Akarumi e (Toward the Light) — illustrated poetry book by Yosano Akiko

Akarumi e (Toward the Light) is the deluxe illustrated poetry book that Tsuda Seifu designed in 1916 for the poet Yosano Akiko, in collaboration with Nakazawa Hiromitsu and the novelist Natsume Soseki, the project that fixed Tsuda in the literary memory of late Taisho period Japan as the painter companion of one of the country's greatest modern writers. The book was issued shortly after Soseki's death in December 1916, the year in which Tsuda had been at the novelist's bedside during his final illness and had produced the celebrated death portrait that remains one of the documents of their friendship. Printed by letterpress with color woodcut on bound paper, Akarumi e combines Yosano's poetic text with the cover and ornament designed by Tsuda and the contributions of his collaborators, and the resulting object belongs to the great age of Taisho period deluxe book design, in which yoga painters, nihonga artists, and literary figures collaborated on small editions intended as cultural events rather than commercial products. The Rijksmuseum holds the volume and the impression consulted here through the museum's Wikimedia Commons holdings preserves the cover ornament and the woodcut decorations that Tsuda contributed. The book stands as a key document of the Taisho period intersection of poetry, painting, and book design, and of the network of friendships through which Tsuda navigated his return from Paris into the heart of Tokyo literary life.