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UTAMARO : Midorigi of Wakamatsu-ya on parade.

Plate A] [Frontisfiiece

JAPANESE
COLOUR-PRINTS AND THE SUBJECTS THEY ILLUSTRATE

A GUIDE FOR THE
COLLECTOR « STUDENT
WITH DESCRIPTION OF THE
SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATED
IN LANDSCAPE, DRAMA, STORY
AND PORTRAITURE

BY
BASIL STEWART
AUTHOR OF
On Collecting Japanese Colour-'Prints

ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS
REPRODUCTIONS, IN COLOUR
AND MONOCHROME, OF PRINTS
IN THE AUTHOR'S COLLECTION

NEW YORK:
DODD. MEAD -3? COMPANY
1920

PREFACE
THE marks of appreciation with which the author's
previous book on Japanese Prints has been re
ceived, coupled with the fact that it is now out
of print, show that it has filled a gap in the
literature of the subject. To all those who have thus been
kind enough to express approval of his efforts, the author
tenders his sincere thanks.
While advantage has been taken in the present volume
to amplify, as further experience and study of the subject
has suggested, the general remarks contained in the smaller
work, the following pages are mainly intended to carry the
reader a stage further, to a study of the subjects portrayed
in Japanese prints.
It is hoped, therefore, that this volume will be useful
both to the amateur and to the more advanced collector ;
to the latter those chapters dealing with the scenes and
subjects illustrated should particularly appeal for purposes
of reference to the individual prints contained in the various
series, while they should be of material assistance to the
former in the process of acquiring examples for a collection.
Many people collect these colour-prints for the attrac
tion of their pure beauty, but have only a slight acquaintance
with the scene or subject they illustrate, or the meaning
which the artist desires to convey.
Japanese colour-prints should not be collected solely as
works of art ; an intelligent study of the subjects and scenes

Japanese Colour-Prints

they illustrate will tell us more of the life, history, and
character of Japan in the days when it was a closed book to
the rest of the world, than any number of pages of print.
Thus the drama of the " Forty-seven Ronin " (" The
Chushingura"),a subject portrayed by many artists, unfolds
to us a story of chivalry and honour equal to any romance
of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
In his search for subjects of illustration, the writer has
naturally gone outside the limits of his own collection, and
for this purpose has made use of the catalogues of various
Japanese print sales held by Messrs. Sotheby in recent
years. In particular, the catalogue of the Happer collection
of prints by Hiroshige deserves mention by reason of its
comprehensiveness, as this collection contained examples
of almost all the known series by this artist.
Acknowledgment of such use is made by reference to
the particular sale in which a series occurred only partly
represented or not represented at all in the author's
collection. He also acknowledges the invaluable assistance given
him by Mr. Shozo Kato, whose intimate knowledge of the
customs and literature of old Japan has been freely placed
at the service of the writer.
He is further indebted to Mr. Kato for the loan of
prints for purpose of description, and for the reproductions
of signatures and other marks in Appendix III.
BASIL STEWART.
Tunbridge Wells.

VI

CONTENTS

Preface 
Glossary 
I. Introduction 
II. How Colour-Prints were Produced : The Ukiyoye School
III. On the Formation and Care of a Collection .
IV. Forgeries, Imitations, and Reprints .
V. Artists of the Ukiyoye School ....
VI. Artists of the Ukiyoye School {continued)
VII. The Landscape Artists, Hokusai and Hiroshige
VIII. Characteristics of Japanese Drawing
IX. Classification of Subjects 
X. The Fifty-Three Stations on the Tokaido
XI. Views on the Tokaido {continued)
XII. The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido
XIII. The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji ....
XIV. Views In and Around Yedo ....
XV. Miscellaneous Landscape Views
XVI. Actor Prints 
XVII. Japanese Plays : The Drama of " The Chushingura
XVIII. Figure Subjects : Courtesans and Geisha .
XIX. History, Legends, and Stories : Miscellaneous Subjects

PAGB V
xiv 3
II
25 45 5573 89
105 113119133
143 159173187
205 223
'231 263

APPENDICES
I. Japanese Chronology as Applied to the Dating of Prints :
Chronological Table  289
II. Notes  297
III. Reproductions of Seals, Signatures, and Numerals . . 313
IV. Bibliography  331
Index  333

vu

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
(In Colour)
PLATE
A. Utauaro : Midorigi of Wakamatsu-ya on parade . . . Frontispiece Face page
B. KiYOMASU : Theatrical trio ; print in hoso-ye form .... 38
C. ToYOKUNi : (i) Manzai (New Year) dancers
(2) Ichikawa Omezo and Onoy6 Matsu-suk6 in character 48
D. Hiroshige : Kanagawa on the Tokaido . . . . . .120
E. Hokusai : Fuji from the seashore at Tago {No, 24 of the " Views of Fuji "
series) .......... 162
F. Hiroshige : Musashi Chofu Tama River {from the " Six Tama River "
series, upright) ........ 200

IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE
I. (I) (2)
2. (I)
(2)
3-4- 5- (I) (2)
6. 7-
8.
9.
lo.II.12.13-14- (I) (2)
15- 16. (I)
(2)
17- (I)(2)
i8. (I)
(2)
19. (I)
(2)
20.

(In Monochrome)
Face page
Shunzan : Ladies enjoying the cool of the evening by a lake {orie sheet
of a triptych)
Toyohiro : Ladies watching soldiers at archery practice {one sheet of a
triptych)  5^
Shunko : Street scene at night
Choki : Pleasure-boat on Sumida River ...... 66
Yeishi : A lady looking at a courtesan as she passes .... 74
Yeisho : Two ladies and a servant promenading .... 78
Yeizan : Figure study of a geisha
KiYOMiNi: : Woman holding out sake cup ..... 80
SuGAKUDO : Studies of birds and flowers (2 plates) .... 84
Hokusai : The Yoshitsune " horse-washing " waterfall ... 92
Hiroshige : Umegawa of Tsuchi-ya ...... 98
HoKKEi : Surimono : Kwanyu studying a book on strategy . . 114
Hiroshige : Totsuka, Tokaido ; first and second states . . . 124
Hiroshige : Kakegawa and Otsu on the Tokaido (2 plates) . . 128
Kuniyoshi : Two Views from "Five Stations on the Tokaido" (2 plates) 134
Kunisada : Kakegawa and Otsu on the Tokaido (2 plates) . . . 138
Hiroshige : Shimmachi on the Kisokaido
Yeisen : Kumaga^ on the Kisokaido ...... 146
Hiroshige : Sema and Tarui on the Kisokaido (2 plates) . . . 154
Hokusai : Fuji seen from Narumi, Kazusa (No. 11)
Fuji seen from Ushibori, Hitachi (No. 12) . . . . r6o
Hokusai : Fuji seen from Mishima Pass, Kai Province (No. 18)
,, Fuji seen from Tsukuda-jima (No. 38) ... . 166
Hiroshige : Fuji from Tsukuda, Toto
„ Fuji from the " Seven Ri " beach, Soshu . . . 168
Hiroshige : " Toto Meisho " ; The Yoshiwara by night
" Toto Meisho " ; The Yoshiwara under snow . • I74
Hiroshige : " The Corner Tea-house by Imado Bridge, Yedo " . . 176
X

plate
21. (I)

(2)(I)
(2) (I)
(2) (I)(2)(I)(2)

23-

24.

25-

26. (l)(2)
27. (l) (2)

28.29. 30-31- 32.33- 34-
35-

(I)
(2)
36. 37- (I)(2)

38.
39.40.

(I)(2)
(I)
(2)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— cow/mM^rf.
(In Monochrome)
Face page
Hiroshige : " Hundred Views in Yedo " ; Plate 6, " First Race-course,
Horse-dealer's Street "
„ Plate 35, " Woods of Suijin and Sunuda River " . . 178
Hiroshige : " Sekiya and the Suijin Woods seen from Masaki "
„ " Wistaria, Tenjin Temple, Kameido " . . . . 182
Hokusai : The Drum bridge, Kameido Temple
Gakutei : Tempozan ; " Eight Views into the Mountains " . .190
Hiroshige : Lake Biwa in moonlight
Hiroshige II : " Hundred Views of Various Provinces " . . .192
Hiroshige : Shimbara {from the " Kyoto Meisho " series)
,, Chofu Tama River, Musashi {from the " Six Tama River "
series, oblong) . . . . . . . .196
Shunsho : Sawamura Sojuro as a pedlar {hoso-ye print)
Shunyei : Sakata Hangoro as a samurai {hoso-ye print)
Toyokuni : Nakayama Tomisaburo as Sankatsu, and Ichikawa Komazo
as Hanshichi
Kunimasa : Sawamura Sojuro as Sonob6 Hyod and Segawa Kikunojo as
Usuyuke Himd .....
Shunyei : The wrestlers ShacMhoko and Nishikigi
Kuniyoshi : Portraits of Moronao and Yenya (2 plates)
Kuniyoshi : Portraits of Wakasa and Honzo (2 plates)
Hokusai : " Chushingura " : Acts I and VII (2 plates)
Hokusai : " Chushingura " : Acts IX and X (2 plates)
Kuniyoshi : " Chushingura " : Acts X and XI (2 plates)
Utamaro : Ladies imitating Act I of the " Chushingura "
Yeizan : A geisha and her maid in a sharp shower
Ryukoku : Portrait of Motosuye of Daimoni-ya and another oiran
Utamaro : Kisegawa of Matsuba-ya .....
Hiroshige : Combat between Yoshitsun6 and the Priest Tankai
Kuniyoshi : Nichiren and Yamabushi .....
Kiyonaga : Samurai admiring a courtesan
Kintoki riding a wild boar .....
Hokusai : No. 12 of the " Hundred Poets " : Poem by Sojo Henjo
Kuniyoshi : Akushichi Kagekiyo
Endo Musho Mirito  278

208

214218224228 232236242
246 254 258 264
268272

XI

ADDENDA
Chapter XIII, page 164. Hokusai's " Thirty-six Views of Fuji."
Plate 28. Fuji from Hakone Lake, Province of Sagami. Rounded
green hills rising from the tree-fringed shores of Hakone Lake,
between which, in the distance, rises the cone of Fuji.
Chapter XIV, page 183. Hiroshige's " Hundred Views in Yedo "
series.
Plate 1 14. Bikuni Bridge under snow. A porter, carrying boxes
slung from a pole on his shoulder, approaching the bridge ; behind,
another man, whose head is buried in his umbrella ; beyond, a view
of the street, at the end of which rises a fire-tower : the whole scene
under a heavy snowfall from a dark sky. An excellent snow scene.

xiii

GLOSSARY
Beni-ye. A print in which beni (or pink) predominates ; a term
generally applied to the two-colour prints immediately pre
ceding the polychrome period.
Chuban. A medium size vertical print, measuring about ii inches
by 8 inches.
Diptych. A composition complete in two sheets, generally side by
side, but an unusual form.
Gauffrage. " Blind " printing — that is, without the application of
colour. In this process the print is laid on the block face
upwards (thus reversing the process when a colour impression
is taken), which has the effect, on pressure being applied, of
giving the design an embossed appearance. Used frequently
on surimono, but only to a slight extent (e.g. on parts of dresses,
blossom of trees, and flowers) on full size prints.
Harimazh. Sheets of two or more subjects or designs printed on
the one sheet and intended to be cut afterwards ; very un
common. [Example : Set of " Fifty-three Tokaido Stations,"
by Hiroshige, on fourteen sheets, arranged irregularly, three,
four, or five views on one sheet. Title : Go-ju-san Tsugi
Harimaz^.]
Hashira-ye or Hashira-kdkb. A long narrow print, about 27 inches
by 5 inches wide, intended to hang from the pillars (hashira)
of a Japanese house. Owing to the uses to which they were
put, to adorn the living-rooms, few have survived to our day,
and are consequently uncommon, and are nearly always dis
coloured by smoke.
Hoso-ye. A small vertical print, 12 inches by 6 inches, often used
for single actor portraits (e.g. prints by Shunsho, Shunyei,
Toyokuni, etc.). They were originally cut three on a block,
xiv

Glossary

and the print divided. It is very rare to find three such prints
in an undivided state.
Ichimai-ye. A single sheet print.
Kakemono-ye. Two full size vertical sheets, one above the other,
to form a complete picture when joined together.
Koban. A vertical print rather smaller than the Chuban, about
IO inches by 7 inches.
Mon. The crest worn by actors and others on the sleeve of their
dress.
Nishiki-ye. Literally means " brocade picture," and was first used
in the time of Harunobu, but afterwards applied to all poly
chrome prints.
Oban. A full size vertical print, 15 inches by 10 inches.
Otsu-ye. A roughly painted sketch, the forerunner of the print ;
first produced by Matabei at the village of Otsu on the Tokaido,
hence their name. This Matabei (or Matahei [died c. 1720])
must not be confused with the better-known Iwasa Matabei.
Pentaptych. A composition consisting of five vertical sheets side
by side.
Sumt-ye. A print in black and white only {sumi=hlack Chinese
ink).
Surimono. A print issued for private circulation, like our Christmas,
New Year, birthday, or invitation cards. They were lavishly
embellished with gold, silver, bronze, and mother-of-pearl dust,
and were printed on a thicker and softer paper than was usually
employed for ordinary prints. They were almost square in
shape, measuring 8 inches by 7 inches. (See Chapter IX.)
Tan-ye. A print in which tan (brick-red or orange colour) pre
dominates ; a term applied to early hand-coloured prints.
Tan turns black with exposure in course of time, an eff^ect often
noticed in the prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige, who used this
colour in depicting sky and cloud effects.
Tanjaku. Narrow slips, like miniature kakemono-ye, on which
poems were inscribed. Used by Hiroshige for thumb-nail
sketches of birds and flowers, slight figure-studies, etc.
xv

Japanese Colour-Prints
Triptych. A composition of three vertical prints side by side.
Hiroshige has designed some very rare triptyches, composed of
three oblong sheets.
Uchiwa-ye. A print intended for mounting as a fan. Fans were
in two shapes, the uchiwa, a round non-folding fan, and the
ogi, or folding fan. Prints designed for fans are not common
owing to the uses to which they were put, but the uchiwa shape
is the one most frequently met with.
Ukiy^. Prints designed after European canons of drawing, with
perspective ; also means " bird's-eye view pictures."
Urushi-ye. Prints in which transparent lacquer is used to heighten
the colour effect, a process said to have been invented by
Okumura Masanobu.
Yoko-ye. A full size horizontal print, 15 inches by 10 inches,
corresponding to the oban, often used for landscape designs.

xvi

INTRODUCTIONFIRST APPEARANCE OF
JAPANESE PRINTS IN EUROPE
CAPTAIN GSBORN'S "JAPANESE
FRAGMENTS"
FRENCH AND AMERICAN COLLECTORS
/ESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS
OF JAPANESE PRINTS

B

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
THE interest of European and American collectors
in Japanese colour-prints is of comparatively
modern origin, and dates approximately from the
time when Japan was thrown open to the outside
world, and her art products became accessible to the foreigner,
a process accelerated, at the beginning, by the keenness of
the natives to acquire in exchange European culture and
manufactures to the disparagement of their own arts. True,
they soon found out their mistake, but in the interval the
eager dealer and collector from abroad had made good use
of their opportunities, particularly where colour-prints were
concerned. These prints first made their appearance in France, via
Holland, whence they came from the Dutch trading at
Nagasaki, in the early part of last century, about 1815.
They were, however, considered only as curiosities in those
days, without any appreciation of their artistic merit. As
it is said that they were merely used by the Dutch at Nagasaki
as wrappings for parcels, when dispatching goods to Europe,
or stuffed in bales, their condition on arrival would hardly
conduce to a proper appreciation of their merit as works of
art. The prints of Utamaro are supposed to have been the
first to thus leave the land of their origin and be seen in
Europe.

