Courtesan under the moon

Kisaburo Konoshima (1893–1984) grew up in the village of Kitano, Gifu Prefecture, and was educated in Tokyo and Kyoto. While teaching at Shokumin-Gakko in Tokyo, Konoshima was sent on an inspection tour of the United States. He decided to immigrate and brought his wife and children to California, where he worked as a farm laborer for many years. He later joined a Japanese partner to establish an independently managed fruit farm in Santa Clara. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Konoshimas were rounded up along with other Japanese Americans and relocated to the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming, thus losing their farm and investments. Following the end of World War II, they moved to New York City and became naturalized American citizens in 1955.Kisaburo collected Japanese and Chinese art, finding antique treasures at reasonable prices in New York. He also wrote tanka poems, often reflecting on the juxtaposition of his Japanese heritage with life in America. One of his poems seems to refer to this painting:While gazing at the figure of a Hokusai courtesanI am drinking alone—the atomic age’s dead of night(“American Sojourns and the Collecting of Japanese Art,” curated by Ellen Avril and presented at the Johnson Museum June 25–December 18, 2016)