Viewing page 418 of 500

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

419

2-CHARLES J. MORSE, ESQ.

After Mr. Masuda returned to Japan, he was taken ill, and although I received one or two pleasant letters from him, they contained nothing concerning the proposed Exhibition. A few days ago, however, I received from him a letter dated January 21st, 1908, a copy of which I send you herein. Quickly after its receipt, I was called to New York where I spent ten days, returning home this morning. After arriving in New York, I called upon Mr. Hayashi of Yamanaka and Company, and found that he, too, was in receipt of messages from Mr. Masuda concerning the matter. Mr. Hayashi's messages, however, were of a verbal nature, and came to him through Mr. Midzuno, the new Consul-General from Japan to New York. Along with the other duties entrusted to Mr. Midzuno was that of conferring with Mr. Fukui, General Manager of Mitsui and Company and others of us interested in the proposed Exhibition. The result of all this was that a meeting was held at the Nippon Club in New York on Tuesday evening last, which was attended by Consul-General Midzuno, Mr. Fukui, Dr. Takamine, Mr. S. Yamanaka, Messrs. Ishikubo and Hayashi, Prof. Fenollosa, Prof. Dow and myself. A second meeting was held the following evening at the Plaza Hotel, I acting as chairman of both meetings.

Mr. Midzuno, who is an art collector himself, and a man who has held very important governmental positions in China, Corea, Germany and now in America, told us of a dinner extended to him on the night before his departure from Japan, at which many distinguished Japanese collectors were present, and that during this meeting which evidently was called for the purpose the subject of sending to America a splendid collection of Japanese and Chinese Art was fully discussed. He was instructed to say to us in America that the gentlemen present at that dinner would collect and send, for exhibition purposes only, a fine collection of Japanese and Chinese Art in such medium and of such dates as we, here in America, might wish. He was also empowered to say that the gentlemen present at that dinner and other friends of theirs also stood ready to present to the city of New York a pavilion in which to exhibit the treasures, and that after the Exhibition, the pavilion should remain a permanent mark of friendship, etc., their idea being to have the pavilion built in accordance with the very best ethics of Japanese Architecture. This statement nearly took our breaths away, and we instantly expressed our appreciation of the generosity of these Japanese gentlemen, but stated that their project was too big for us to consider, that we had assembled for the purpose of planning possible ways and means for exhibiting a group of art, but that the building would have to be a thing apart and one in which the officials of the city of New York would have to participate,- and there the matter of the pavilion still rests.