Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988). Michio Itō, 1925–26. Bronze, 45.8 x 14.6 x 10.2 cm. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. Photo courtesy The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. © 2009 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, It? Michio, and Isamu Noguchi would each play important roles in introducing Eastern culture to American audiences.

Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908), a Boston philosopher and art historian was seminal in introducing Asian art and culture to the U.S. His missionary zeal regarding Japanese aesthetics came from his years of living and teaching in Japan, where he was named an imperial commissioner of fine arts.

Several years after his death, Fenollosa’s widow sent his unpublished papers including translations of literature and No, traditional Japanese theater, to Ezra Pound. Pound (1885–1972) was one of the most ambitious and influential poets of his time and drew upon Japanese and Chinese techniques to produce his innovative free-verse poetry. Pound’s approach, inspired by Fenollosa’s literary concept, revolutionized American poetry. According to Pound, “The vision and the plan are Fenollosa’s. In the prose I have had but the part of literary executor; in the plays my work has been that of translator who has found all the heavy work done for him and who has had but the pleasure of arranging beauty into the words.”

The artistic careers of both It? Michio (1893–1961) and Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) would draw from a combination of Eastern and Western influences. It? was raised in Japan and sent to Paris at the age of 17 to study. After much success as a dancer in Europe, It? left for the U.S., where his career flourished. It?’s goal was to fuse East and West into a style of his own.

The life of the Japanese-American sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi also took place between two cultures. Born in California to a Japanese father and an American mother, Noguchi was raised in Japan, but studied in the U.S. While still a young man he returned to the East on a Guggenheim fellowship, visiting India, China, and Japan. His developing awareness of his Asian roots was reflected more and more in his work as an artist.

When Noguchi met It? in 1925, It? was already well known for introducing Japanese No drama to the West. Noguchi created a bronze mask for one of the dramas It? staged, from a Fenollosa translation that Pound “finished.” Worn by It?, a dancer whom Noguchi admired, the mask successfully melded the dancer's face with the traditional No costume. The clever handhold resembled a long thin rod of hair. At the time, Noguchi was just beginning his explorations of modernist sculpture, but the portrait contains the promise of his future accomplishments.

• Look carefully at this work. What is your impression of this face? What type of persona is projected here? What personality traits would you attribute to these features?
• Research online or in books the characteristics of traditional No masks. Compare this sculpture to a traditional No mask. In what ways is it similar? How is it different?
• Dancer It? Michio used this mask created by Isamu Noguchi on stage. Imagine yourself wearing this mask. Demonstrate the kinds of movements and postures wearing it might suggest.

• Ezra Pound adapted the traditional Japanese poetry form of haiku. A haiku usually has 17 syllables in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. The poet tries to capture a simple scene from nature and to convey a strong feeling about it. The haiku should contain a seasonal word or suggest a season. Here is a classic Japanese haiku:
  
  

  An old silent pond…
  A frog jumps into the pond,
  Splash! Silence again.
  Bash? (1644–1694)

  
  As the form has evolved, many of these rules—including the 5/7/5 practice—have routinely been broken. However, the philosophy of haiku has been preserved. The influence of haiku on Ezra Pound is most evident in his poem “In a Station of the Metro” (1913). The poem was inspired by his experience of emerging from the Paris metro and walking through the city streets, noticing one beautiful face after another. It began as a thirty-line poem, but was eventually pared down to two:
  
  

  The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
  Petals on a wet, black bough.

  
  Refer to the guidelines above and write your own haiku. A way to share your work is to organize a poetry slam. This form is a continuation and rebirth of the oral tradition in which poetry is performed out loud and engages an audience’s attention.
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• Research online or in books the characteristics of traditional No masks. Like Noguchi, create a mask that melds your own features with this traditional form. One way to begin is to mold a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil by taking an impression of your face. Using this as an armature, layer paper mâché or plaster gauze over the form. When dry, the mask can be painted.
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• This bronze mask was completed 1926 when Noguchi was still in his early 20s. He would later become one of the most accomplished and innovative sculptors of the 20th century. To learn more about the development of his work visit the Noguchi Museum online.
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