‘Tokyo as Seen by a Foreigner’ ‘Tokyo vue par un etranger’

Noel Nouet, a well-known French poet, came to Japan in 1926 and was a professor at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages and Hosei University and the Military College. He liked to take walks whenever he had a spare moment, carrying with him his pen and sketchbook, like the great writer and poet Victor Hugo. He strolled almost daily along the boulevards and streets of the capital. When he was touched by some beautiful scene, he took out his favorite fountain pen, which he had used to compose poems in the past, and rapidly made a sketch of the site.

For over three years, Nouet’s sketches were published weekly in The Japan Times & Mail.