Noguchi, Isamu
- Deborah A. Goldberg
Extract
Noguchi, Isamu (17 November 1904–30 December 1988), sculptor, was born out of wedlock in Los Angeles, California, the son of Yonejirō “Yone” Noguchi, a Japanese poet, and the American writer Leonie Gilmour. In 1904 Yone, who was well known for interpreting the East to the West through his poetry, returned to Japan to teach. Leonie and Isamu joined Yone in Tokyo in 1906. Isamu, who lived with his mother in Chigasaki from 1912 to 1916, attended Japanese and Jesuit schools and in July 1918 arrived at the Interlaken School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. The school was converted to a military training camp shortly thereafter, so the school’s founder, Edward Rumely, placed him in a public high school in Indiana (La Porte), where he graduated in 1922 as Isamu Gilmour. Rumely then arranged for him to work in Connecticut as the apprentice to ...
