.

31. Duus, 254.

32. Ibid., 255.

33. IN, letter to John Collier, February 4, 1953, NA.

34. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

35. Yamaguchi with Fujiwara, Looking Back on My Days.

36. Ibid.

37. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

38. Tsutomu Hiroi, interviewed by the author.

39. Yamaguchi, War and Peace Songs.

40. Hidetaro Ozeki, interviewed by the author.

41. Translations of the catalogue essays are in NA.

42. IN, “Essay for Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura,” in Essays and Conversations, 37–38.

43. Winther-Tamaki, “The Ceramic Art,” 63.

44. KK, 109.

45. IN, Takiguchi, and Hasegawa, Noguchi, n.p.

46. Bert Winther-Tamaki, “The Rejection of Isamu Noguchi’s Hiroshima Cenotaph: A Japanese American Artist in Occupied Japan,” Art Journal (Winter 1994): 26.

47. Shuzo Takiguchi, “A Strange Journey,” Mizue 568 (December 1952): 20–31, quoted in Bert Winther-Tamaki, Art in the Encounter of Nations: Japanese and American Artists in the Early Postwar Years (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001), 137.

48. Duus, 250–51; and Taro Okamoto, “The Work of Isamu Noguchi,” Bijutsu techo 63 (December 1952), quoted in Akari Light Sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, exhibition catalogue (Tokyo: National Museum of Modern Art, 2003).

34. MY SOLACE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SCULPTURE

1. IN, letter to Messrs. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, February 16, 1953, NA.

2. Various drafts of Noguchi’s contract with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are in NA.

3. IN, note in exhibition brochure, Stable Gallery, New York, April 29–May 30, 1958.

4. BM, 53–54.

5. Duus, 259.

6. BM, 54.

7. Ibid.

8. Duus, 263.

9. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

10. IN, letter to Gordon Bunshaft, July 30, 1953, NA. The correspondence between Noguchi and Gordon Bunshaft is in NA.

11. IN, letter to Gordon Bunshaft, August 10, 1953.

12. Sc W, 34.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. The paper is in NA.

16. Sc W, 34.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., 131.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid., 35.

21. Yamaguchi, War, Peace, and Songs.

22. Sc W, 35.

23. Mus. Cat., 160.

24. The competition, sponsored by the Lalit Kala Akadami in New Delhi, elicited 127 entries from around the world.

25. IN, handwritten draft of his note accompanying a proposal for a monument to honor Buddha, 1956, NA.

26. Sc W, 168.

27. Indira Gandhi, letter to IN, NA.

28. Edward Durell Stone, letter to IN, April 21, 1955, NA.

29. Oral history of Gordon Bunshaft, interview by Betty J. Blum (compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project, Department of Architecture, Art Institute of Chicago), 175.

30. Ibid.

31. Friedman, Imaginary Landscapes, 61.

32. Sc W, 165. When Connecticut General’s building and gardens opened in 1957 they drew much attention in magazines such as Time, Life, Fortune, and even The Saturday Evening Post. Three years later Noguchi and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill were awarded a gold medal in landscape architecture for this project.