Sekai Isshū Nikki

Michi Nomura was a Japanese Christian activist, writer, and the wife of Yōzō Nomura, a well-known Meiji Yokohama art dealer. Among Yōzō Nomura’s clients was Charles Lang Freer, the founder of the Freer Gallery of Art. Michi Nomura and her husband traveled to America in 1908 as part of a round-the-world publicity tour organized by the Asahi Newspaper. When Freer heard that Michi Nomura was interested in visiting his home and art collection in Detroit, he postponed his own trip to Egypt in order to meet her. She wrote about her visit in her journal recalling endless art and referring to the Peacock Room a “magnificent sight.” Upon Nomura’s return to Japan, she had copies of her journal printed for private circulation among her friends. In it is a description of Freer’s art collection (p.65-80) and a photograph of the Peacock room as seen in Freer’s Detroit home (pl.3). Currently, the only known copies of the 1908 publication are this one in the Freer | Sackler Library collection and a second one in the Nichibunken (日文研).