Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from Boston
correspondent
Okakura Kakuzo
(Yokohama, 1862 - 1913, Akakura)
Date12 February 1906
Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America
MediumInk on paper
ClassificationsManuscripts
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberARC.004156
eMuseum ID729483
Other NumberU3n29.1-38
EmbARK ObjectID30134
Previous NumberU3n125
TMS Source ID13716
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryOkakura Kakuzo, a scholar of Japanese art and culture who lived between Boston and Tokyo, sent this heartfelt letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1906. In it, he discusses his friend Uchimura Tengan, a jiu-jitsu expert who famously gave Isabella private jiu-jitsu lessons. Apparently, Gardner had a hand in reuniting Uchimura with his mother, whom he had not seen in many years and who apparently thought her son was dead. Okakura writes, “I can but reiterate my thanks for what you have done for Uchimura as you have done for all of us.”
BibliographyNotesAdam Haliburton, "The Elusive White Fox by Okakura Kakuzō," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 19 December 2023, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/elusive-white-fox-okakura-kakuzo
MarksNotesMarked in pencil (recto, upper left): 13
