page_title: Seiichi Naruse
section_title: Life in Paris (1921–1925)
hierarchical_section_title: Seiichi Naruse / Life in Paris (1921–1925)
caption_attribution_description: English: In this photo, Michel Monet, Claude Monet, Fukuko Naruse and Blanche Hoschedé-Monet are seen from the left to the right. This photo was taken in 1921 by Seiichi Naruse, Fukuko's husand at Giverny.
context_page_description: Seiichi Naruse was a Japanese writer and researcher of French Romanticism. He was a professor of French literature at Kyushu University. He is known as the first Japanese having a friendship with Romain Rolland and also known as a collaborator with Kōjirō Matsukata in collecting paintings and sculptures for the Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno, Tokyo.
context_section_description: In February 1919, he married Fukuko Kawasaki, a daughter of Yoshitarō Kawasaki, granddaughter of Shōzō Kawasaki (Kawasaki Shōzō).  Shōzō Kawasaki was the founder of the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Company (川崎造船); Yoshitarō Kawasaki was the vice president of it.  In 1921, Seiichi took Fukuko with him to live in Paris, where he settled down to work on literary researches at the Sorbonne(University of Paris), in literary salons as their members and under private tutors.
   In the early stages of his four-year stay in Paris, he assisted Kōjirō Matsukata (president of the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Company) in collecting art works for the Matsukata Collection.  Naruse and Matsukata went around art dealers and galleries such as Durand-Ruel and Bernheim-Jeune, often with Yukio Yashiro.  Naruse recommended Matsukata to buy works by Gustave Moreau and Gustave Courbet in particular.  In 1921, he visited Claude Monet at Giverny several times with Fukuko, Kōjirō Matsukata, Yukio Yashiro, Shizuka Sakazaki (art historian) and Sanji & Takeko Kuroki(Matsukata's niece).  Naruse and Fukuko were good friends of Michel Monet and Blanche Hoschedé Monet, too.  In 1923, the couple visited Claude Monet with Georges Clemenceau at a hospital in Neuilly when Claude had an operation for cataract.  Naruse also visited Léonce Bénédite at the Musée Rodin with Matsukata.  Naruse bought a bust of Victor Hugo by Auguste Rodin( the original plaster figure) from Bénédite himself.
  His literary researches were mainly on French Romanticists in the 18th and 19th century such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Gautier, Flaubert and Montesquieu. His interest had already passed away from Romain Rolland, perhaps because Rolland had become too keen on the Soviet Communist Party.  Naruse's study of Romanticism covered not only literary works and theatrical arts, but also personal histories of writers, the social trends and the living conditions of the periods.
  In 1925, he decided to return to Japan.  He had been recommended for a position at Kyushu University(, one of the seven national universities in Japan) in Fukuoka-shi, Kyushu.
caption: The photo taken in 1921 by Seiichi Naruse at Giverny. Michel Monet, Claude Monet, Fukuko Naruse and Blanche Hoschedé Monet are seen from the left to the right.
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