Drame

1922 · Best.-Nr. 047776 — London Uk: Selwyn & Blount / Chapel River Press 1922. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 87 Pp. Light Grey Boards With Spine And Front Cover Paper Labels Lettered In Brown. First Printing. Quite Scarce; Fraying At Ends Of Spine Boards Beginning To Split Along Spine Gutters. Paternal Inscription Dated 1931 With Recipient's Elaborate Pasadena Blindstamp On Verso And Recto Respectively Of The Front Free Endpaper. Quite Scarce. In The Illustrated Dust Jacket Which Is Worn And Torn Darkened And Slightly Soiled From Handling Small Losses At Corners No Loss Of Lettering Or Design. Torahiko Kori 1890-1924 Left Tokyo University Without Graduating To Join The Editorial Staff Of Shirakaba A Literary Magazine In 1909. Early In His Short Literary Career Kori Torahiko Became An Enfant Terrible Of The Shirakaba School A Group Of Writers And Artists Whose Works Reflected The Liberal Democratic And Humanistic Spirit Of The Taisho Era 1912-1926. At The Age Of Twenty Kori Began Editing And Publishing With Yanagi Muneyoshi Soetsu Founder Of The Mingei Movement And Around 1923 Became A Frequent Contributor To The Major Literary Magazines Of The Day. In 1909 Kori Torahiko Won First Prize In The Contest Held By Taiyo Sun Magazine With His Play Titled "The Matsuyama Family" Which Brought Him Into Prominence As A Promising Dramatist. His Fame Was Established When The Imperial Theatre Staged His Play Dojoji 1912. The Following Year He Left For Europe. At London Kori Met Esther Sainsbury The Poetess And They Remained Friends Till His Death. He Wrote Plays In London; His First Drama To Be Staged There Was "Kanawa" Iron Ring 1917. Another Of His Plays "Toils Of Yoshitomo" Ran For Three Weeks At The Little Theatre London. Other Plays Similarly Staged Were "Saul And David" And "Absalom." "The Toils Of Yoshitomo" Was Translated Into Several European Languages Including German French And Italian. He Was One Of The Few Japanese Writers Who Worked Abroad. Despite His Close Association With The Shirakaba School Kori In His Taste For Romantic And Decadent Literature Was At Odds With The Prevailing Shirakaba Partiality For Realist Literature Particularly That Of Tolstoy. In His Mature Prose Style Kori Also Turned Away From The Shirakaba Writers' Tendency To Sinewy Colloquialism And Airy Realism In Favour Of A More Flowery Convoluted Prose Style À La D'Annunzio Or Walter Pater. An Unattributed Evaluation States " In Japan One Lone Voice Persisted In Hailing The Greatness Of Kori Long After His Early Death. Mishima Yukio Saw In Kori'S Plays The Essence Of Tragedy. Mishima Rated Kori As The Natural Successor To Such Classic Japanese Tragedians As Zeami Chikamatsu And Mori Ogai. Mishima'S Modern Noh Plays Was Written In Implicit Homage To Kori And Stands Today As A Continuation Of Many Of The Themes That Kori Reworked So Successfully In His Dramas. Shiga Naoya Concluded His Reminiscence Of Kori With His Regret That He Had Let Kori Go To England. "Kori Should Have Stayed And Worked In Japan. If He Had He Might Not Have Died So Young.' Kori'S Early Death Was Undeniably Tragic But Given His Long History Of Sickness And The Fact That He Received The Best Medical Treatment Available At The Time His Premature Death Would Have Been Unavoidable Whether He Had Been In Japan Or Europe. Had Kori Never Left Japan He Might Now Be Known As A Renowned Writer Of The Shirakaba School But Because He Left For Europe And Britain We Have The Toils Of Yoshimoto Arguably The Greatest Dramatic Achievement By A Japanese Playwright ". Selwyn & Blount / Chapel River Press hardcover