Natsu no Tegami. (Letter of Summer).

Tokyo.: Aoi-shobo., 1937.. Original wrappers.. 4to. (29.7 x 21.7 cm).. With 6 illustrations by Onchi Koshiro. Limited to 200 numbered copies, signed by the author beside his photograph reproduced on the opening page.Kitasono Katue (1902-1978) was one of the most important Japanese Avant Garde poets of the 20th Century. Due to circumstances ranging from language barriers and lack of translators to stereotypes to misfortunes in publication, his work is not widely known outside Japan. Ezra Pound considered him one of the great poets of the century, and the two corresponded and influenced each other for decades. Kitasono was editor-in-chief of the renowned Tokyo avant-garde poetry magazine Vou, which continued, with occasional suspension, until Kitasono's death in June 1978.'Natsu no Tegami' was designed with surrealist illustrations by Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955), one of the first abstract painters in Japan, and a leader of the Sosaku Hanga (New-style prints) movement. He produced single sheet prints and book designs, as well as being a poet and art theorist. In 1911, under the influence of Takehisa Yumeji, Onchi began to design books and quickly became involved in producing print and poetry magazines. Onchi started to make abstract prints at the beginning of the Taisho- era (1912-26), and continued to experiment, drawing on traditional elements of Japanese colour and decorative sense, combining them with motifs from international modernism. His illustrations for Natsu no Tegami show the influence of European surrealism.