Le Théâtre japonais (Kabuki)

First edition, published in Paris in 1933 by Jules Meynial under the direction of Jacques de Brunhoff. Limited to 500 numbered copies on Arches paper. Illustrated with 48 drawings in black in the text and 32 hors-texte plates after Alexandre Iacovleff, printed in bistre and black.

Original printed wrappers with flaps. Small losses at head and foot of spine, with a restored tear at head; small tears and stains to the lower wrapper. Final endpaper lightly shadowed in places, with a few marginal spots of foxing. An attractive copy.

By the time Le Théâtre japonais appeared in 1933, Iacovleff had been working for more than fifteen years on the landscapes, figures and arts of the Far East. Travelling to Asia in 1917, he spent time in China before passing several months on the Japanese island of Izu Ōshima; after the Revolution he did not return to Russia and later settled in France. These journeys soon gave rise to Dessins et peintures d’Extrême-Orient, published by Lucien Vogel in 1920, followed by Le Théâtre chinois, issued in 1922 by Maurice de Brunhoff. In 1933, with Le Théâtre japonais, Iacovleff returned to the world of Asian performance, this time through kabuki.

The editorial continuity is equally clear. Jacques de Brunhoff belonged to a family already deeply involved in illustrated publishing and the press: his father Maurice had published Le Théâtre chinois, while his brothers Jean and Michel would respectively make Babar and Vogue France widely known.

For Japan, Iacovleff’s images are accompanied this time by the text of Serge Elisseeff. After a year of study in Berlin, Elisseeff arrived in Japan in 1908, entered Tokyo Imperial University, and in 1912 became the first Western student to graduate from the institution. Settling in Paris after leaving Bolshevik Russia, he taught notably at the École pratique des hautes études before moving to Harvard, where in 1934 he became the first director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

His text is divided into four main sections devoted to the history of kabuki, the actor and his art, the plays and their authors, and finally the theatres themselves. Iacovleff’s drawings thus accompany a study written by an author with direct knowledge of the Japanese language, culture and institutions.

Between Le Théâtre chinois of 1922 and Le Théâtre japonais of 1933, Iacovleff thus returned to the world of Asian performance with a new collaborator and under the direction of a new generation of the Brunhoff family. The Japan he had first encountered while travelling became, sixteen years later, the subject of a major illustrated book.