Japanese Colour-Prints

M. Isaac Titsingh, who died in Paris in 1812, was for
many years an official of the Dutch company trading at
Nagasaki, and amongst his collection of Japanese art objects,
books, etc., were a few (less than a dozen) colour-prints,
probably prints by Utamaro. As far as any definite records
tell us, M. Titsingh's prints were, most probably, the first
to find their way into Europe at the hands of a collector,
apart from any which arrived as wrappings for merchandise.
The earliest mention of Japanese prints that the writer
has been able to discover in any book published in this
country is to be found in an interesting, but now rare work,
of 139 pages, entitled J«/)fl«e^e Fragments, by Captain Sherard
Osborn (London, 1861). This book contains six reproduc
tions of prints by Hiroshige, coloured by hand, and various
cuts in the text, mostly taken from Hokusai's book Hundred
Views oj Fuji, which Captain Osborn had brought back with
him to England.
He had been in command of the frigate which conveyed
our ambassador. Lord Elgin, to Yedo Bay, on a mission
which resulted in the signing of the treaty of 1858, based
on the similar treaty just previously concluded between
Japan and America. These treaties, by which certain ports
were opened to foreign trade, and at which foreign settle
ments were established, marked the termination of Japan's
two centuries of seclusion from the outer world. ^
Captain Osborn's prints, then, must have been amongst
the very first examples to be seen in this country, and he
certainly, by his reference thereto, appreciated them as much
» Since writing the above, the author has seen mention of another book dealing
with Lord Elgin's mission to Japan, written by Oliphant, and published a year or two
earlier than Captain Osborn's, in which four colour-prints are reproduced.
4

Introduction

for their artistic merit as for their (in those days) curiosity.
He says in his Preface : "I have found much encourage
ment in being able to illustrate my fragmentary tale of the
strange things of Japan with a series of beautiful illustra
tions, bought during my stay in the city of Yedo."
In allusion to one of the coloured illustrations, a repro
duction of one of Hiroshige's scenes in his " Sixty Odd
Provinces " series, he writes : " Even the humble artists
of that land become votaries of the beautiful, and in such
efforts as the one annexed, strive to do justice to the scenery.
Their appreciation of the picturesque is far in advance,
good souls, of their power of pencil, but our embryo Turner
has striven hard to reproduce the combined effects of water,
mountain, cloud, and spray."
Little did our author imagine, when he penned these
words, that the day was not far distant when " our embryo
Turner " would be considered one of the two greatest
landscape artists of his or any other country, and that one
of his masterpieces would fetch over ninety pounds in the
auction room. (See note. Appendix II.)
Elsewhere Captain Osborn makes reference to the
realism which these humble artists conveyed into their de
signs, in the following words : " These native illustrations
bring before us in vivid relief the scenery, towns and villages,
highways and byways of that strange land — the costumes,
tastes, and I might also say, the feelings of the people — so
skilful are Japanese artists in the Hogarth-like talent of
transferring to their sketches the characteristics of passing
scenes." Coming from a writer who had visited Japan before it
had adopted the notions of Western civilization, and while
5

Japanese Colour-Prints

it yet remained the country of Hokusai and Hiroshige, who
knew so well how to portray it, these appreciations of their
pictorial art have an added interest at the present day.
Paris appears to have been the centre in which Japanese
print collecting was first seriously taken up in Europe, from
about the year 1885 onwards. Amongst French collectors
of this time M. de Goncourt stands out as one of the most
important, and his volumes on Utamaro (1891) and Hokusai
(1896) are standard works on these two masters of Ukiyoye.
The dispersal of several important collections took place in
Paris between the years 1890 and 1900, thus giving to Paris
a pre-eminence amongst print collectors, and helping to
extend a knowledge of the art to a larger circle, which had
hitherto been confined to a few connoisseurs.
These sales included the following collections : Burty
(March 16-20, 1891) ; an amateur (anonymous) (June 19-22,
1 891) ; Duret (February, 1897) ; and Goncourt (March
8-13, 1897). The Hayashi sale, probably the largest private
collection ever dispersed at auction, was held in Paris,
June 2-6, 1902.^
American collectors, however, were the first in the-field,
or at least, if not earlier than the French, took up the serious
study of this new art much in advance of amateurs in this
country, while German collectors were the last to do so.
Americans, also, were much more fastidious in what
examples they admitted into their collections, and insisted
more on condition than collectors in this country were at
first wont to do. Consequently French and American col
lections show a higher standard, and contain a larger pro-
» Vide Bibliography in Von Seidlitz's History of Japanese Colour-Prints
6

Introduction

portion of fine examples of the work of artists whose designs
are rare than is the case with other countries.
Prints, therefore, which are the pride of these collections
rarely find their way to London, so that the English col
lector has a somewhat limited field wherein to acquire
these art treasures, there being many of the rarer and more
desirable prints he cannot hope to possess. Moreover, fine
examples of almost any artist appear to be getting more
difficult of obtaining as each year passes. The dispersals
of large private collections in this country have been few
and far between during recent years, the Danckwerts sale,
in July, 1914, being the most important one, followed by
the Baker sale, in February, 1916.
The charm which old Japanese colour-prints undoubt
edly have for those who come under their spell, even when
they cannot at first understand their language, lies in their
pure beauty of decorative treatment combined with totally
different canons of drawing. They are so diflFerent that they
compel attention, so that, once their conventions are under
stood, one becomes fascinated by their beauty and simplicity
of drawing. Western art distracts and irritates by its un
necessary, and often meaningless, detail in attempts at
realism ; the Japanese colour-print designer wisely under
stood the limits of his art, and made no attempt to copy
Nature, though, if he choose, he could — as in his drawings
of flowers, birds, and insects — attain to a realism far beyond
that reached by his Western confreres. He allows no ex
traneous details to divert attention from the subject of his
picture, which he presents in such a fashion as shall hold
the mind to the exclusion of all else.
Few of the many thousands who glance at the large
7

Japanese Colour-Prints

pictorial advertisements on our street hoardings to-day
realize to what extent the great improvement in their design,
which has become evident within the last fifteen years or
so, is due to the art of these Japanese craftsmen of the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These prints,
indeed, owe their origin to the large theatrical posters which
were displayed outside the popular theatres of Yedo. To
the modern designer of posters they offer superb examples
of the correct use of bold outline in conjunction with large
masses of colour, and of the most effective manner of group
ing figures in a design. Their influence in many a pictorial
advertisement, not only on street hoardings (an influence all
to the good, as any one who remembers the hideous posters
of twenty to twenty-five years ago will admit), is at once
apparent to all who have seen and admired the beautiful
productions of the Ukiyoye school of Japan.

u

HOW COLOUR-PRINTS WERE
PRODUCED
THE TECHNIQUE EMPLOYED
THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL
AND ITS FOUNDERS
THE OSAKA SCHOOL
MODERN COLOUR-PRINTS
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE
UKIYOYE SCHOOL

CHAPTER II
HOW COLOUR-PRINTS WERE PRODUCED:
THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL
OLD Japanese colour-prints are printed on a sheet
of mulberry-bark paper, and are the product of
three different craftsmen : the artist who drew
the original design, the block-maker or engraver
who transferred the design to the wood, and the printer.
A block was cut for each colour, in addition to the outline
or key-block. The drawing made by the artist, with whose name, alone
the print is generally associated, was done in indian ink with
a brush on very thin paper.
This was passed to the engraver, who pasted it, face
downwards, on the wood block (wild cherry wood) and,
cutting through the paper, transferred the outline to the
block, afterwards removing the superfluous wood between
the lines with chisels and gauges, and so producing an
accurate negative in high relief. Prints which are very early
impressions from the block often show the marks of the
cutting tools and the grain of the wood.
The artist's design was therefore destroyed, a fact which
should be borne in mind when offered as an original a
drawing of which prints are known to exist, thus proving it
to be a reproduction. II

Japanese Colour-Prints

There is, of course, the converse of this, as there are in
existence to-day original drawings which were never used
for the production of prints therefrom, as, for example,
certain designs drawn by Hokusai for the " Hundred Poets "
series, but not found as prints. (See note. Appendix II.)
To economize wood both sides of the block were en
graved, the back being used either for another stage of the
same print or for a different print altogether.
From the outline or key-block a series of proofs were
taken, on one of each of which was painted by the artist the
part or parts of the print to appear in each separate colour ;
from each proof so painted was cut an equivalent block,
though if two colours were widely separated they might be
put on one block.
When all the required blocks were cut they were then
passed on to the printer, who painted the colours on the
block with brushes, thus making possible that delightful
gradation of colour which is one of the charms of these
colour-prints. A sheet of damped paper was laid on each
block in turn, and the impression rubbed off by hand with
a rubber or pad called a " baren." Correct register was
obtained by means of an angle cut in one bottom corner of
the block and a straight edge in the other. A single com
plete print was not printed off at a time, but several im
pressions were taken off each block in turn until it became
necessary to recharge it with colour. Each impression being
taken in proper rotation, all colours are of equal intensity.
The reader may ask why it was necessary to have a separate
block for each colour, instead of applying all colours on one
block. The reason is that if done so, the colours would run
into one another, and those first applied would dry before
12

How Colour-Prints were Produced

the painting was completed, and in consequence would give
a weak impression compared with those applied last.
The whole process, therefore, was hand-work in the
fullest sense of the word, and was vastly superior, both
artistically and technically, to any modern facsimile repro
duction. Strictly speaking, those prints are not prints as under
stood in the modern sense, since no printing press was used,
and the colours are not from inks, but from paints mixed
with rice-paste as a medium. The process was really a
method of producing a painted drawing in large numbers
from a hand-coloured block.
There has recently grown into vogue a certain amount
of prejudice against Japanese colour-prints, on the ground
that they are as mechanical as chromos. But since, as stated
above, the whole process of production is hand-work in the
fullest sense of the word, the Japanese print is a perfectly
legitimate form of art, and it can in no way be compared
with modern mechanical reproductions. True, the work
of the engraver was purely mechanical in that his sole pro
vince was to reproduce, line for line, and dot for dot, the
design given him by the artist. But, at the same time, it
meant a manual dexterity which lifted his work far above
the level of that produced by any machine, while no
mechanical process could take the place of the printer's
hands in the application of the colours and give such charm
ing results.
These prints were produced almost entirely by the
artists of one school, the " Ukiyoye," or popular school of
painting. This school had its beginnings in a movement
which arose in Yedo, in the seventeenth century, for a
13

Japanese Colour-Prints

pictorial art which, freed from the age-long traditions and
conventions of the classic Tosa and Kano schools of paint
ing, should satisfy the artistic longings of the masses, to
whom these schools were closed.
The Tosa school, founded early in the thirteenth century,
formed the courtly school patronized by the Mikado and
his Court ; they depicted mainly Court scenes and battle
subjects. The Kano school, on the other hand, founded in
the second half of the fifteenth century, and upholding the
Chinese style of painting, was the special care of the Shoguns,
the real rulers of the country, the Mikado being the spiritual
head, but devoid of any power, and little better than a
prisoner in his capital.
Both these schools, therefore, were in the nature of
rivals, but both gradually fell into a state of decay. Both
followed certain fixed conventions ; the realistic portrayal
of contemporary life, such as the Ukiyoye school depicted,
they considered vulgar.
The artist who first broke away from these traditions to
evolve a style of his own was Iwasa Matabei (i 577-1 650),
an aristocrat by birth, who studied first in the Tosa school,
but later went over to the Kano school. To him was first
applied the epithet Ukiyo (" passing world "), a term
gradually extended to all the artists who followed his lead.
Matabei and his immediate followers worked only as
painters, and it is not unlikely that their abandonment of
ancient classic forms for popular subjects would not in
itself have been sufficient to popularize their work, had it
not been for its subsequent alliance with the hitherto little-
developed art of wood-engraving, which was used in a
somewhat primitive style for the illustration of books.
14

How Colour-Prints were Produced
Through this conjunction of artist and wood-engraver
in the time of Hishikawa Moronobu (1638-1714), in the
second half of the seventeenth century, was found the means
of producing designs in sufficiently large numbers, and at a
low enough cost, to enable even the poorly paid artisan to
satisfy his artistic cravings. The origin of the Japanese
colour-print, as we know it to-day, is another instance of the
truism that necessity is the mother of invention.
Without the developments brought about in the time of
Harunobu, and attributed to a certain engraver and printer,
the art of the Ukiyoye school might have remained restricted
to the few, instead of being a source of pleasure to thousands.
" It must be granted that the colour-prints of this school
constitute the fullest and most characteristic expression
ever given to the temper of the Japanese people." . . . "The
colour-print constitutes almost the only purely Japanese
art, and the only graphic record of popular Japanese life.
Therefore it may be regarded as the most definitely national
of all the forms of expression used by the Japanese — an art
which they alone in the history of the world have brought
to perfection." (A. D. Ficke, in Chats on Japanese Prints.
London, 191 5.)
It is thanks, also, to this discovery of a means of rapid
and cheap reproduction that so many prints have survived to
delight the art-lovers of to-day. When we remember the
frail nature of these prints, the numerous fires which con
stantly broke out in Japanese towns and villages, the uses
to which they were often put, as decorations on paper par
titions, screens, fans, kites, or otherwise treated as mere
ephemera, their production must have been enormous for
so many to have survived for our delectation. It is indeed
15

Japanese Colour-Prints

surprising that any examples of the work of the early
masters should have survived so long at all, from the days
when the output was comparatively small. It probably
reached a maximum during the closing years of the
eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries.
With rare exceptions the artists of the Ukiyoye school
were drawn from the artisan class, for whose delight they
designed these prints, and were consequently ignored by
the upper aristocratic class, the subjects they presented
being beneath the dignity of a noble or samurai. As a
consequence, the Japanese taste for prints was hardly
existent when Europe and America first discovered them,
until it was too late, and they woke up to find them carried
off by the foreign dealer and collector.
It was not until the time of Harunobu (1725-1770),
about the year 1760, that the multi-coloured print,, in which
the colours were impressed from blocks as distinct from
colour applied by hand to the print itself, came into being,
thanks to improvements discovered by a certain printer and
engraver in the art of colour-printing, chiefly in connection
with the accurate register of the same sheet on several
blocks. Previously the outline print had been sparingly
coloured by hand or, as a development from this initial
stage, at first one-colour and then two-colour blocks were
introduced. Harunobu, therefore, may be regarded as the originator
of the polychrome print as we know it to-day, the fore
runner of a long line of artists of varying ability, many,
indeed, of those belonging to the period of the decline, to
wards the middle of last century, producing work of little
16

How Colour-Prints were Produced
or no artistic merit. The best period lay between the years
1760 and 1825 '•> ^ft^*" t^is, with the exception of the work
of Hokusai and Hiroshige, it rapidly declined to extinction
upon the death of the latter in 1858. An offshoot of the
Ukiyoye school was formed by the Osaka school, founded
about 1820 by the pupils of Hokusai and Kunisada. It
produced actor portraits and theatrical subjects, and also,
more particularly, surimono.
The art of the colour-print artist seems to us all the
more wonderful when we remember that, at the time these
prints were being produced in Japan, Europe had only the
coarsest of picture books and the roughest of wood-cuts to
show as an equivalent, while they were sold in the streets
of Yedo for a few pence. Could their artists have foreseen
the prices which their work commands to-day they might
well have dropped dead from astonishment.
Even at the present day no Western pictorial art can
approach the artistic excellence, in composition, line, and
colour, of these prints produced a hundred to a hundred
and fifty years ago ; and it is to be regretted, from an artistic
point of view, that the art has been so completely lost.
A new school of artists has, however, sprung up in
recent years, but their work bears the obvious stamp of
having been produced for export, and tends to mere pretti
ness of the chocolate-box order.
The best that can be said for this school is that it shows
an improvement, at least in colour, over the very bad work
of the opening years of the Meiji period (i 868-1 880), when
the designs were the veriest travesties of the old work of
Ukiyoye, though following, in a remote way, its traditions.
The modern school has improved upon the crude and glaring
c 17

