Black Périgord: the little-known stay of the great Japanese painter Foujita in the Vézère valley during the Great War

One of the greatest Japanese artists of the ^20th century took refuge for seven months in the Périgord Noir in 1915-1916, just before becoming a world-renowned painter within the School of Paris. Guardian of the fortified house of Reignac, he devoted himself to agricultural work before settling in the Château de Marzac. There remain a few rare traces of his time there.

Slightly blurred, the black and white photo shows two men in a river. The water, which reaches almost up to their knees, forces them to lift their tunics. A photo that's anything but ordinary. Dated 1915, it depicts two Japanese men cooling off in the Vézère River, in the heart of the Périgord Noir, between Les Eyzies and Montignac.

Almost forgotten, this illustration, like others from this period, is preserved in a museum in Akita , in northern Japan. A space partly devoted to the work of the man who appears on the left in the photo: Fujita Tsuguharu (1886-1968), better known by his single name Foujita. One of the most famous artists of the School of Paris, sometimes presented as the greatest Japanese painter of the 20th century.

Known for his representations of nudes and his figures of cats, he seduced Paris in the Roaring Twenties and his contemporaries

A multifaceted artist who created a kind of synthesis between East and West, renowned for his representations of nudes and his figures of cats, he captivated Paris during the Roaring Twenties and his contemporaries such as Picasso, Modigliani and Soutine, with whom he lived a bohemian life in Montparnasse.

What did he come to do, in the middle of the First World War, in this remote corner of the Dordogne, with his friend Kawashima Riichiro (1886-1971), also regarded as a major Japanese painter?

Short of financial means, “Foujita cannot return to Japan, it is too risky”

Art historian, biographer of Foujita and author of the " General Catalogue Raisonné " of his work, Sylvie Buisson explains that this "incredible character" came from an aristocratic Japanese family, with a general father. A graduate of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and already attracted to Western art, he began a classical career but had dreamed for years of moving to Paris, the capital of the avant-garde. After retaining him, his father granted his request. Not without first consulting the French diplomatic representation in Japan so that they could appoint a trusted person to escort the young man.

Count Alphonse Claret de Fleurieu (1870-1926) was chosen. "A personality who often visited Japan," this Périgord explorer , born in Tursac, in the Vézère valley, owned the Château de Marzac. Foujita was "placed under his benevolent guard" during the forty-five-day crossing to the port of Marseille in 1913.

"It was initially thought that Foujita had passed through Périgord in 1913, but that's not true," continues Sylvie Buisson. "Foujita settled in Paris and found himself at the heart of the artistic avant-gardes 'who seized him.'"

With his best friend, Kawashima, he bought a plot of land in Montfermeil, near Paris. His friend introduced him to Isadora Duncan's dance academy, which drew inspiration from Antiquity. The Great War put a stop to their enthusiasm, and their house on the plot was destroyed. Short of financial means, "Foujita couldn't return to Japan; it was too risky," says Sylvie Buisson.

Unemployed, the artist then called upon his mentor, the Count of Fleurieu. This is how he arrived in the Vézère Valley in June 1915, with Kawashima "and two Japanese maids in kimonos, who were not their girlfriends." A visit and outfits that clashed with the rural landscape of the time, especially since Foujita danced the Pyrrhic (a Greek religious and martial dance) in a toga and bathed naked in the Vézère, which may have "created a bit of a stir," smiles Sylvie Buisson.

In reality, the 28-year-old didn't settle for a life of idleness: he offered his services to the Count of Fleurieu, who employed him as a farmhand on his farms. A parenthesis in the artist's life. "He adapted to this context immediately because of his good education," says Sylvie Buisson.

The small Japanese community is not housed in the Château de Marzac among "this noble, very worldly family," but a few kilometers away, in the fortified house of Reignac, a 14th-century "cliff-castle" in the commune of Tursac. A building listed as a historical monument in 1964 and only open to the public since 2006.

In this uncomfortable troglodyte setting, Kawashima caught a cold. His poor health forced him to return to Paris in the fall of 1915 with his two maids. Foujita then moved into the Château de Marzac, at the invitation of the Count, a confirmed bachelor he had drawn with his servants. As a nod to this, the building's current owners, Catherine and Jacques Guyot, launched an escape game entitled "Foujita's Lost Painting" for the 2025 season.

Abandoning field work, the artist then painted around ten paintings depicting the fortified house of Reignac and the château's salons. These oil paintings "in a very academic style, which are not first-rate works" but which bear witness to this experience, which ended in February 1916, when Foujita returned to Paris and then London.

A year later, in 1917, success arrived. Foujita then became one of the star painters of Paris during the Roaring Twenties (1920-1929). This was the beginning of another story.