(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from Cochin the Cat

correspondent Dodge MacKnight (American, 1860 - 1950)

Date1913

MediumInk on paper

ClassificationsManuscripts

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberARC.004311

eMuseum ID728967

EmbARK ObjectID30268

Other NumberU27e413

TMS Source ID13850

Last Updated8/9/24

Status

Not on view

Web Commentary

This comical letter is written from the point-of-view of Cochin, a small white cat that Isabella Stewart Gardner initially gifted to Okakura Kakuzo. When Okakura returned to Japan in 1911, he was unable to take the cat with him, and left it in the care of artist Dodge Macknight (1860–1950). In this letter, Cochin the cat describes its new home to Isabella, and thanks her for finding a new owner who could provide “such a nice home where I get real things to eat instead of horrible canned goods,” and implores her to visit the pair.

BibliographyNotesNina Wutrich, "Correspondence from Cochin the Cat," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 8 August 2023, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/correspondence-cochin-cat

MarksNotesMarked in pencil (upper left corner): 54
Dated in pencil in Morris Carter's hand (lower left): 1913?

Stationery printed in red ink:

風流李寶七小 /

町？年町寺 [nonsense characters, comically intended to represent a cat's writing] /

Translation by Th. Giukcam, Esq. /

of the Fujiyama Oservatory

Dear Mrs. Gardner /

Thank you, honorable mistress, for finding me /

such a nice home where I get real things

to eat instead of horrible canned goods. /

I am well and fat and my hair is so /

long that I must really go to the barber's /