Japanese Colour- Prints

colours of the early Meiji period, but they do not compare
with those of a hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago.
The influence of European art is shown in the greater
variety of subjects illustrated, and in the disappearance of
the old conventions which have yielded to realism. The
engraver shows the same skill in reproducing the artist's
design, but there is not the same boldness of outline, nor
are the blocks cut so deeply.
Landscape, as such, as Hokusai and Hiroshige de
picted it, has disappeared, but at the same time it enters
largely into other compositions. Perhaps the best colour-
print artist of the modern school is Ogata Gekko.
Yoshitoshi, pupil of Kuniyoshi, was the last artist of the
old Ukiyoye school, and his long life (1839-1892) embraced
the period which saw the extinction of the old school and
the estabhshment of the new. In his prime (c. 1875) he
was easily the foremost artist, and enjoyed wide popularity.
In the revival of colour-printing by the methods em
ployed by the Ukiyoye school, the chief difficulty, even
after the requisite skill in cutting the block has been ac
quired after years of patient labour, seems to be in the
actual printing. Such European and American artists as
have produced prints more Japanico have always been
obliged to employ a Japanese printer to take the pulls.
As a test, a collector known to the writer gave an original
outline block to an English printer to try his skill on ; the
resultant print was little more than a smudge. Doubtless
he used modern printing inks, which would be too thin a
medium on a block intended for paint thickened with rice-
paste, and would consequently run. (See note, Appendix IL)
18

How Colour-Prints were Produced
No art has had such a meteoric career as that of the
Japanese colour-printer. Taking 1745 as the earliest date
of the true colour-/)n«f, in which the colour was impressed
from a block as distinct from colour applied by hand to the
print itself, it reached its zenith during the period of
Kiyonaga and his contemporaries down to the death of
Utamaro in 1806.
It remained more or less at its high level of excellence
till about 1825, after which date the decline set in surely
and steadily, ever hastening with greater rapidity to its
downfall as each year passed. For a brief period the advent
of Hiroshige arrested the decline, but his genius only threw
into sharper relief the inferior work of his contemporaries,
who almost without exception began to copy him, in com
pliance with the insistent public demand for prints h la
Hiroshige. It became practically, if not actually, extinct
upon the death of Hiroshige in 1858.
Thus we see that the art rose, flourished, and finally de
clined within the space of a little more than a century, a
period almost equalled sometimes by that of a single life
time. The practical extinction of the art of colour-printing in
Japan was due to various contributory causes : the decline
in artistic taste of the common people, who were satisfied
with coarse actor-portraits and shrieking colours ; the higher
cost of living towards the middle of last century — low as it
was according to European standards — so that the artisans
could not produce them at the price people were accus
tomed to give for them; a demand for things European,
coupled with a neglect of their own arts ; these finally
brought aboiit the extinction of the Ukiyoye school. Also»
19

Japanese Colour-Prints

the revolution of 1868, when the whole country was in a
turmoil, gave the death-blow to the old Tokugawa feudalism,
and under its ruins buried all art and humanity, inaugurating
an era of gross materialism and one most inartistic. It is
hardly surprising, therefore, that the artists, under such
conditions, failed to obtain sufficient support, and were, in
consequence, obliged to seek a livelihood elsewhere.
" Ancient culture and modern civilization are mutually
exclusive notions ; Japan has chosen the latter path. . . .
That choice, however, compelled her to renounce her past
completely, more completely even than Europe, which has
been spared such an abrupt transition." (Von Seidlitz, in
History oj Japanese Colour-Prints)
While, no doubt, the technical skill has survived, it has
¦been nullified by the use of imported European aniline
colours, while the soft, fibrous, and silky nature of the
paper has also gone.
Such, in brief, was the career — short but glorious — of
the school of artists which has given us the most beautiful
pictorial art ever created, an art, too, evolved and perfected
by a purely artisan class.
One may look in vain through an art gallery or an
academy exhibition to find a single picture possessing even
one of the first principles of true art. Any old Japanese
colour-print, which originally sold for but a few pence,
perhaps, in the streets of Yedo, will possess them all : per
fect in composition, line, form, and colour.
" There are no coloured engravings in the world that
may be compared with those of Japan in the long period
from the coming of Torii Kiyonaga to the passing of
Toyokuni ; the eye is beguiled by a brush stroke of
20

How Colour-Prints were Produced
ineffable calHgraphic beauty and by a tender harmony of
colour that cheers but never wearies the senses. In most
of the popular broadsides of this time an almost feminine
gentleness pervades the choice of motive and its treatment.
... As schemes of dramatic decoration they are scarcely
to be passed, and have rarely been equalled ; and the time
is not far distant when the sheets which brought to artist
and engraver the pittance of a mechanic, and were sold for
a vile price in the streets of Yedo, Osaka, and Kyoto, will
rank in the estimation of the collector with the masterpieces
of the engraver's art." (W. Anderson, in Japanese Wood-
Engravings. London, 1895.)

21

m ON THE FORMATION AND
CARE OF A COLLECTION
GROWTH OF INTEREST IN
JAPANESE PRINTS
COST OF FORMING A COLLECTION
THE LANDSCAPE PRINTS OF HIROSHIGE
HOW TO REPAIR AND MOUNT PRINTS
THEIR VALUE
THE CARE OF A COLLECTION
PUBLIC v. PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
CATALOGUING A COLLECTION

CHAPTER III
ON THE FORMATION AND CARE OF A COLLECTION
THE collecting of old Japanese colour-prints, for
merly the hobby of a select few, is to-day finding
an ever-increasing number of votaries. As their
beauty and charm become more widely appre
ciated, so do more art-lovers desire to possess them. The
result is that prices, particularly for prints by the early
masters — ^known as the Primitives — and for rare examples
of later artists, have been greatly enhanced within recent
years, so that to form a collection of the first rank, nowadays,
would require very ample means. Added to this is the
fact, already referred to in our introductory chapter, that
collectors in this country, owing to the later period as com
pared with French and American collectors, at which the
serious study of these prints was first taken up in England,
have a more limited field of choice.
The would-be collector, however, whose means are
limited, need not at once conclude that it is hopeless for
him to gratify his desire to acquire these artistic treasures.
No art covers so wide a field as that of the Japanese colour-
print, nor can any other offer such a varied choice, so that
almost any taste and any purse can find material where
with to form a collection.
By the exercise of care, and by seizing opportunities as
they occur, a collection can be formed for a relatively modest
25

Japanese Colour-Prints

outlay which will be a perpetual source of pleasure to its
owner and his friends. The one point to bear in mind is
that discrimination is the essence of all collecting ; aim at
acquiring copies as near their pristine state as possible,
unless a print is some great rarity, when a relatively inferior
copy, that is somewhat faded or discoloured, is preferable
to none at all. Many a collection has been improved by
throwing out the inferior choices of early days.
Again, personal taste is of more moment than mere
value. To some, Sharaku's actor-prints, which are ex
tremely rare and cost anything over thirty pounds apiece,
will appear as masterpieces to be had at all costs ; others
will think them merely ugly caricatures, and much prefer a
good landscape by Hiroshige at three pounds.
It is of course desirable, as far as one's means will allow,
to have examples of all types and periods, even by relatively
minor artists, for the sake of study and comparison. When
one has acquired, as a foundation, a collection of, say, a
hundred and fifty to two hundred prints of moderate price,
up to five pounds each, one can then become more dis
criminating, and purchase only an occasional fine example
by such artists as Kiyonaga, Shuncho, Koriusai, Harunobu,
Yeishi, Shunsho, and so forth, and the rarer prints of
Hokusai and Hiroshige.
H. Davison Ficke, in his Chats on Japanese Prints, gives
the following advice to the collector. He gives a list of
thirty-two artists as being amongst the most notable, and
says : " Each one in the list is important, and a collection
that contained even one fine example by each of these de
signers would represent very fairly the whole scope of the
art. In fact, ihe beginner will not go jar astray ij at the
26

On the Formation and Care of a Collection
outset he conjines his purchases to the work oj the men here
listed. ..."
While this advice is perfectly sound up to a certain
point, we beg leave to criticize more particularly that state
ment in it which we have italicized on the following grounds.
Of the thirty-two names in the Hst more than half are so
rare that many a collector has had to wait several years
before the opportunity has occurred to acquire even a single
example of their work ; to others, perhaps, the oppor
tunity has never come. It also presupposes that the be
ginner is not hampered in his choice by being obliged to
restrict his expenditure, but is prepared to give fifty pounds
or more for a single print, if necessary. Of the remaining
names, four can be readily acquired by a beginner, viz.
Hiroshige, Hokusai, Toyokuni, and Utamaro. Four others,
Kiyonaga, Harunobu, Toyohiro, and Yeishi, require the
exercise of patience and opportunity in varying degree for
their acquisition.
We consider it would be more practicable for the be
ginner to start his collection with good examples of the
lesser artists, and then later, with these as a basis, to become
more discriminating, and restrict himself to the really im
portant masters in Mr. Ficke's list, otherwise he may be
many years in making a beginning. Also, to start a collec
tion by only acquiring the masterpieces presupposes a
knowledge and discrimination which a novice cannot have,
and which can only be acquired by experience.
It is but fair, perhaps, to quote Mr. Ficke further, as
he makes it clear, however, that to obtain examples of the
thirty-two artists he mentions is not an easy matter. He
says : "A collection containing a really brilliant example
27

Japanese Colour-Prints

by each of these thirty-two men would cost from three
hundred to three thousand pounds to bring together, de
pending upon the quality and importance of the prints
selected." At the same time, we still consider his advice
more suitable to the mature collector than to a novice.
Though Mr. Ficke's book was published in this country,
it embodies the views and aims of American collectors, and
is more particularly addressed to them. For reasons stated
in an earlier chapter, American collectors are more fastidious
in what they admit to their collections, and have better
opportunities than their confreres in this country for the
exercise of this discrimination.
The period at which the Japanese colour-print was at
its best, the golden age of the art, lay between the years
1765 and 1825, that is, from the time of the invention of
the true polychrome print about 1764, under the sway of
Harunobu, down to the death of Toyokuni I. Excellent
examples of the work of this period can still be obtained at
quite moderate prices, some of course much more easily
than others ; but a collector should have little difficulty in
acquiring a fairly representative set of prints issued between
these dates.
The writer's experience is that, amongst non-collectors,
the impression prevails that the collecting of Japanese prints
is an expensive hobby, and many would-be collectors are
consequently afraid to indulge their artistic tastes therein.
To remove this conception is one of the objects of this
volume. As stated at the opening of this chapter, Japanese prints
can be had at all prices, from a few shillings to many pounds.
While the low-priced prints contain much worthless
28

On the Formation and Care of a Collection

rubbish, excellent landscape subjects by Hiroshige can be
obtained for two to five pounds, provided discrimination is
used, as there is much work bearing his signature on the
market printed ajter his death, which is better avoided.
A comparatively cheap print, provided it is a genuine
old one and in good condition, is preferable to a modern
reproduction of a rarity.
It is difficult to give any general indications as to what
should be paid for prints. Much depends on circumstances,
and everything on condition. According to its state, a
print might be worth fifty pounds, five pounds, or only two
pounds. The writer has had excellent first edition copies
of prints by Hiroshige offered him at ten to twenty shillings
each, for which twice or thrice that sum has been given in
an auction sale ; but the collector who obtains a really fine
Hiroshige print from one of his rarer series in good con
dition for less than three or five pounds is lucky.
Recently, that is during the last year or two, good
Hiroshige landscapes have been fetching high prices in the
auction room, and prints which formerly went for twenty
or twenty-five shillings now change hands for double, or
more than double, that sum. This applies more particu
larly to his Tokaido views ; the rarer series have always
fetched comparatively higher prices.
There is an enormous number of inferior Hiroshige
prints in existence which, from an artistic point of view, are
of very little value. So great was the demand for his work
as a landscape artist (due chiefly to the fact that, for a certain
period, from 1842 to 1854, prints of courtesans and actors
were forbidden by law) that, in order to produce prints in
sufficient quantities, the printing was hurried, so that the
29

Japanese Colour-Prints

outline and colours did not register, neither were the colours
well graded.
Again, many of his prints were reprinted in subsequent
editions after his death, when the blocks had become worn
through constant use, or were recut from an old print, and
when European aniHne colours were becoming much used
in Japan. Such late editions and reprints can be readily
detected by the coarse outlines and vicious, staring colours.
Prints of this nature will frequently be met with in his
" One Hundred Views of Yedo " series, almost the last
work he executed. Copies of the first edition, in fine state,
are comparatively rare, and out of the total of ii8 prints
in the complete set only about a third of them can be de
scribed as masterpieces in which the design, printing, and
colouring, are excellent. The majority, unfortunately, are
very inferior, and are evidently the work of his pupil,
Hiroshige II, whose aid he sometimes called in, as it is im
possible to imagine from their crudeness that they can be
the work of the great master. These remarks also apply to
certain views in his last series, " Thirty-six Views of Fuji,"
a series which he did not live to complete, and also, perhaps,
in a lesser degree to his " Sixty-nine Provinces " (1856),
and " Views on the Tokaido " (upright, 1855). This last-
named series, however, is generally recognized nowadays as
mainly the work of Hiroshige II, though the master signed
it when completed. This fact accounts for the poor design
and colouring of many of the prints in it, weU and carefully
printed copies being rare ; whereas poor ones, with crude
colouring, are common. One of the best scenes in this
series, when well printed, is the view of travellers entering
the village of Fuji Kawa under snow. Another very good
30

On the Formation and Care of a Collection
snow scene is the view of Numazu, showing a landscape
under deep snow dominated by the peak of Fuji, the con
trast being effected by a blue stream winding through the
village and two brightly hued figures in the foreground. A
third good scene in this series is that showing station Chiryu
(reproduced at Plate 5 in the author's On Collecting Japanese
Colour-Prints). Mr. Happer, of New York, the well-known authority on
Hiroshige, was the first collector to investigate thoroughly,
chiefly by the date-seal found on each print, the question
of the authorship of the various upright series signed
Hiroshige. Previously it was thought all vertical prints so
signed were by Hiroshige II, but this view is now pretty
generally abandoned.
Prints in which some large object, such as a tree-trunk,
the mast of a ship, the body and legs of a horse, is thrust
prominently into the foreground, blotting out the view, and
thus spoiling the whole effect of the picture, may generally
be ascribed to Hiroshige II. Prints of this nature often
occur in the " Hundred Views of Yedo " series, which,
being the most extensive, contains a larger proportion of
the pupil's work. His best contribution to this set is
Plate 48, Akasaka Kiri bata, which he supplied to later
editions to take the place of the original block by Hiroshige,
which was accidentally damaged or destroyed, probably by
fire. It is signed " Hiroshige 2nd," and is considered his
best work so signed. It may also be distinguished from
the first edition, which is very uncommon, by being a rain-
scene. In all the foregoing series first edition copies only are
those worth collecting, later issues being of little value,
31

