One of the first 60 copies on Imperial Japanese paper (no. 13), with 20 etchings printed out of text by Foujita, and wrappers illustrated by the artist.
Folding poem-plate at end of volume (“Le Vieillard sur le mont Omi”).
This collection brings together a highly varied set of texts composed during Paul Claudel’s second stay in the Far East, while serving as ambassador to Japan (November 1921 – February 1927): prose poems on Japan (which might well be added to the pages of Connaissance de l’Est), reflections on the country’s philosophy, poetry and art, an address to the students of Nikkô (July 1923) entitled Regard sur l’âme japonaise, and an account of the terrible earthquake and destruction of Yokohama, during which Claudel searched for his daughter Reine — to whom the book is dedicated — whom he believed lost. This was Claudel’s second collaboration with Foujita (1886–1968), who had illustrated Connaissance de l’Est two years earlier.
Twenty magnificent etchings by Foujita — note that only the copies on Japanese paper contain all twenty; the other papers contain only 15, then 12.
Text block trimmed close at head.
A spectacular, radiant binding by Thérèse Moncey.
Carteret, Le trésor du bibliophile, livres illustrés modernes, IV, 105; Buisson, Foujita, 27; Monod, 2842; the title of the work derives from the Japanese rendering of Claudel’s name, which can be read as “Kouro dori,” meaning “black bird,” the rising sun being a favorite theme of Japanese painting (Benoist-Méchin – Blaizot).