The Tragedy of Man - First Japanese Edition. Madách, Imre - Juichiro Imaoka (Translated by) Signed,Special Books

Madách, Imre: The Tragedy of Man - First Japanese Edition. Translated by Imaoka Juichiro (Dzsuicsiró) Tokyo, 1965. Shinshisa. 203 [5] p. 18 plate (with images by Mihály Zichy) Publisher's cloth binding. In publisher's cardboard boxes, with Japanese captions. On the inside cover, a photo of Imaoka Juichiro (January 5, 1967) is glued in. On the endpaper, Inscribed by Imaoka Juichiro to Mrs. Olivér Eöttevényi. (Mrs. Olivér Eöttevényi is a Hungarian politician, wife of the director of the Hungarian Foreign Affairs Association.) Add: Placed in the book is a separate printed letter with a foreword in Hungarian signed by Imaoka. A letter placed inside the book with quotations written in Japanese by Dr. Hiroshi Simizu, Japanese diplomat, scientist, and university professor, and Imaoka Juichiro, with their signatures. "According to sources, upon arriving in Hungary in 1922, Imaoka quickly took to the language, and mastered it in no time. Mastering Hungarian is quite a feat for any foreigner, but if you consider that Imaoka had few if no Japanese/Hungarian language books to rely on, his accomplishment is all the more awe inspiring (though he did arrive already speaking Finnish, an advantage that is debatable). Imaoka soon found himself in the enviable position of being one of - if not the only - Japanese scholars living in Hungary. It is because of his furious curiosity and hard work that scholarly and journalistic articles about Hungary were published in Japan, acquainting Japanese readers with Hungary from the perspective of one of their own countrymen. He also lectured about Japan to Hungarians (in Hungarian!) creating a kind of cultural dialog between the two nations. Imoka is also credited with some of the first translations of modern literature from Hungarian into Japanese. Authors who were the beneficiaries of his labors were Sándor Petöfi, Dezsö Kosztolányi, and Imre Madách. Imaoka was also something of an expert on Pan-Turanism, which holds that the Japanese and Finno-Ugric speaking tribes sprung from the same lineage, originating from around the Ural mountains in present-day Mongolia. Upon return to Japan after more than a decade in Hungary, it was Imaoka who organized the donation of five hundred Japanese cherry saplings to Hungary. You can still find some thriving along the Danube, and in other places around the city." How deep was Imaoka's devotion to Hungary? His own words speak loudest: "Farewell . . . Budapest, you're modern, large metropolis. Pest-Buda - you are a dreaming, romantic little town! I know so well what a poignantly beautiful, big, dear treasure you are to me." ( O,O ) /)__) , ,