Japanese Colour-Prints

either materially or artistically. First edition copies in
perfect state are comparatively rare, whereas later and in
ferior impressions outnumber them at least fifty to one,
perhaps a hundred to one. The former may be recognized,
firstly, by having the publisher's seal and the date-seal upon
them ; secondly, by being carefully printed and the colours
well graded. Later impressions also often have an entirely
different colour scheme, while the repellent harshness of
the colours betray them at once.
In the " Hundred Views of Yedo " series, the seals will
be found on the margin of the print. Sometimes, as when
prints of this series have been mounted in a book, the
margins will be found to have been trimmed, thereby en
tirely or partly cutting off the seals ; an otherwise perfect
impression may thus be spoilt.
And here let us add a note of warning : never cut or
trim prints in any way. Torn or rough edges may be
covered by a mount ; holes in the print itself can be patched
from the back, and for this purpose an old worthless print
can be kept from which pieces of the right colour can be
cut wherewith to make repairs. But beyond this a print
should not be touched in any way, and if the collector con
fines himself to selecting only copies in a good state of
preservation, there should be no necessity to do more.
Dirty or creased prints are improved by immersion in
water, but they should only be left in long enough to be
come soaked right through. When wet they should be
handled very carefully, else they are easily torn, particularly
if they are very thin. They should then be allowed to
drain, and afterwards spread out to dry on a flat surface,
such as a clean sheet of white cardboard. When dry, it will
32

On the Formation and Care of a Collection
be found all creases have disappeared. If pressed between
two pieces of board, some of the colour will soak out. Most
colours are fast, but the blue in the later prints of Hiroshige,
and the purple often found in prints by Utamaro and
Toyokuni, are liable to run, particularly the latter colour.
Surimono, which contain colours from metals, and which
sometimes have a very delicate blue tint, known as surimono
blue, should not be wetted at all. (See note. Appendix II.)
But the novice should not touch a print in any way nor
attempt repairs unless he is quite sure beforehand what he
is going to do and how he is going to do it. If at all un
certain of what results may be, he should practise on an
old worthless print kept for making repairs with. But if a
print requires touching up in any way, it is best to leave it
in the hands of some one competent to handle it. Even
the apparently easy process of mounting a thin print on
another sheet of Japanese paper, to strengthen it, is by na
means as easy as it sounds if it is to be done smoothly.
In mounting prints, the print should be lightly pasted
at the two top corners to a sheet of good drawing-paper,
and a white board mount put over it with an opening to fit
the print, size 22 in. by 15 in. This is the most effective
method of mounting prints which are to be framed ; but
as one's collection increases and the prints are kept in port
folios or cases, such mounting will make them very heavy,
and necessitate several cases in which to keep them.
It is then better to put them between a folded sheet of
thick drawing-paper, with an opening cut in the top sheet
to show the print ; this will effect a great saving in bulk
and weight.
It is a mistake to paste down each edge of a print to its
D 33

Japanese Colour-Prints

mount, in order to keep it smooth and flat. This procedure,
owing to the print and the mount being unequally affected
by the dampness of the atmosphere, does not always have
the desired effect ; while a future collector into whose hands
the print might come might object to this treatment, and
injure the edges in separating them from the mount.
But the chief objection to this practice is that it prevents
an examination of the back of the print, an important point
when testing for genuineness. It is sufficient to very lightly
paste down the two top corners only ; the paper can then
be properly examined, if necessary, and the print can be
detached easily without injury.
Owing to their size when complete, triptyches are best
kept separately like single prints, and so mounted that they
can be put side by side to show the complete picture when
being inspected.
Seals, and other marks on the margin of a print, outside
the picture itself, should not be covered up, but the mount
should be cut to show them.
In the " Sixty Odd Provinces " series the seals appear
sometimes on the print itself, and sometimes on the margin.
First edition copies have the publisher's seal, date-seal, two
small round inspector's (or censor's) seals, and, in some
views, the engraver's seal. Very early impressions will show
the marks of the engraver's tools on the block, and the
grain of the wood. (See note. Appendix II.)
The vertical " Tokaido " set has the date-seal and
publisher's seal on the print itself, as has also the " Thirty-
six Views of Fuji " series.
Though this latter series is dated on each plate 1858, it
was not, so the Preface tells us, pubHshed till 1859. It
34

On the Formation and Care of a Collection
further states that the designs were received in the spring
of 1858, that Hiroshige died in the autumn of the same
year, and that this series was published as a memorial to
him. The set, however, was not complete when received
in the spring of 1858, and some of the plates were un
doubtedly supplied later by Hiroshige 1 1.
While on the subject of date-seals, it should perhaps be
pointed out that the seal hy itselj does not necessarily prove
a print to be a first edition copy. Many dated prints, par
ticularly in the " Hundred Views " series, are met with
which, by the poor printing and crude colours, cannot be
first edition copies. As the date-seals were cut on the block
at the time it was engraved, and not stamped on the finished
print after being " pulled " from the block, the date thereon
is no evidence as to the time of printing.
A dated print, therefore, should be judged by its con
dition to determine if it is a first edition or not ; that is to
say, the printing should be well done, the colours carefully
graded, and not staring aniline dyes. At the same time, a
collector who sets out to obtain a complete set of a series
must not expect to find even all first edition copies of
uniform excellence ; the masterpieces are, unfortunately,
few. This may have been due to the artist superintending
the printing of those views only which pleased him most,
or which he thought would be more popular.
To revert to the question of prices, experience is the
only real guide as to what should be paid for any particular
print. Provided a print is in good condition, colours fresh,
outHne sharp, paper not discoloured nor worm-eaten, it is
as a rule worth its price. Fresh colours, however, are not
in themselves evidence of an early impression. As a block
35

Japanese Colour-Prints

required continually recharging with fresh colour, a very
late impression might easily show good colour : one should
look instead at the sharpness of the outline.
Poor copies, in which colours are badly faded or the
printing is faulty, or in which other defects are apparent,
are best left alone, unless the print is some rarity, when
moderate defects may be overlooked, though of course the
reason for its rarity should be kept in mind.
Thus, Kunisada's portrait of Hiroshige is rare because
such copies as are in existence are highly coveted by col
lectors by reason of the subject, and therefore rarely change
hands. This particular print, therefore, is rare by reason
of the subject it portrays, and not because it is by Kunisada,
whose prints are amongst the commonest.
A print by an artist not in the first rank, or by one of
whom little or nothing is known, even though examples by
him are very uncommon, is not necessarily of a high value.
Thus, work by Yeishin (an example by whom is illustrated
in the coloured frontispiece to On Collecting Japanese Prints,
by the author), a pupil of Yeishi, which is considerably rarer
than that of his master, is not rated at as high a value as its
scarcity and merit would lead one to expect.
In the same way, the collector may be fortunate to pick
up an example by Choki for a sum very modest in com
parison to the rarity of his work, notwithstanding the fact
that he is a foremost artist. His very rare silver-prints,
however (that is, prints with a silver background), are very
highly treasured, and must be numbered amongst those
desirable art objects which the average collector will prob
ably never have the opportunity to acquire.
Fashion seems, in some degree, to determine the value
36

On he Formation and Care of a Collection
of certain prints. There will, perhaps, be a boom in a par
ticular artist at one time ; yet at another values will drop
for the same examples. The Great War at first affected
prices, so that, on the average, they were lower than before
its outbreak, while at the same time competition was less
keen ; but recently prices have been on a rising scale, as
has been the case with art objects other than Japanese prints.
The rarer and really fine prints, however, will always fetch
their price, and will always increase in value as time goes
on. The writer, however, does not, on this assumption,
advocate collecting as a source of investment. While, no
doubt, a collection made with care and discrimination will
also prove a good investment from a material point of view,
if these prints are not acquired for the pure pleasure of their
beauty and charm, they are better left alone. Otherwise
the perception to sift the good from the bad will be lacking,
and without such discrimination no collection is likely to
give any real pleasure to its owner or ever be worth
much. The two chief points to be considered in the value of a
collection are (i) rarity of the specimens, and (2) their
condition. As to (i) rarity is not, as is often imagined, a question
of age, but of quantity. Many people seem unable to grasp
this simple fact, but think that because a print is old it
must be rare, and therefore very valuable.
Rarity, however, in its turn, must not be confounded
with value, a quality which often depends on the foibles of
fashion, or because a particular artist happens to be in vogue
at the time, quite apart from the rarity, or otherwise, of his
work. It sometimes happens, therefore, that a relatively 37

Japanese Colour-Prints

common print will fetch a higher price than another scarcer
example. The collector should remember, however, that the second
quality — condition — is the more important of the two, and
he should aim rather at obtaining prints in as fine condition
as possible in preference to rarities. Should he have the good
fortune to procure a print combining both qualities, he will
have attained the highest desideratum of every collector.
Though there are collectors — but their numbers are
dwindling — ^who prefer faded or discoloured prints, because
of the mellowness thereby imparted to them, this point of
view is, we think, a mistaken one. The chief object of a
collector should be to obtain prints as near as possible in
the pristine condition in which they left the printer's hands,
so that we may see in them the artist's individuality. To
prefer discoloured or badly faded prints (slight fading due
to age is not detrimental, as the colours all tone in an equal
degree) to fresh ones is akin to choosing a piece of cracked
porcelain in preference to a perfect specimen.
Certain colours, however, particularly in prints by the
earlier artists, undergo a complete transformation in course
of time. Thus a certain blue may change to yellow ; pink,
one of the most fugitive colours of any, fades altogether.
White — but rarely used — and a certain red, both made from
lead oxide, turn black with exposure. A rose-red, used in
the early two-colour prints, like that illustrated at Plate B,
may turn a yellowish tinge.
Surimono, in which colours were employed made from
metals, e.g, silver, gold, and bronze, are even more suscep
tible to light, and extra care should be taken to preserve
them in all their original brilliance,
38

KIYOMASU : Theatrical trio (print in hoso-ye form). (See page 213.)

Plate B] Lface page 38

On the Formation and Care of a Collection
For this reason, therefore, it is best not to keep prints —
at least, not the better examples in a collection — hanging on
a wall for any length of time, and under no circumstances
to allow bright sunlight to fall on them. If a collector wishes
to decorate his walls with them, they should be hung where
no bright sun will fall on them, and they should consist of
comparatively cheap examples, of which large numbers exist,
so that should they fade in course of time, no particular
material or artistic loss is occasioned.
The better and more valued treasures in a collection,
particularly if they are unusually good copies, should be
kept out of the light in portfolios or suitable cases. For the
collector should remember that he is laying by treasures for
future generations ; that these prints represent what is
practically, if not actually, a lost art ; and that as time goes
on they will become scarcer and scarcer. Upon the care,
therefore, expended upon their preservation to-day will
depend the enjoyment of art-lovers of future generations.
It is, perhaps, to be regretted that every year an in
creasing proportion of the number of prints still in existence
find their way, either by purchase or bequest, into public
museums and institutions, where they do not, as a rule,
receive the care which is their due.
If they are hung in galleries exposed to sunlight they
fade, and will in time disappear altogether. The general
public pass them by as something they neither appreciate
nor understand, largely because they lack guidance or in
struction ; while the interested inquirer is left to wade as
best he may through a chaotic mass of often loose and un
mounted prints.
This opinion, that prints are better in a private collection 39

Japanese Colour-Prints

than in a public museum, has been criticized on the ground
that there are many people of taste who cannot afford to be
collectors, and who manage to get much real pleasure out
of a museum. The writer would be the last person to
quarrel with this statement, but, unfortunately, while
museums are most appropriate for the display and study
of art objects in general, they are not, for reasons given
above, suitable for the display of colour-prints unless special
precautions are taken for their preservation.
Beyond the exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
towards the close of 1913, of a selection of prints from the
Harmsworth collection, the writer cannot recall any other
occasion within recent years when a really representative
exhibit of Japanese prints has been made in a public museum
or institution. The ordinary visitor, for example, to the
British Museum might traverse the whole building without
knowing such prints existed, the collection therein only
being shown to the interested inquirer,
A representative collection might well be exhibited at
both institutions for a few months at a time and then changed,
care being taken to protect them from too strong a light.
But it is essential all prints be fully described, with the
artist's name and subject illustrated, otherwise no general
interest is aroused, and people pass them by as something
beyond their comprehension. (See note. Appendix IL)
Americans recognize much more fully than we do that
educational work is an important function of a museum,
and that the preservation of rare and beautiful objects is
not its sole purpose. A museum should help the pubHc
who visit it to enjoy its treasures, instead of gazing at them
as mere curiosities which, in nine cases out of ten, they do
40

On the Formation and Care of a Collection

not understand. The institution of an official guide in the
British and South Kensington Museums is a step in the
right direction towards making the national treasures better
appreciated, Mr. Ficke, already quoted above, expresses similar
opinions as the writer as to the desirabiHty of prints being
in private collections rather than in a public museum. He
says : "In public collections the prints are of service or
pleasure to almost nobody ; while in the private collections
their service and pleasure to the owner and his friends is
great, and the same opportunities are easily opened to any
one who is qualified to profit by them. Therefore it seems
better that, upon the death of a collector, his prints should
be sold ; in order that, as Edouard de Goncourt directed
in the case of his collection, those treasures which have been
so great and so personal a delight to the owner may pass
on into the hands of such others as will find in them the
same satisfaction." " ' My wish is,' he wrote in his will,
* that my prints, my curios, my books — in a word, those
things of art which have been the joy of my life — shall not
be consigned to the cold tomb of a museum ; . . . but I
require that they shall all be dispersed under the hammer
of the auctioneer, so that the pleasure which their acquisi
tion has given me shall be given again ... to some
inheritor of my own taste.' "
As to the best method of cataloguing a collection, par
ticularly one which is being added to from time to time, the
writer, after trying various methods, has found a loose leaf
book (size 4 in. by 7 in.) the best, in which each print has
one page allotted to it, containing all information, such as
title, when and where obtained, and so forth. Each print
41

Japanese Colour-Prints

as acquired can then be entered in the catalogue in its proper
place, under its particular artist, and in its correct series, if
it belongs to a set such as Hiroshige's " Tokaido " views,
or Hokusai's " Views of Fuji," Abbreviated particulars are
also entered on the bottom of the mount under the mat,
and prints are numbered consecutively as acquired.

