Okakura Yoshisaburo (Yokohama, Japan, 1868 - 1936)
Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from 37 Zoshigaya-machi, Koishikawaku, Tokyo, 6 January 1917
Ink on paper
Blue Room
Commentary
Art historian and philosopher Okakura Kakuzō adapted the Japanese legend of Kuzunoha into a libretto for an opera, “The White Fox.” He dedicated it to Isabella who displayed the manuscript in the Okakura Case in the Blue Room. In this letter, Okakura’s brother Yoshisaburo informing Gardner that the polymath and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) wished to have the work published.