Details
CLAUDEL, Paul (1868-1955, poet, playwright and diplomat). Two autograph letters signed (with initials, 'P.C.') to Léonard Anrousseau (in Hanoi), Tokyo, 13 June 1924 and 6 April 1926, 2 pages, large 4to and 4 pages, 8vo, envelopes.
Writing as ambassador to Japan, discussing his important project -- the foundation of the Franco-Japanese Institute -- and explaining the modification of his original concept in favour of a more practical scheme focusing first on the European students studying the Japanese language and culture, and having close contacts with the Japanese students.
'La grande cause qui nuit au développement de nos relations de toute nature avec le Japon (comme d'ailleurs avec la Chine), c'est que nous avons trop peu de Français qui connaissent la langue Japonaise', adding to the study of the language that of culture and history, not only Japanese but Chinese, with the intention of making the Tokyo Institute a practical school for Far Eastern languages, assuming the role which the establishment in Paris fails to fulfil and taking boarders from other countries friendly to France. 'Vous voyez combien un établissement de ce genre serait utile pour la France qui exercerait ainsi une véritable hégémonie intellectuelle sur toutes les études sino- et japonologiques de l'Europe'. In the second letter Claudel refers to philosophical matters and his re ligious belief.
Claudel was enabled to found the French Institute in Tokyo by the generous support of the banker Eiichi Shibusawa, and also of Viscount Kuroda Seiki (president of the Japanese Academy of Art). Léonard Anrousseau, well known for his knowledge of Far Eastern culture, had been tutor to the King of Annam, and was in 1924 the Secretary of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi. (3)
Writing as ambassador to Japan, discussing his important project -- the foundation of the Franco-Japanese Institute -- and explaining the modification of his original concept in favour of a more practical scheme focusing first on the European students studying the Japanese language and culture, and having close contacts with the Japanese students.
'La grande cause qui nuit au développement de nos relations de toute nature avec le Japon (comme d'ailleurs avec la Chine), c'est que nous avons trop peu de Français qui connaissent la langue Japonaise', adding to the study of the language that of culture and history, not only Japanese but Chinese, with the intention of making the Tokyo Institute a practical school for Far Eastern languages, assuming the role which the establishment in Paris fails to fulfil and taking boarders from other countries friendly to France. 'Vous voyez combien un établissement de ce genre serait utile pour la France qui exercerait ainsi une véritable hégémonie intellectuelle sur toutes les études sino- et japonologiques de l'Europe'. In the second letter Claudel refers to philosophical matters and his re ligious belief.
Claudel was enabled to found the French Institute in Tokyo by the generous support of the banker Eiichi Shibusawa, and also of Viscount Kuroda Seiki (president of the Japanese Academy of Art). Léonard Anrousseau, well known for his knowledge of Far Eastern culture, had been tutor to the King of Annam, and was in 1924 the Secretary of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi. (3)
Special notice
Buyers from within the EU:
VAT payable at 17.5% on just the buyer's premium (NOT the hammer price)
Buyers from outside the EU:
VAT payable at 17.5% on hammer price and buyer's premium. If a buyer, having registered under a non-EU address, decides that an item is not to be exported from the EU, then he/she should advise Christie's to this effect immediately.