42

IV FORGERIES, IMITATIONS
AND REPRINTS

MODERN REPRODUCTIONS AND
THEIR DETECTION
CREPE PRINTS

CHAPTER IV
FORGERIES, IMITATIONS, AND REPRINTS
AS is the case with ahnost anything a person may
coUect as his fancy dictates, the collector of old
L^ Japanese colour-prints has to be on his guard
against forgeries, reprints, and modern repro
ductions. There is nothing to be said against reprints or repro
ductions, which are honestly sold as such ; the danger is
they may be used by the unscrupulous to deceive the unwary,
and the object here is to show how they may be distinguished
from the genuine article. Instances are not wanting where
certain reproductions have been made with such skill that
experts have been deceived by them, until an accidental
comparison with an undoubted genuine copy has revealed
the fraud.
But instances such as this are rare, and are confined to
prints whose rarity (and consequently higher value) make it
worth while to go to the considerable trouble and expense
involved to produce a facsimile such as will deceive the
cleverest. In such instances it will be noticed that great
care has been taken to imitate the colours, not as they were
when the genuine print was first issued, but as they should
be to-day, faded and softened in the course of time, thus
rendering their detection more difficult. The average re
production, however, is generally so obvious once its defects
45

Japanese Colour-Prints

have been learnt that no collector need be deceived by it.
A golden rule is, if at any time suspicious of a print, yet
unable to say exactly why, but feeling by intuition that there
is something wrong with it, discard it.
Reproductions, then, are prints taken from a modern
wood-block cut from an original print, or from a photo
graphic process block. Generally the former process is the
one employed.
Reprints are prints which have been taken from an
original block, but so long after the block was cut that the
outline is coarse and defective and the colouring poor,
usually from modern aniline dyes.
So long as any of the old blocks are in existence, such
reprints are always possible, but comparatively few of the
many thousands which were engraved exist to-day for such
use. It is simpler to make reproductions.
Reprints, however, are not a modern invention ; it is
known the Yedo publishers sometimes sold their discarded
wood-blocks to publishers in another town, who skilfully
recut them where badly worn, and sold prints from them.
As such prints were naturally issued after the death of the
artist who originally drew the design for them, they were
often artificially aged by exposing to the fumes of charcoal,
by means of tea-stains, and dirt. In the absence, therefore,
of clear evidence (e.g. a Yedo publisher's mark) as to
genuineness, discoloured and worm-eaten prints should be
suspect. Forgeries are, as the term implies, prints produced in
the style and bearing the signature of some well-known
artist, done either during his lifetime by a rival artist, or
after his death.
46

Forgeries^ Imitations^ and Reprints
Practically the only guard against forgeries, particularly
against those done during an artist's lifetime, is a close study
of his work in prints about which there is no question as
to their genuineness, whereby the collector will discern at
once, by the characteristics of the drawings, whether it is
the work of the master or that of an imitator. Forgeries,
however, are rare, and are confined to the work of com
paratively few artists. Utamaro, owing to the great popu
larity he enjoyed, suffered considerably in this respect, so
that he was obliged, for the sake of his reputation, to some
times sign himself " the real Utamaro." However, he only
used this signature on prints which had his especial approval,
and consequently it is not often met with.
The old publishers did not hesitate to forge the signature
of an artist whose prints were in great demand upon prints
by another which did not sell so readily. This was accom
plished by cutting out of the block the real artist's signature
and letting in a fresh piece of wood in exactly the same
place with the forged signature of another designer. So
neatly was this done that the finished print showed no sign
of the block having been tampered with.
To supply the demand for prints by Utamaro, pubHshers
employed the pupils of his school who made use of his
signature. But every artist has his own idiosyncrasies, as
revealed in the pose of a head, the drawing of the features,
the fold of a robe, or the curve of a finger, which cannot be
exactly copied, and which distinguishes his own work from
that of his imitators.
In the same way the collector must learn to distinguish
between the work of different artists who used the same
artistic name, though not at the same time, as such would
47

Japanese Colour Prints

have been contrary to professional etiquette. Sometimes
when an artist assumed another artistic name he bestowed
his former name upon his chief pupil, as a recognition of
merit ; or, as was more common, the leading pupil adopted
the name of the master upon the death of the latter. Such
is the case with Toyokuni, a name which was used by at
least five different persons, thus carrying it down to quite
recent times. With only three, however, are we concerned
here, whose work appears to be confused, one with the
other, to some considerable extent.
Toyokuni I died in 1825 5 Kunisada, his pupil, adopted
the name in 1844. There is, therefore, at least nineteen to
twenty years' interval between the prints of these two bear
ing the signature of Toyokuni, and in this interval prints
underwent considerable change in drawing, and particularly
in the colour-scheme employed. Toyokuni's colours are
soft and pleasant compared to Kunisada's, which, by 1845,
were becoming crude and harsh. Another distinguishing
mark is that Kunisada's signature of Toyokuni is frequently
enclosed in a cartouche, a device never employed by his
master. It is not, however, so easy to distinguish between
Toyokuni and his other pupil — and adopted son — Toyoshige,
though close study will reveal their different characteristics,
Toyoshige, on the death of his master, married his widow,
and adopted his name, which he used for the remainder of
his career.
The majority of his prints were produced within this
period, and are signed either '* Gosotei Toyokuni " (in
which case no confusion is caused), or merely " Toyokuni."
In this latter case, as his prints are much more akin to his
master's both in style and colouring, it is sometimes difficult
48

TOYOKUNI.

Manzai (New Year) Dancers.

2. The Actors Ichikawa Omezo and Onoy^ Matsu-suke
in character. (See page 2\7.)

Plate C]

[face page 48

Forgeries^ Imitations^ and Reprints
to say which of them is the real artist. Toyokuni I's
signature, however, is generally more carefully written,
and familiarity with their respective scripts will enable the
collector to distinguish between them fairly readily, Kunisada
never recognized the claims of Toyoshige as Toyokuni II,
as he frequently signed himself " the second Toyokuni."
To revert to modern reproductions and their detection,
both the paper on which they are printed and the colours
used form a fairly ready means by which they can be dis
tinguished from the genuine old print. Old prints are upon
a peculiar paper difficult to describe, but easily recognized
with practice, while their soft, mellow colours are almost
impossible to imitate. Thanks to modern processes of re
production, the outline of an imitation can be, line for line,.
exactly like the original ; but even if the paper should be a
close imitation, the colours at once proclaim its modernity
and afford the safest guide to genuineness. They are flat
and muddy in hue, and lack the soft brilliance of the old
colours ; in fact, the difference is usually so marked that it
seems hardly likely that any one with an eye for colour and
harmony would be deceived by them.
The writer has noticed, however, that many people judge
the age of a print solely by its appearance ; that is, if it is
fresh and clean they put it down at once as quite modern ;
if faded and discoloured, it must be old. Such individuals
seem unaware of the fact that if there is one thing easier
than another to imitate, it is age. Freshness, apart from
any other evidence, should never be regarded as a sign of
recent printing, any more than discoloured paper, faded
colours, or damaged condition, such as worm-holes, are
necessarily the adjuncts of an old print. Such, indeed, are
E 49

Japanese Colour-Prints

the first devices the forger calls to his aid to deceive the un
wary. Another source of error in judging the age of a print
solely by its appearance Hes in the water-lines which appear
in old prints in good, clean condition, and which can be
seen in any " laid " paper of present-day manufacture.
Prints as far back as 1700 have these water-lines in them.
The water-Hnes in modern paper merely represent the
attempt of the present-day manufacturer to copy the
Japanese, because genuine Japanese paper is recognized as
being the best in the world.
The freshness of a print is due to the fact that it has
spent the greater part of its existence stored away with
others as stock copies, that is, remainders of unsold editions,
and has only been brought to light long after it was printed-
The " remainders " of a modern book publisher is no new
expedient for disposing of surplus stock. Also it should be
remembered that, except for a few specially chosen prints,
the Japanese did not expose their pictures, as we do, on the
walls of their houses, but they spent the greater part of
their existence stored away, and were only brought forth to
be looked at on some very special occasion, or for the benefit
of an honoured guest. The prints, however, of some special
favourite, as Utamaro or Yeishi, were frequently used to
decorate the paper screens and partitions which are such a
feature of the Japanese home. They consequently suffered
considerable wear and tear in course of time, and became
discoloured by the fumes from the charcoal fires used for
cooking and warming. The writer has seen more Utamaro
prints damaged in this way than those of any other artist,
in some cases the outline and colour having disappeared
altogether and leaving only the black mass of a coiffure.

Forgeries^ Imitations^ and Reprints
If an old print be held up to the light and looked at
through the back, the whole picture will be seen as clearly
as from the front ; in a modern one, only the patches of
colour will appear. This is due to the fact that the old
paper was absorbent.
The grace and beauty of composition, the excellence in
the sweep of the lines, the rich and glowing, yet perfectly
harmonious colours, which are characteristic of all old prints,
are lacking in modern ones.
In this category (i.e. of modern work) should also be in
cluded prints issued between the years 1865 ^"^^ 1880, in
which the technique employed was the same as in genuine
old prints. Such prints, by their crude and glaring colours
made from aniline dyes, and often careless printing, which
shock every artistic sense, may be at once dismissed as
worthless. Sometimes, however, the actual printing is very
good, the outline being sharp and the register perfect,
showing that the technique employed could be as excellent
as formerly, but was nullified by the bad colours used.
It was also about the year i860 that the print on cr&pe
paper first made its appearance, a large number of the later
prints of Kunisada, and of his innumerable pupils, being
treated in this fashion. Doubtless the process was adopted
in order to counteract in some degree the viciousness of the
crude colours used from this date onwards, as it certainly
has this effect. Modern reproductions are often treated in
the same way.
The creping process is carried out on the print itself,
several being treated at the one time, and has the effect of
reducing it in size by about one-fifth. If a print so treated
is damped and then carefully rolled out, it will resume its
51

Japanese Colour-Prints

original size, and the process is remarkable in that every
detail of the design is preserved to an extraordinary degree,
the reduction being carried out equally in every direction
without the slightest distortion.
It is just the prints of the latter half of the nineteenth
century of which there is such an abundance to-day, and
against which the novice should be warned, as he is apt
otherwise, in his newly formed enthusiasm, to imagine that
such constitute the famous old colour-prints of Japan,
Such, also, are the prints that a collector who goes to
Japan is likely to pick up, when he would do better to con
fine his activities to London, Japan itself has been ran
sacked long ago by collectors and art dealers from Europe
and America, who have left behind only the late and worth
less specimens. The Japanese did not realize, thirty to forty
years ago, what art treasures they were allowing to leave
the country for a mere song ; and now, all too late, they are
regretting their loss, and are endeavouring to buy back at
far higher prices, both for private and public collections,
the prints they once sold for a few pence.
The result is that, on the average, prints fetch consider
ably higher prices in Japan to-day than they do in London,
though the finer and rarer examples probably realize equally
high values in any country where there are collectors.

52

ARTISTS OF THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL
KIYONOBU TO UTAMARO

CHAPTER V
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ARTISTS OF THE
UKIYOYE SCHOOL
THE total number of colour-print artists, from the
commencement of the school down to i860, lies
between two hundred and fifty and three hundred
names. This large number includes artists of
varying degrees of ability and productivity, and, considering
the relatively short life of the school, gives us an idea of its
wide popularity ; but the number with which the collector
need concern himself is considerably less than this total —
a collection which contained examples by half this number
would be a very large one.
For example, the Happer collection sold at Sotheby's in
1909, one of the largest private collections ever put up to
auction, contained prints by 182 different artists. The
Swettenham collection, another very large collection, sold in
191 2, was representative of a hundred artists ; while of the
Baker and Hilditch collections, sold in 1916, the former
contained examples by about a hundred and the latter by
about eighty artists.
The art is generally divided into three or four periods :
(i) the Primitives, from the foundation of the school by
Matabei to the invention of the true polychrome print in
the time of Harunobu {c. 1765) ; (ii) the second period,
from 1765 to the death of Utamaro in 1806 ; (in) the third
55

Japanese Colour-Prints

period, 1806-1825 ; and the fourth, the decline from 1825-
1860. A fifth period, known as the downfall, from i860
onwards, might be added ; but the work of this period is so
inferior that it hardly merits attention except, perhaps, from
the historical point of view.
Of the above periods, the second and third represent
the colour-print at its best, the first being mainly one of
development. It is not proposed in these pages to do more than give
a brief summary of the principal artists such as are familiar
to collectors. Detailed historical accounts of them and
their work are given in other volumes on Japanese prints,
whereas we are more concerned with the subjects they por
trayed. Some names, however, cannot be omitted even in
a brief survey such as this, on historical grounds, even
though their prints are to-day very scarce, and but rarely
met with. Other artists, again, confined themselves to
illustrating books, a branch of print designing somewhat
outside our scope.
Amongst the Primitives, Matabei and Moronobu have
already been mentioned. There is also Torii Kiyonobu
( 1 664-1 729), the founder of the Toru sub-school, a school
which applied itself chiefly to theatrical subjects. He is said
to have first been a designer of the large posters or sign
boards placed outside theatres, and also to have invented
the style of scenery still in vogue on the Japanese stage.
Kiyonobu was followed by Kiyomasu (i 679-1 762),
probably his younger brother, whose work to-day is rare.
With regard to Kiyonobu, however, there are in exist
ence prints in two colours, red and green (like that repro
duced at Plate B from a print by Kiyomasu), coloured from
56

1 . SHUNZAN : Centre sheet of triptych. A group of
ladies in a garden by a lake ; signed Shunzan ;
publisher, Yeijudo.

Plate 1]

2. toyohiro : Left-hand sheet of a triptych. Two
ladies and children watching archers at practice ;
signed Toyohiro ; publisher, Yamada-ya.

[iace page 56

Artists of the Ukiyoye School

blocks which are signed Kiyonobu, but which must be the
work of a second artist of this name, as the first died in
1729, some years before the generally accepted date of the
first two-colour print, i.e. c. 1740, It is generally supposed
that prints signed only " Kiyonobu " are by the second
artist of this name, while the first always signed in full,
" Torii Kiyonobu,"
The third head of the Torii school was Kiyomitsu (1735-
1785), son of Kiyomasu. His work forms the connecting
link between the two- and three-colour print ; though he
lived well into the polychrome period of Harunobu, practi
cally all his work is of the former type, so that he must have
ceased designing early in life. Like other Primitives, his
prints are rare, and are in hoso-ye form, or as pillar prints,
of which latter he was one of the chief exponents. The
beginner should perhaps be warned that Kiyomine, the fifth
master of the Torii school, sometimes signed himself
Kiyomitsu ; but as he used the full palette of colours
common at his time, and as his style is quite different, it is
easy to distinguish his work from that of the original master.
A print by him, with this signature, is reproduced at
Plate XXVIII in the handbook to the Victoria and Albert
Museum collection, and the following plate shows a print
by the first Kiyomitsu ; these clearly show the different
characteristics of these two artists.
Kiyomine's pupil and son, Kiyofusa, who died as recently
as 1892, called himself the third Kiyomitsu on the death of
his master in 1868 ; but no prints by him have come under
observation, neither has the writer seen any mention of his
work. Contemporary with the Torii school was the Okumura 57

Japanese Colour-Prints

school, founded by Okumura Masanobu (1685-1764), one
of the most eminent of the early artists. He was at first a
bookseller and publisher, and during his life as a colour-
print artist used other names. Hogetsudo is, perhaps, the
most frequent, in addition to that by which he is generally
known. He is said to have invented the lacquer-print, in
which lacquer is used to heighten the colours, and his prints
are remarkable for the richness of effect produced with only
the use of two colours in addition to the black of the outline
block. These early two-colour prints are always in green
and red, but the latter colour is liable to turn a yellowish
tint in course of time. A two-colour print reproduced in
Von Seidlitz's History oj Japanese Prints at page 6 shows the
effect produced by this change ; while our Plate B, from a
print by Kiyomasu (c. 1745), which has preserved its original
tints to a remarkable degree, gives an excellent idea of the
beauty and richness of effect which these early artists were
able to produce with such simple means. Prints by
Masanobu are very scarce,
Ishikawa Toyonobu (1711-1785) was another important
artist of this period, whose later work carries us into the
second period. It should be noted that there were two
artists of this name, the second being Utagawa Toyonobu,
said to have been a pupil of the first. As he died very
young, his prints are extremely rare. It was his brother,
Toyoharu, who founded the Utagawa sub-school. Another
pupil of Ishikawa Toyonubu is Ishikawa Toyomasa (worked
1 770-1 780), with whom the representation of children was
a favourite subject.
We now come to Harunobu, who, by making full use of
improvements at this time discovered by a certain printer
58

