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Mr. Usaburo Ihara
c/o Japanese Artists Association
Naruse Bldg.
No. 1, 3 Gofukubashi
Nihonbashi, Chuoku
Tokyo, Japan

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Nov. 26, 1951

Dear Mr. Ihara:

Thank you very much for your letter of November 2nd and for the package of photographs of artists work which arrived safely a few days ago.  I thought that the artists had co-operated admirably and that the photographs of paintings were very interesting.

Today, I wrote to Mr. Washburn, Director of the Carnegie Institute and at the same time shipped the photographs to him.  Now we have to wait to hear from him, his reaction and that of his trustees.  As soon as I receive word, I will write you the outcome.  Naturally, I HOPE that their reaction will be favorable.

The Mainichi Press, who is sponsoring an International art Exhibition during the spring of 1952 has asked me to negotiate here on sending a group of American paintings to Japan.  At present, negotiations are going along pretty well and I hope this venture will materialize satisfactorily.  I thought I would let you know since it might be of some interest to your organization.

To date, I have only prepared the ground work.  However, in order to carry out the final details, I realize that it would need the help of an organization experienced in matters of this kind, and so have interested the American Federation of Arts in assembling the exhibition.  I will be glad to work with them, but hope from now on the responsibility will be shared between the Federation of Arts and Mainichi.  So far we are only in the negotiations stage.  After that, a committee will be formed to make the selection of paintings to be shown, so that it will not depend on any one person's choice.

I feel all the above activities are extremely important in widening our horizons.  Unfortunately, they also take a good deal of time and energy, and the waiting periods of decisions are very trying.  However, I am optimistic enough to believe that each step takes us forward.

The art activities are at their height now in New York.  There are many exciting exhibitions from Cranach to Matisse to be seen.

My best wishes to you and the members of your organization.  Please express my thanks to them and the hope that in 1952 Japan shall achieve shall achieve a place with other nations in the International exhibitions held at Pittsburgh.

Sincerely yours,