744. Dedicated to Charles Ricketts

In her dissertation, Mariko Hirabayashi shed light on the friendship between Noguchi Yonejiro and Charles Ricketts - see also her Ricketts blog 706. Hokusai in the Ricketts and Shannon Collection. In English editions of his work, he was known as Yone Noguchi, see for example, his book about the Japanese artist Korin that was published by Elkin Mathews in 1922.

Yone Noguchi, Korin (London: Elkin Mathews, 1922)
[Copy from the collection of the KB, national library, The Hague]

The book is bound in Japanese style, containing several illustrations and twelve plates, and a short text about the work and life of Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716). Noguchi Yonejiro quoted Ricketts's review of an exhibition of Japanese painting and sculpture at Shepherd's Bush in 1910, which was published in The Morning Post and reprinted in Pages on Art (1913). Ricketts was a great admirer of this artist, especially as a landscape painter, calling one of his works 'brilliant and almost gay'. However, Ricketts asserted, 'his gaiety is that of buds upon huge trees'.

Ogata Kōrin, 'Red and White Plum Blossoms' [MOA Museum of Art, Atami, Japan]

The author of Korin dedicated his book to Charles Ricketts.

Dedication in Yone Noguchi, Korin (London: Elkin Mathews, 1922)