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
and engraver in the art of colour-printing, brought into
being the true polychrome print. He shunned actors, whom
he despised, and turned his brush to the portrayal of women.
Most of his prints are a small, almost square size, and are
the earliest examples in which a background is introduced.
We have already referred to forgeries. Harunobu only
worked as a colour-print artist about ten or twelve years.
During the Meiwa period (i 764-1 771) there was a great
demand by the public for his prints, and after his death
Shiba KOKAN (1747-18 18) was employed by his publisher
to imitate them. This he did, usually not signing his pro
ductions, but sometimes signing them " Suzuki Harunobu."
He also imitated Harunobu over the signature of Harushige,
thus pretending, by using the prefix " Haru," to be his
pupil. The a/vowed work of Kokan is very uncommon,
and he is remarkable for his attempts at copper-plate en
graving, which he learnt from the Dutch,
Shiba Kokan wrote his memoirs, which were published
after his death, and he therein boldly states that he had
forged many of the most popular prints signed " Harunobu."
If Kokan could deceive the public of his day, it is hardly
to be expected that we shall be any cleverer in the twentieth
century ; but the collector may rest satisfied with the
thought that what was good enough to deceive the art-
loving Japanese in 1765 is good enough for him, and that
Kokan must have been a consummate artist.
What the collector, however, should be on his guard
against are modern forgeries of Harunobu, who is one of the
few artists who have been forged or reproduced during the
last twenty years or so to any extent. The chief warning
against them are the muddy colours; but in suspicious 59

Japanese Colour-Prints

cases it is better, if possible, to compare them with un
doubted genuine examples.
Almost as famous as Harunobu is Koriusai, who worked
from 1760-1780, and who is best known by his long, narrow
pillar-prints {hashira-ye), measuring about 27 inches by
5 inches. As these piUar-prints were intended for internal
decoration and use, to hang on the pillars {hashira) of a
house, far fewer in proportion have survived to our day
than is the case with the ordinary full-size sheet. Doubtless
a large number were lost in the fires which broke out so
frequently, and with such widespread destruction, in
Japanese villages and towns ; and that so many prints have
survived at all to delight the art-lover of the twentieth
century is probably due to the fact that they were not, as a
rule, kept in the living rooms, but were stored in a go-down
outside the house or in a cellar.
Consequently these pillar-prints are very rare. Apart
from their beauty, the wonderful talent displayed in the
amount of composition, yet withal without crowding, por
trayed on a sheet but five inches wide, excites our admira
tion for the designers of these narrow prints. Koriusai was
one of the few cases of an artist of the Ukiyoye school who
was not of the artisan class. He was a samurai, or feudal
retainer to a daimyo, and, on the death of his master became
a ronin, that is unattached, and took up the calling of an
artist as a means of livelihood. In signing his prints, he
sometimes dropped the final syUable of his name, putting
only " Koriu."
Katsukawa Shunsho (i 726-1 792) is another important
artist, whose work consists almost exclusively of actor por
traits, often in hoso-ye form, which are not very rare, thanks
60

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
to his large output, but vary in quality. An example of his
work in this form is shown at Plate 26, and represents the
actor Sawamura Sojuro as a pedlar, with his pack on the
ground behind him. His prints are sometimes unsigned,
when, in place of a signature, they are impressed with a seal
in the form of a jar,
A distinguished follower of Shunsho 's is Ippitsusai
BuNCHO {w. 1 764- 1 796), but his prints are exceedingly rare.
We now come to Kiyonaga (1742-18 15), who became
the fourth head of the Torii school, and in whom, and his
immediate followers and contemporaries, the colour-print
reached its highest excellence.
Though Kiyonaga was a pupil of Kiyomitsu, he very
early in his artistic career abandoned the traditional actor
print of the Torii school, and only took to it again at the
close before retiring altogether from the domain of print-
designing. It is in Kiyonaga that we see the portraiture of
women raised to its highest level, a level equalled only by
Shuncho : women at their daily occupations, promenading
out of doors, or portraits of the most famous beauties of
the " green houses."
It was he, also, who first developed the three- and five-
sheet print into a single design, though it is noticeable that
frequently each sheet is complete in itself, and can be shown,
as a separate unit, according to choice, yet the full effect
of the artist's intention is only apparent in the whole com
position. Previous to the time of Kiyonaga, the hoso-ye
prints of the Primitives were originally printed in sets of
three and then divided, three being engraved on one block
as a matter of convenience. Of course, a complete set of
such hoso-ye prints in the form of an uncut triptych is
61

Japanese Colour-Prints

extremely rare. Such a print, however, appeared in the
Blondeau collection (sale April, 19 lo) in a hoso-ye triptych
by Kiyomitsu, representing three pairs of lovers, each under
an umbrella. In the Happer sale there also appeared three
hoso-ye prints from the one block, but these had been
divided. Kiyonaga evidently developed the idea shown in the
hoso-ye triptych to a triptych composed of three full-size
sheets, each printed from their own set of blocks, and
capable of being shown either singly or joined together to
form a complete picture.
Mention has been made that Kiyonaga did Httle work in
designing actor or theatrical subjects compared to his por
traiture of women.
Towards the close of his career, however, he did a
well-known set of theatrical scenes, with two and sometimes
three actors, in character, in the foreground, and musicians
seated in the background.
Like Koriusai, Kiyonaga was one of the chief exponents
of the narrow pillar-print, and the average collector will
find these less difficult of acquiring than his full-size sheets,
though to obtain anything by him requires a considerable
amount of patience.
Owing to the position he occupies amongst Ukiyoye
artists, collectors are loth to part with such examples of his
work as they may possess. Even a somewhat discoloured
print by Kiyonaga will fetch £5 to ^^ ; while a good, clean
copy win be worth ;{ji5 to 3(^20, up to more than double
this sum, according to its importance ; a fine triptych will
probably mean an expenditure of anything from ^50 up
wards, and for the average collector may be considered as
62

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
practically unprocurable, so rarely do such come into the
market. Though Shuncho (Katsukawa) was a pupil of Shunsho,
as is shown by the prefix " Shun " to his name, yet
he would be more correctly described as a follower of
Kiyonaga, as, like the latter, he portrays beautiful women.
In fact, so akin is he to Kiyonaga that in the case of un
signed work it is sometimes difficult to say as to which
of these two artists it should be assigned.
If anything, Shuncho's work is even rarer than
Kiyonaga's ; he worked between the years 1770 and 1800,
and is said to have lived to about 1820,
Another pupil of Shuncho's studio, who followed Kiyo
naga rather than the style of- his master, was Katsukawa
Shunzan, who worked between 1776 and 1800, but his
prints are very scarce.
The same may be said of Shunko, a late pupil of Shunsho,
whose prints are also very uncommon. He worked during
the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and his signature
must not be confused with the Shunko signature of Shunsen,
which is written differently, To distinguish between these
two, this Shunko may also be read ShunSm, Examples of
both Shunzan's and Shunko 's work are illustrated by single
sheets from triptychs at Plates i and 2,
A fourth artist who followed the style of Kiyonaga, hut
who was trained in another studio, was Kubo Shunman
(w, 1780-1800), pupil of Shigemasa, a very rare artist, whose
output was chiefly in the form of book illustrations.
Von Seidlitz says Shunman was also a pupil of Shunsho,
but it should be noted that his method of writing the
63

Japanese Colour Prints

character for " Shun " is quite different from the form
in which Shunsho and all his recognized pupils wrote it.
Shunman's prints are very rare.
Other pupils of Shunsho who carried on their master's
traditions are (i) Shunyei (1762-18 19), by some rated even
higher than his master ; he is noted for his actor portraits
in hoso-ye form (see Plate 26), and also for his representa
tions of wrestlers (see Plate 28), a subject very few artists
attempted, and of which he was the chief exponent.
(ii) Katsukawa Shunko (worked c. 1760-1790), who, like
Shunsho, also used a jar-shaped seal in lieu of signature on
some of his prints. The " ko " of this Shunko is written
in a different character from that of the Shunko mentioned
above, who is sometimes described as Shunko II,
A pupil of Shunyei, with examples of whose work the
collector is likely to meet, is Katsukawa Shunsen, who
worked between the years 1790 and 1820. He designed
both figure studies and landscapes, employing a very
pleasing colour-scheme of rose-pink, apple-green, and a
slatey-blue. Another pupil was Katsukawa Shuntei (1770-
1820), who produced actor prints and wrestlers,
Shunsen, as already mentioned, used the signature
Shunko on his early prints, and should not be confused
with the other artists who used this name, both pupils of
Shunsho, He also added the name Kashosai to the signa
ture of Shunsen,
Utagawa Toyoharu (1733-1814) chiefly claims atten
tion as the founder of the Utagawa sub-school, and as the
pioneer of purely landscape drawings in the Ukiyoye. It
was one of his pupils, Toyohiro, who trained the great
Hiroshige, with Hokusai, the greatest landscape artist of
64

 Artists ofthe Ukiyoye School
Japan ; and another pupil, Toyokuni, had innumerable
followers, so that the Utagawa school was the most numerous
of any, and carried the art, though in a very debased form,
down to modern times. Toyoharu 's prints are very rare.
Upon the retirement of Kiyonaga from the field of
colour-print designing, we enter upon the period of
Utamaro (i 754-1 806) and his contemporaries. Utamaro
was the son and pupil of Toriyama Sekiyen, a painter of
the Chinese school, and was one of the most graceful and
popular of the Ukiyoye artists. He is among the best
known to European collectors, his being the first colour-
prints to be seen in Europe, and is famous for his beautiful
figure studies of women, which place him in almost the
first rank of Japanese artists. At first Utamaro 's work
very closely followed that of Kiyonaga, and the example
of this period here illustrated in our frontispiece shows
clearly the influence of the latter artist.
Towards the end of his career, however, Utamaro's
figures lose much of their grace by reason of the exaggera
tions he employs, drawn out as they are to an impossible
length, till one expects to see them collapse altogether.
The Utamaro style is thus well described by Von Seidlitz
in his History oj Japanese Colour-Prints : "He created an
absolutely new type of female beauty. At first he was
content to draw the head in normal proportions and quite
definitely round in shape ; only the neck on which this
head was posed was already notably slender. , , . Towards
the middle of the tenth decade these exaggerated propor
tions of the body had reached such an extreme that the
heads were twice as long as they were broad, set upon slim
long necks, which in turn swayed upon very narrow
F 65

Japanese Colour-Prints

shoulders ; the upper coiffure bulged out to such a degree
that it almost surpassed the head itself in extent ; the eyes
were indicated by short slits, and were separated by an
inordinately long nose from an infinitesimally small mouth ;
the soft robes hung loosely about figures of an almost
unearthly thinness."
About the year 1800 these exaggerations were still
further increased, so that the head was three times as long
as broad, and the figure more than eight times longer than
the head. Most of his large head studies date at this
period. His triptyches, however, of which he produced a large
number, do not show these exaggerations, except that the
figures are very tall, and quite unlike any real Japanese
woman. This trait, however, was common to practically
all artists who portrayed the human figure, and was more
or less an artistic convention as an expression of idealism.
It would also appear that the size of a figure was governed
largely by its importance in the general composition as the
central figure of the design, rather than in proportion to its
surroundings, Utamaro's signature is one of the first with which a
collector will become acquainted, as it is one of the easiest
to recognize. His early work can be distinguished from
his later by the form of the signature, apart from the differ
ences in the drawing of the figures already noted. In the
former it is small, compact, and carefully written ; in the
latter it tends to sprawl, is written larger, and the character
for "Uta" is finished off with a long tail, which does not
appear in his early work. The print reproduced in our
frontispiece shows his early form of signature. It is his
66

1 . shunko (or Shunbeni) : One sheet of a triptych.
Street scene at night ; two women passing by an
archery-shooting gallery ; signed Shunko ; seal-
dated for 4th month, 1807.

Plate 2]

2. CHOKI : One sheet (No. 1) of a pentaptych. " Evening
Cooling " ; women preparing a meal on a large
pleasure boat on the Sumida River ; signed Chokf ;
publisher, Tsuta-ya.

[face page 66

 Artists of the Ukiyoye School
later straggling form which is found on prints done by his
pupils and imitators. Both Toyokuni and Yeizan are said
to have forged some of Utamaro's prints, signature and all.
Owing to the manner in which his prints were forged
by contemporaries, Utamaro sometimes signed himself
" Shomei Utamaro," that is, the real Utamaro, thus signify
ing particular approval of his own work, but prints with
this form of signature are very rare, A print so signed is
illustrated at Plate 36.
Utamaro is best known by his figure studies of women,.
but he also drew landscapes, bird, animal, and flower
studies, and a large number of book illustrations.
He had numerous pupils and followers, who may be
classed as the Toriyama school, taking the name from
Toriyama Sekiyen, the teacher of Utamaro.
At his death in 1806, his pupil, Koikawa Shuncho„
married his widow, an apparently not uncommon proceed
ing with pupils — Gosotei Toyokuni, for example — and
assumed the name of his great master till 1820, when he
changed it to Tetsugoro.
Many prints signed Utamaro are undoubtedly the work
of this second Utamaro, and it is sometimes difficult to say
which of them. Generally, however, the difference in the
drawing of the figure and face affords the clue, and some
times the prints are seal-dated, which determines their
origin at once, though in this respect it should be noted
that sometimes a print is met with, dated a few months
ajter Utamaro's death, which, by its characteristics, would
seem to be the work of the master rather than that of the
pupil. Thus the writer has in his collection a print signed
67

Japanese Colour-Prints

Utamaro, and forming one of a series entitled " Seven
Designs for Genji Pictures Compared," the " designs "
being actually portraits of Yoshiwara beauties. This print
is dated 6th month, 1807, that is thirteen months after
Utamaro's death (5th month, 1806). Recently another
print of the same series, also dated 1807, has come under
observation, but is unmistakably the work of an artist
superior to the designer of the first-mentioned, displaying
as it does the brush of the master. It is not improbable,
therefore, that the pupil completed certain series left un
finished by Utamaro himself, the date being engraved on
the blocks at the time of publishing. In the same way
Hiroshige the Second completed series left unfinished by
Hiroshige himself, as for example, his set of " Views of
Fuji." Another, and perhaps the best pupil and real successor
to Utamaro, was Shikimaro {w. i 790-1 805), whose work is
graceful and with pleasant colouring. Mention should also
be made of Kikumaro {w. 1789-1829), who, after about
1795, changed his name to Tsukimaro, Other pupils may
be identified by. the suffix " maro " to their names.
As mentioned in a former chapter, forgeries, imitations,
and modern reprints of Utamaro's work are rather common,
particularly of some of his famous and rare triptyches.
Thanks to his large output, genuine Utamaro prints are not
very difficult to obtain, but of course examples of his earlier
and better work are less readily procured than, his later
output. It is not easy, however, to find copies in first class
condition, the paper being often discoloured by exposure
to the fumes of charcoal, which of course considerably
reduce their value. This was due to their having been at
68

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
one time used to decorate screens and paper partitions in
Japanese houses,
Utamaro prints are worth from three to five pounds
upwards, according to their importance and condition, till
we reach his fine triptyches at ^20 or 3^30, up to ,£100 for
a fine copy of a very rare example, while ,(^300 has been asked
for a well-preserved set of his famous " silkworm " print,
complete in twelve sheets. This print represents the whole
process of the production of silk, from the raising of the
silkworm to weaving the material, and is one of his prints
which has been extensively forged or reproduced.
Another famous and very rare print which has also been
reproduced is his triptych showing women diving for shell
fish. Other well-known prints by Utamaro will be found
mentioned in Chapter XVIII.
A follower, if not actually a pupil, of Utamaro, whose
work to-day is very rare, but who deserves mention by
reason of its very graceful quality, is Shunkyosai Ryokoku.
He worked about 1795, and his large head studies are
particularly fine, Yeizan's large heads of about 1805 are
extraordinarily like those of Ryokoku, both in drawing and
colour-scheme, though the latter is, perhaps, a trifle less
conventional in drawing the features, A fine example by
Ryokoku is herein illustrated at Plate 35, and another
excellent one is shown, full page, at Plate XIX in the
Catalogue of the Tuke Sale, at Sotheby's, in April, 1911,
Toriyama Sekiyen trained one other artist of the first
rank, Yeishosai Choki (p. 1785-1805), also known as Shiko»
a name which he adopted towards the end of his career.
Opinions, however, on this point appear to differ, though
the balance seems to be in favour of Choki being his earlier
69

