Yashiro (in Oiso) to Bernard Berenson

Oiso, May 24

My dear BB,

Myself & my wife Fumi are very anxious about your health! How are you?

I have recovered from my illness, and I plan to come to call on you at I Tatti with wife this autumn. Perhaps in the beginning of November. Please keep strong & wait for the visit of Yuki & his wife Fumi.

As a matter of fact, I am again invited by Stanford University, California to visit there as consulting professor of Eastern Arts. Taking this opportunity of going out of my country (which is otherwise very difficult), I will go round the world, so that I may call on you at Florence on my way back to Japan in autumn. I shall leave Japan June 15th & stay in U. S. (Stanford & elsewhere) for about 5 months & in the beginning of November I shall arrive in Italy. My stay in Rome would be only for a week or ten days, during which I shall call on you at I Tatti or Vallombrosa or wherever you may be. My wife feels excited to meet you again.

Your letter telling me “not to lose hope” & that “the will to live still sometimes performs miracles”, which really resuscitated me, when I felt very weak two years ago, forces me to give back those precious words to you!

The new “Accademia Giapponese” is going to be established in Rome & I may be appointed its first director, if I am willing. The new building will begin before summer, and it would be finished next year. My dear Master BB, please live & wait for your old pupil, who will come to join you in Italy in a future not very far!

How is our dear Nicky? Please ask her to drop me & my wife even a short note to tell us how you are faring.

As I make haste to post this letter, I stop short, & merely send to you our warmest love & most sincere wishes

Yuki Yashiro

Fumi Yashiro