Isamu Noguchi

Tokyo, Japan, Isamu Noguchi: 1931/50/51/52 Japan, Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, Tokyo, no. 46 illustrated
Washington, DC, Abraham Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics: a close embrace of the earth, 2003, illustrated p. 32
The Isamu Noguchi Catalogue Raisonne digital project, The Noguchi Museum, no. 357

In 1952 Isamu Noguchi and his bride, Yoshiko (Shirley) Yamaguchi were invited to live in a farmhouse in Kamakura, Japan owned by the calligrapher and ceramicist Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883 -1959). With access to Rosanjin’s kilns Noguchi begins a series of ceramic sculptures and objects. Many of these works were exhibited in a major exhibition of Noguchi ceramics produced over the year in Kamakura at that city’s Museum of Modern Art, including this work, Marriage.
Marriage features a sweet autobiographical portrait of Noguchi and Yamaguchi during a very happy time in their lives. They had met in the fall of 1950 at the Brooklyn Museum and were married in late 1951. Yamaguchi accompanied Noguchi on his extensive worldwide travels under the auspices of his grant from the Bollingen Foundation to international sites of leisure. When the couple attempted to relocate to the United States for Noguchi’s work Yamaguchi’s previous leftist leanings disqualified her for an American entry visa. Sadly, the relationship floundered and the couple eventually divorced.