Japanese Colour-Prints

name. This view is borne out by the fact that work so
signed is more after the style of Kiyonaga, while that over
the signature of Shiko more closely follows Utamaro, whose
style did not come into vogue till after the retirement of
Kiyonaga, about 1795, though the latter outlived Utamaro
by nine years. Owing to this difference of style it was at
one time thought that Choki and Shiko were two different
artists, though practically little is known of him but what
we can gather from his prints, but these are very rare.
The signature Ch5ki may also be read Nagayoshi, but
the former is the name by which he is more generally known,
though continental collectors appear to prefer the latter
transcription. A print by him over the signature Choki is here repro
duced at Plate 2, from a print forming one of a set of five*
showing ladies on a large pleasure boat on the Sunoida
River. On this sheet. No, i of the set, are depicted women
preparing the evening meal.
There is also another artist who signed Shiko, known as
Shiko II, who worked about 18 10, and who was probably
a pupil of Choki. His signature differs slightly from the
Shiko signature of Choki. (See note, Appendix IL)

VI

ARTISTS OF THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL
(conUnued)
TOYOKUNI TO KIOSAI

CHAPTER VI
ARTISTS OF THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL— (continued)
UTAMARO'S principal rival, particularly towards
the end of his (Utamaro's) career, was Toyokuni
(1769-1825), the chief pupil of Toyoharu.
Toyokuni's early work consists mostly of
studies of women, thus following the style of Utamaro.
After the death of the latter he turned his attention to
actors, and at one time was looked upon as the actor-painter
of Japan. His best work is considered his series of actor-
portraits in hoso-ye form, issued about 1800, but all his
early work is good. After Utamaro's death, however, he
confined himself to large actor-portraits almost entirely,
and from this date his work began to deteriorate, his actors
eventually becoming little better than caricatures, with their
exaggerated features, squint-eyed, long-nosed, and wry-
mouthed, exaggerations which were carried to repulsiveness
by his pupil Kunisada.
Toyokuni's powers as the designer of actor-prints will
be more fully considered in a later chapter dealing with
actor-portraits in general as a subject of illustration,
Toyokuni's output was prolific ; but this designation
chiefly applies to his later work, of which much survives
to-day. His early work is comparatively rare, and may be
distinguished, apart from the better quality of the work,
both in drawing and colouring, by the signature being more
73

Japanese Colour-Prints

carefully written, and in smaller characters. At Plate C,
Nos, I and 2, are reproduced examples of Toyokuni's work
at his best, showing that it could be amongst the finest
designed by the Ukiyoye school. Illustration No, i shows
the small, carefully written script of his early signature,
combined with graceful and natural figures.
Attention has already been drawn to the various artists
following Toyokuni who adopted his name, and the way in
which they may be distinguished both from one another
and from Toyokuni himself.
Toyokuni's prints being fairly numerous, prices range
from twenty to thirty shillings or so for relatively un
important single sheets, to 3^5 or £^ for good examples of
his early work, up to ,^40 or ,^60 for particularly fine trip
tyches. A rare pentaptych, or five-sheet print, will, perhaps,
be worth ^^80 to £100.
Toyohiro (i 773-1 828) was a fellow-pupil of Toyokuni.
His chief claim to fame lies in his having trained the great
Hiroshige ; as an artist he was far out-distanced in popu
larity by the much more productive Toyokuni. While the
latter devoted himself to actors, Toyohiro followed his
master's preference for landscapes ; but owing to his com
paratively small output, his prints are rare.
Toyohiro rarely, if ever, drew actors or courtesans ;
these he left to Toyokuni, a fact which may account for the
latter's great popularity, and, in consequence, large output
to meet it. Such figure studies as Toyohiro drew are
aristocratic ladies, and the scarcity of his prints is very
likely due to his unwillingness to descend to depicting
actors and courtesans, subjects he considered beneath him.
His work is of a quality equal to, if it does not surpass,
74

YEISHI : A lady, followed by her maid, turning to look at a courtezan
with her boy-attendant ; signed Yeishi ; one of a series of
" Twelve Months," this for the eleventh.

Plate 3] [face page 74

L'l  _ __.^ ^-

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
that of Toyokuni at his best, while at the same time he did
not allow it to deteriorate in the manner that the latter did
in his efforts to cope with the demand for his prints.
Toyohiro was better satisfied to attain a high artistic level
and keep it so, rather than lower it for the sake of gaining
cheap popularity. The result is his figure studies have a
charm and gracefulness which put him almost, if not quite,
on a level with Yeishi or Utamaro, while his colours are
beautifully soft and harmonious.
In the early days of their career {c. 1800), Toyohiro and
Toyokuni collaborated in certain series. Plate i (No. 2) is
a sheet of a triptych showing two ladies and their children
watching men at archery practice, from a set entitled
" Twelve Months, by Two Artists," this one being for the
third month, by Toyohiro.
Another contemporary with Utamaro, and an artist
whose work is of charming delicacy and refinement, was
Hosoda Yeishi, who worked between the years 1780 and
18 10. He is another of the few instances known of a print-
designer not being of the artisan class, Yeishi being origin
ally a samurai who first studied painting in the aristocratic
Kano school, with the result that his prints are more delicate
and refined than were those of most contemporary and later
Ukiyoye artists. His figures, also, are more natural than those
of Utamaro and do not exhibit the latter's exaggerations.
Many of his prints have a beautiful pale yellow back
ground, and the collector is lucky who comes across one of
these prints to-day in all its pristine loveliness. Unfor
tunately, this pale yellow is liable to fade with age, unless
in the past it has been carefully kept from over-exposure
to the light. 75

Japanese Colour-Prints

The subjects he portrayed are beautifully attired ladies,
in various light occupations.
He also did a series of small, almost square prints, about
the same size as a surimono, also with a pale yellow back
ground, depicting the popular courtesans of the day on
parade with their attendants. He likewise designed some
remarkably fine triptyches, examples of which number
amongst a collector's greatest print treasures, and in conse
quence are rarely in the market. Such, needless to say,
fetch very high prices.
Lesser prints by Yeishi fetch about the same price as
similar examples by Utamaro, but as his output was con
siderably less — at least far fewer have survived till our day
— ^the average value of his better prints is higher. But even
a relatively minor print by Yeishi has so much charm that
an opportunity to obtain an example should not be missed.
Modern reproductions of prints by Yeishi are very
common, particularly of one by him, full size, showing a
tea-house beauty, Kisigawa of Matsuba-ya, seated, and
facing to the right, looking at a partly unrolled makimono ;
on the background is a small panel with flower decoration.
The collector should carefully examine all prints signed
Yeishi, Yeishi was the founder of a sub-school, the Hosoda
school, and had a large number of pupils, of whom the most
important were Yeisho, Yeisui, Yeishin, Yeiri, and Gokyo,
all of whose work is rarer, in some instances considerably
rarer, than that of Yeishi himself.
Hosoda Yeiri must not be confused with Rekisentei
Yeiri who worked about 1810, The former often signed
himself " Yeiri, pupil of Yeishi," to avoid this confusion,
76

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
Yeizan (Kikugawa) has already been referred to as a
rival and imitator of Utamaro, He was a pupil at first of
his father, Kano Yeiji, and worked as a colour-print artist
between the years 1804 and 1829. His large heads, after
the style of Utamaro, are very fine, but his later work, when
he took to copying Kunisada's full-length figures of
courtesans, are not so good. They tend to become exag
gerated, as Kunisada's were, and overloaded with design,
and are the work of an artist who became a pure copyist,
without any originality of his own to work upon, one print
being very like another.
Owing, however, to the fact that he ceased designing
colour-prints about 1829, ^^^^^ which date he turned his
attention to literature and the illustrating of books, his
prints never exhibit the crude colouring of Kunisada's later
work. Taken all round, Yeizan deserves a higher place
amongst the Ukiyoye artists than he is generally given. He
may have followed other artists, and had little originality of
his own, but his early designs are boldly drawn, graceful,
and his colours are good.
Yeizan's work is fairly easily obtained, and in good con
dition, as he produced a large number of prints. Many of
them are seal-dated, and any up to 1810 are good, but his
late work {c. 1 820-1 829) follows too much the exaggerated
and over-dressed figures of Kunisada.
The print by Yeizan here reproduced at Plate 5 is of
particular interest, apart from being one of the earliest
examples of his work, for the following reason,
Shojo KioSAi (1831-1889), the last artist of the old school
of print-designers, has left a book, complete in four volumes,
called Kiosai Gwadan, " Pictorial Life of Kiosai," which
77

Japanese Colour-Prints

contains an index to all the principal artists of Ukiyoye, and
in which are reproduced characteristic studies from their
drawings, showing their particular style. The various
scripts in which they wrote their signature at different
periods of their career are also given, so that by comparing
any print with the reproduction in this book, its approximate
date can be fixed by the signature thereon, Yeizan is repre
sented by the head and shoulders of the figure study in this
print, so that it must be considered a particularly good
example of his work.
Another artist of this period, somewhat similar in name,
is Keisai Yeisen (i 789-1 848), Von Seidlitz wrongly states
him to be a pupil of Yeizan, owing no doubt to the fact
that the first syllable of both their names is Yei. Yeisen,
however, was a pupil of Hakukeisai, the last half of whose
name he took for his first, Keisai, Also the styles, both in
colour and design, of Yeizan and Yeisen differ too much
for the latter to have been a pupil of the former. Again,
Yeisen was a more original designer than Yeizan, and did
both landscapes and figure studies, whereas Yeizan con
fined himself to the drawing of women, though he often
used a landscape background in his triptyches, Yeisen's
best work was done in landscape, being collaborator with
Hiroshige for the series of " Sixty-nine Stations on the
Kiso Road " ; one of his contributions thereto is illustrated
at Plate 14.
His masterpieces are two very fine kakemono-ye, worthy
to rank with similar masterpieces of Hokusai and Hiroshige ;
one a moonlight scene, with a bridge across a stream in the
foreground, and behind high mountain peaks — a fit com
panion to Hiroshige's " Monkey Bridge " kakemono-ye.
78

YEISHO: Two ladies and their maid passing along under a maple-tree;
signed Yeisho ; publisher's sign of Yamaguchi-ya Chasuke.

Pute 4] [face page 78

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
This print is exceedingly rare, a very fine copy changing
hands in the Happer sale for ^\. The other is a design of
a carp, the Japanese emblem of perseverance, leaping up a
waterfall, better known than the former as being less rare,
and worth about £^ to ,^10, according to its condition.
Other good prints by him in landscape are his series of
waterfalls, in imitation of the set by Hokusai, These also
are rare. His figure studies, which are fairly numerous and
not difficult to obtain, are the output of his later years.
The collector should not miss the opportunity of picking
up good copies of his blue prints, in which the whole design
is printed in blue ; their effect is very pleasing, even though
the actual drawing may not be of a very high order.
He also designed some good surimono. He signs him
self in full Keisai Yeisen, or Yeisen only, or Keisai only.
In the latter case he should not be confused with Kei^w, a
designer of surimono and pupil of Hokkei, whose full name
is Kiko Keisu.
Kiyomine (i 786-1 868) was the fifth and practically the
last master of the Torii school. He was a pupil of the
great Kiyonaga, and his prints are rare and much prized
for their gracefulness and pleasant colouring.
The print by him here reproduced at Plate 5 is remark
able in that the outlines of the face, hand, and wrist, are
printed in pink, the colour of the sake cup, and is called
nikuzuri, meaning " flesh-colour." Such printing is
extremely rare, and is found only in a few prints by
Kiyomine and Utamaro.
We now come to the numerous pupils and followers of
Toyokuni, forming the Utagawa school. Of this school,
Kunisada (1785-1865) is by far the best known, on account
79

Japanese Colour Prints

of his enormous productivity, his total output probably
equalling, if it did not exceed, that of any two other artists
combined. It even exceeded the output of Hiroshige,
prolific as he was. In fact, so prodigious was the number of
his prints towards the end of his career, that Kunisada did
no more than the first outline drawing of a print, leaving
his pupils to carry out the colour-scheme, and exercising
no supervision over his printers. The result is seen in a
complexity of design, meaningless elaboration of detail,
crudeness of colouring, and often bad register in printing,
which is so characteristic of a large number of prints bear
ing his signature, particularly in those signed with his later
name of Toyokuni. In fact, his innumerable actor-portraits
of this period are little better than caricatures, with all the
later eccentricities and exaggerations of his master, Toyo
kuni, magnified tenfold.
The only work of Kunisada really worth the collector's
attention are his early landscapes, but, unfortunately, these
are very rare. A good, but uncommon, set of half-block-
size prints by him is a series of Tokaido views copied, in
some cases, almost line for line from Hiroshige's Tokaido
series published by Hoyeido, with a large figure, generally
of a geisha or peasant woman, in the foreground. Some of
these are signed " To order, Kunisada," as if to throw the
blame for his plagiarism of Hiroshige's work upon his
publisher, Sanoki, Two views from this series are illus
trated at Plate 13.
His one really fine design in figure studies is his portrait
of Hiroshige, to which reference has been made ; but
speaking generally, and bearing in mind the very low
average of his work as an artist in such prints by him as
80

I. KIYOMINE: Woman holding out a sa^e cup ; signed 2. YEIZAN: Full-length figTire-study of a geisha;
Kiyomine. signed Yeizan.

