Aru Issiho No Naimaku Aru Wa Ningen No Sento. (Les Dessous d'une Vie ou la Pyramide Humaine).

Tokyo.: Shunchokai., Showa 12. (1937).. Original publisher's red handmade paper covered boards, front cover with a design after Dalí, printed title in Japanese to spine.. 4to. (265 x 185 mm).. Frontispiece photographic portrait of Eluard with his facsimile signature and four leaves of thick white paper with illustrations by Dalí (two are signed in the plate and dated '1935'). The very rare deluxe issue of Yamanaka's Japanese translation of Eluard with illustrations by Dalí.Yamanaka's translation of Eluard's 'Les Dessous d'une Vie ou la Pyramide Humaine' was published in an edition of 100 copies in two different formats: in blue handmade paper wrappers with an illustration after Dalí on handmade paper or in deluxe red handmade paper boards with matching cover illustration on higher quality handmade paper: the issue in boards is likely to have been published in far fewer numbers, possibly as few as ten copies. As outlined below, both issues are extremely rare and we can trace only two copies in institutions or at auction; André Breton's copy, with a presentation from Yamanaka, also appears to be one of those examples in the deluxe binding ('cartonnage').Yamanaka Chiryu (1905 - 1977), also known as 'Tiroux', an early proponent of Surrealism in Japan, correspondent of Eluard and Breton, poet, painter and translator of Proust, Radiguet and Aragon, published this translation of Eluard's Les Desous d'une Vie ou la Pyramide Humaine in 1937. First published in 1926 with an etched Surrealist portrait of Paul and Gala Eluard by Max Ernst, Yamanaka's translated Japanese edition featured Surrealist compositions by Dalí.Yamanaka first came into contact with Surrealism during his time at NHK's (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) Nagoya station and was soon corresponding with Eluard (with whom he maintained friendly relations until Eluard's death in 1952) and Breton as well as other overseas Surrealists. In his own magazine Ciné and later in MIZUE, Yamanaka brought attention to Dada and Surrealism through a series of articles before his collaboration with Takiguchi Shuzo (another, perhaps better remembered, proponent of Surrealism), with whom Yamanaka organised 'The Exhibition of Overseas Surrealist Works' which exhibited in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya in 1937. The exhibition had a profound effect on avant-garde art movements in Japan, as well as Japanese society, which viewed the avant-garde with distrust. Indeed, as Surrealism became more well-known internationally, the Japanese secret police (the Tokko or Special Higher Police), suspicious of potential anarchist and Communist links, arrested a number of poets and painters in what came to be known as the 'Surrealism crackdown affair'. Yamanaka was largely forgotten after World War Two and the new beginning but remained an authority on Surrealism and wrote a number of books on the subject before his death. Yamanaka's collection of correspondence and original editions of Surrealist literature has been housed in Keio University since 1982.Yamanaka's work, limited to only 100 copies, is very rare: the only copies we can locate are the examples owned by André Breton (sold in the Vente Breton in 2003, see below) and Pierre André Benoit (donated to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France). COPAC lists no examples in UK institutions and we can locate no other copies in institutional collections.'Yamanaka (Tiroux) - Poète et écrivain surréaliste, promoteur de ce Mouvement au Japon ... '. (Dictionnaire Abrégé du Surréalisme, edited by Eluard and Breton).'Un homme comme Yamanaka Chiru, par exemple, est plus un bon théoricien, un bon initiateur du surréalisme qu'un vrai 'pratiquant'. Il entretient une corresponance avec Breton, notamment, et en 1937 organise avec Takiguchi Shuzo l'Exposition internationale du surréalisme, intitulée en japonais 'Exposition d'oeuvres surréalistes de l'étranger'. (Japon des Avant Gardes 1910 - 1970, pg. 176).[see Vente Breton, lot 1570, Livres II, 7 - 12 Avril, 2003; Japon des Avant Gardes 1910 - 1970, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1986, pg. 516; Kurosawa Yoshiteru, Tiroux Yamanaka: Chronology and Bibliography, 2005].