Plate 5] [face page 80

ii^i-ilKrai: l.«»;?l->^«

^^¦^-^

A i^^'M-

Artists of the Ukiyoye School
are usually met with, a collector might do worse than ignore
Kunisada altogether.
His memorial portrait of Hiroshige was done in the year
of the latter's death (1858), and on it is a long and very
interesting inscription, in which occurs the following passage:
" At the present time, Hiroshige, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi
are considered the three great masters of Ukiyoye ; no others
equal them. Hiroshige was especially noted for landscape."
Omitting Hiroshige, who stood apart in a class by him
self, this passage is a striking commentary on the state to
which the art of the colour-print artist had fallen by the
middle of the last century. If Kunisada was considered far
and away one of the chief artists of his time — at a date,
too, when he was almost at his worst in his ordinary work
— it only proves how inferior the rest must have been,
Kunisada often collaborated with Hiroshige in the
design of triptyches, in which the landscape is done by
the latter and the large figures in the foreground by Kuni
sada, Or, again, the left and right panels will be the work
of one artist and the centre panel that of the other,
Kunisada, solely by reason of the quantity of his work,
was considered the head of Toyokuni's school, as is shown
by his eventually appropriating to himself that name ; but
Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) was easily the better artist. He
did some good landscapes, many deserving to rank with
those of Hiroshige, particularly in a set of Tokaido views
(see Plate 12), wherein several stations are shown on the one
view, while his figure studies are strongly drawn, often with
a humorous touch. His colours, though sometimes weak,
are never the crude and hideous colours of Kunisada, while
he frequently makes a very effective use of masses of black,
G 81

Japanese Colour-Prints

A very fine, but at the same time rare, set of prints by
Kuniyoshi depicts incidents from the life of the priest
Nichiren {vide Chapter XIX for details) in ten scenes. Von
Seidlitz quotes one scene, Nichiren on a Pilgrimage in the
Snow, the best print of this series, as a single print, being
apparently unaware that it forms one of a set ; the set,
at least, is not mentioned by him amongst the list of Kuni
yoshi 's works.
Another celebrated series is his set of scenes depicting
the twenty-four paragons of filial piety, which are remark
able for their curious application of European pictorial
ideas to a Chinese subject, but which detracts from them
as works of art.
Neither of the above series are at all common, but
examples of Kuniyoshi's prints are not difficult to pick up,
Toyokuni's other pupils are mostly too unimportant to
be mentioned individually. Five, however, who died before
the art of the colour-printer was so far advanced towards
decay, and before crude aniline colours became the custom,
deserve mention, because their work is, for these reasons,
superior to their contemporaries.
Kunimasa I (1772-1810), whose portraits of actors are
very good, and who had a reputation even higher than
that of his master. His prints are very uncommon. An
example of his work is reproduced at Plate 27.
Kuninaga, who died about 1810 ; work uncommon,
Kuninao {w. 1820), who first studied art in the Chinese
school, afterwards becoming a pupil of Toyokuni, His
prints are rare, and are notable for the grace and elegance
of their figures.
KuNiMARO (1787-18 1 7), whose figure studies are of
82

Artists of the Ukiyoye School

unusual merit, judging from the very few prints by him,
which are rare, that have come under observation.
Kuniyasu ( 1 800-1 830), whose prints are also un-
commoh and are much above the average of his fellow-
pupils, his colours being well chosen. He also designed
surimono. His prints comprise both figure studies, land
scapes, and seascapes.
The numerous followers of Kunisada and Kuniyoshi
need not detain us long. Those of the former, together
with pupils of Hokusai, formed what is known as the Osaka
school, a school which came into existence at Osaka about
1825. Previous to this date, the art of the colour printer
was solely confined to Yedo, where it originated,
Sadahide {c. 1840), one of the best of Kunisada's pupils„
designed landscapes in the style of Hiroshige, and also
battle-scenes. His prints are good of their kind, consider^
ing the lateness of the period at which he worked.
Sadamasu (w. 1830-1850), also worked in style of
Hiroshige, His work is not common, and is distinctly above
the average of the period. A good fan-print by him is
reproduced in the author's previous volume.
Hasegawa Sadanobu {c. 1840) designed both actor-
prints and landscapes, but in the case of the latter appears
to have been not satisfied with merely following the style
of Hiroshige, but needs must copy him line for line,"' For
example, a view by him of Lake Biwa, with wild geese
alighting on the water, is practically a reproduction of the
same scene in a half-block set of Lake Biwa views, by
Hiroshige, This scene is illustrated in the catalogue of the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Kuniyoshi's pupils continued to work at Yedo. Of
83

Japanese Colour-Prints

these YosHiTORA {w. 1850) was, perhaps, one of the best,
his colours being as a rule less offensive than is generally
the case with prints of this date. He designed figure
studies, landscapes, and battle-scenes.
YosHiTOSHi {w. 1 860-1 890) was another pupil, already
mentioned above, who was superior to the general run of
contemporary artists.
The pupils of Kunisada may be recognized by the
adoption of the second half of their master's name, " sada,"
as the first of their own, e.g. Sada-hide, Sada-nobu ; though
some adopted the first part " Kuni," e.g. Kuni-chika, Kuni-
hisa, Kuni-mori, and others. Kunimori also signed himself
Horai (or Kochoyen) Harumasu ; his signature of Kuni
mori being a later one, adopted on his joining the school of
Kunisada, In the same way Kuniyoshi's pupils all begin
their names with the prefix " Yoshi," e,g, Yoshi-tora, Yoshi-
kuni, Yoshi-kazu,
Two independent artists remain to be mentioned before
turning to the great landscape artists, Hokusai and Hiro
shige, and their pupils, Shofu KiosAi (183 i-i 889), whose
bird studies are remarkable, and who may be reckoned as
the last of the old school of print designers of the first rank.
Had he lived earlier, before the advent of aniline colours,
his prints, which are not common, would have been
esteemed even higher ; but his work, unfortunately, suffers
from the inferior colours used.
The other artist is Sugakudo, who worked about 1858,
and who has designed an excellent series of bird and flower
studies, in forty-eight plates, which number amongst a
collector's favourite examples. The print most coveted by
84

sugakudo
" Exact Likenesses of Forty-eight Birds "
No. 29. Bull-finch and twining convolvulus ; signed Su^a^tU. No. 35. Mei-jiro and Kaki; titmice and persiminon:
signed Sugakudo.

Plate 6] ' y^^^ p^^e 84

Artists of the Ukiyoye School

collectors in this series is the drawing of a large red parrot,
being No. lo in the series, which is entitled Sho Utsushi
Shi-ju hachi (48) Taka : " Exact Representations of Forty-
eight Hawks " (i.e. birds). (See Plate 6.)
Each plate is dated in the margin with the seal for the
sheep year, equivalent to 1859, but the title-page is dated
a year later, when the series was completed.

85

vnTHE LANDSCAPE ARTISTS
HOKUSAI AND HIROSHIGE
AND THEIR PUPILS

CHAPTER VII
THE LANDSCAPE ARTISTS, HOKUSAI AND
HIROSHIGE, AND THEIR PUPILS
HOKUSAI ( 1 760-1 849) is generally classed as a
landscape artist, as his chief work was done in
this field, though he drew almost everything
that could be drawn. He lived entirely for his
work, and became the master-artist of Japan, dying at the
age of eighty-nine, after a life of incessant work and almost
continuous poverty, with the regret upon his lips that he
had not been granted a longer spell of life to devote to his
idol art.
No artist adopted so many artistic names with which
to bewilder the collector of the present day as Hokusai.
As a pupil of Shunsho, at the age of nineteen, he used
the name Shunro, but owing to a quarrel he soon left
Shunsho's studio and started for himself as an independent
artist. Sori, Taito, I-itsu, are some of the names he used in
addition to that by which he is universally known, and as
he sometimes passed them on to a pupil when himself
adopting a new name it is not always possible to say if a
print signed Taito, for example, is by the master or the
pupil of that name.
For instance, a well-known print, signed Katsushika
Taito, representing a carp swimming in a whirlpool, is by
89

Japanese Colour-Prints

some authorities attributed to Hokusai, and by others to
the pupil, but the latter has the more numerous supporters.
Many of Hokusai's prints are signed " Hokusai mad-on-
drawing " {Gwakio jin Hokusai), thus showing the fervour
of his spirit.
A signature Hokusai sometimes used on surimono reads
" Fusenkio " or " Furakkio," meaning " tired of living in
same house," in allusion to his constant change of residence,
as he is said to have altered his place of abode nearly a
hundred times during his long lifetime.
Hokusai's masterpieces, by which we recognize him as
one of the world's greatest artists, are the following
series :
" The Imagery of the Poets," a series of ten large
vertical prints, issued about 1830, This series is very
rare, particularly in a complete set,
" The Thirty-six Views of Fuji " (Fugaku San-ju
Rok'kei), with the ten additional views, really forty-six
views, full size, oblong. Some prints in this series are
much rarer than others, and really good copies of any are
not easy to procure, though poor and faded copies are
fairly common of some of them. The three rarest and most
coveted by collectors are The Great Wave, Fuji in Cahn
Weather, and Fuji in a Thunderstorm, with lightning playing
round its base. The first of these. The Great Wave, has
been described, more particularly by American collectors,
as one of the world's greatest pictures ; and certainly, even
if this description is perhaps somewhat exaggerated, it is a
wonderful composition, such as could only have emanated
from the brain and hand of a great master. This series was
issued between 1823 ^^^ 1829.
90

The Landscape Artists

" The Hundred Poems explained by the Nurse " (1839).
Of this series only twenty-seven prints are known to exist,
and Hokusai never completed it. About fifteen original
drawings, which were never used for producing prints
from, are also known. Moderately rare.
" TravelHng around the. WaterfaH Country," a set of
eight vertical prints, about 1825 \ r^^^^-
" Views of the Bridges of various Provinces," a set of
eleven oblong prints, similar to the " Views of Fuji " series,
about 1828 ; rare,
" Ryukyu Hakkei," Eight views of the Loochoo Islands ;
full size, oblong, c. 1820 ; very rare.
Modern reproductions and reprints of all the foregoing
series are met with, particularly his " Imagery of the Poets,"
" Waterfalls," and " Views of Fuji " series.
The various prints comprising the foregoing series are
described in detail elsewhere in this volume in the chapters
dealing with landscape as a subject of illustration.
Besides landscape scenes and innumerable single prints,
Hokusai designed some very fine — and very rare — bird and
flower studies, of which modern reproductions exist, many
surimono, and a very large number of book illustrations.
Amongst the latter may be mentioned his famous " Hundred
Views of Fuji," and his " Mangwa " (sketches). It is com
puted that altogether he produced some thirty thousand
drawings and illustrated about five hundred books (Von
Seidlitz), Of Hokusai's pupils, of whom about fifteen to twenty
are known, Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850) is considered the
foremost, and excelled even his master in the design of
surimono, a particularly fine example of which is illustrated 91

Japanese Colour-Prints

at Plate 9, showing the Chinese general, Kwanyu, studying
a book on strategy. He also illustrated books.
Another pupil famous for his surimono is Yashima
Gakutei {w. i 800-1 840), who also designed a set of very
fine land and seascape drawings, full size, oblong, for a
book, "Views of Tempozan" {Tempozan Shokei Ichiran,
Osaka, 1838), (See Plate 23,) A description of the prints
comprising this set will be found in Chapter XV.
A third good designer of surimono is Yanagawa Shige-
NOBU (1782-183 2), the scapegoat son-in-law of Hokusai,
whose daughter Omiyo he married. This Shigenobu
must not be confused with a later Ichiry-usai Shigenobu,
the pupil of Hiroshige, better known as the second Hiro
shige, and a considerably less capable artist.
Shotei HoKUju {w. 1 800-1 830) is remarkable for his
curious landscapes, done in a semi-European manner, known
as Rangwa pictures, meaning literally Dutch pictures, as it
was from the Dutch, the first Europeans allowed to trade
with Japan (and then only under severe restrictions), that
the idea of perspective, as we understand it, was learnt by
Japanese artists.
His mountains are drawn in a very peculiar angular
manner, almost cubist in effect, and his clouds are very
cleverly rendered by means of gauffrage.
Shunkosai Hokushiu {w. 1808-1835) was another pupil
of Hokusai, who designed figure studies, in which the dress
is sometimes rendered in gauffrage, a method of heightening
the effect of colour-printing generally confined to surimono.
Hokushiu, however, employed it largely in his ordinary
full- sized prints.
Considering the very large number of landscape designs
92

HOKUSAI : The Yoshitsune " horse-wrashing " waterfall ; signed
Zen Hokusai I-itsu ; one of the " Waterfalls " series.

Plate 7] [face page 92

The Landscape Artists

produced by Hokusai, one would have expected a corre
sponding activity on the part of his pupils in the same
direction. As a matter of fact but few of them seem to
have turned their brush to this class of subject, and even
then only to a limited extent, Hokuju being almost the sole
pupil who persevered in landscape design beyond an initial
effort, and his prints are by no means common.
The others appear to have confined themselves almost
entirely to the production of surimono and figure studies,
showing that, great as was the demand for the landscapes of
Hokusai and Hiroshige, the populace still hankered after their
favourite subjects from the theatre, street, and Yoshiwara,
Ichiryusai Hiroshige (1797-1858) shares with Hokusai
the reputation of being the foremost landscape artist of
Japan. It is generally through his landscapes that the
collector first becomes acquainted with Japanese colour-
prints, and through which he is attracted to them. Hiro
shige's prints more nearly approach our ideas of pictorial
representation than those of any other artist of the Ukiyoye,
with the exception perhaps, though to a less extent, of
Hokusai, yet at the same time he remains essentially
Japanese. Hiroshige gives us the effect of atmosphere and mist,
sunrise and sunset, snow and rain, in his designs which
Hokusai, with his sharper and more vigorous outline, does
not. The latter's scenes are full of that restless activity
which reflects his own untiring energy, an energy which
nothing could damp, while misfortune merely spurred him
to greater effort.
Hokusai, also, treats his subject from a very different
standpoint to Hiroshige ; he depicts the relationship of
93

Japanese Colour-Prints

man and nature to each other with a vividness not found in
Hiroshige's compositions, Hiroshige shows us the real
world as he saw it passing before him along the great high
way he so realistically portrayed. Hokusai, on the other
hand, puts before us his idea of it, as he saw it in his mind's
eye, making the grandeur and force of nature his principal
theme, and his humanity merely subordinate to it.
These divergent characteristics are well shown in
Hokusai's Great Wave, a picture contrasting the all-
devouring force of nature and the littleness of man, and
Hiroshige's Autumn Moon on the Tama River, from his
" Eight Environs of Yedo " series, considered one of his
masterpieces in landscape, a scene of infinite peace and
quietude. Of like nature is his Homing Geese at Katada,
from his " Eight Views of Lake Biwa " series, representing
a flock of geese flying to rest at twilight.
It is not easy to compare, artistically, the work of these
two masters. Much of Hiroshige's work is of a later period
than that of Hokusai, Hiroshige's earliest work is assigned
to the year 1820 ; Hokusai had produced prints before
1800, The entirely different colour-schemes employed
also render it difficult to make comparisons ; towards the
end of his career the work of Hiroshige suffered much by
reason of the poor quality of the colours used by his printers.
His best work, namely his Tokaido series of full-sized,
oblong, landscape views, is equal to anything Hokusai
produced ; but on the whole it must be said that the latter's
work shows a much higher average quality throughout,
whereas that of Hiroshige varies to a considerable extent,
many of his later series containing some inferior designs,
apart from those obviously the work of his pupil,
94

The Landscape Artists

Though this falling off was no doubt due to increasing
age, yet in the case of Hokusai, who lived very nearly half
as long again as Hiroshige, his work shows practically no
traces of advancing years. As he himself says, he did not
expect to become a really great artist till he had reached
the age of eighty, while he was dissatisfied with everything
which he had produced prior to his seventieth year.
FenoUosa, one of the leading authorities on the artists
of the Ukiyoye, while he classes Hokusai in the first rank,
puts Hiroshige in the third only, though his classification
refers to them as painters, while he does not specifically
class them as colour-print designers.
Opinions, of course, differ as to the order of merit of
the Ukiyoye artists. Many collectors would put both
Hokusai and Hiroshige in the first rank ; the writer is
inclined to steer a middle course, and place Hokusai in the
first rank, as practically all are agreed, but Hiroshige in
the second.
Again, the fact that the artist only supplied the design
which was destroyed on cutting the outline, or key-block,
and gave instructions as to the colours to be employed,
somewhat modifies the answer to the question, " Is the
work of one artist better, or of greater value, than that of
another }" as the artist is almost entirely at the mercy of
his engraver and printer, upon whose combined skill the
excellence of the finished print depended. Added to this,
there must be taken into account the fact that the same
engraver and printer might be employed upon the designs
of more than one artist, just in the same way that a printer
does not confine himself to producing the books of only
one writer. It is to be regretted that the engravers of these
95

Japanese Colour-Prints

prints are almost totally lost in oblivion, and that nothing
is known of them, and only a comparatively few prints even
bear their mark, as it is due to them that the most beautiful
pictorial art in the world came into being, or at least in
such a form that it could be enjoyed by thousands, where a
single painting is but the delight of a select few.
A print is associated only with the artist whose signature
it bears, or whose work it is known to be, or, in doubtful
cases, to whom it is attributed. Yet the excellence of the
print, and, in consequence, the reputation of the designer,
rested with the engraver and printer. As pointed out
above, much of Hiroshige's later work suffered purely
from this cause, while his reputation has been further
endangered by the very numerous impressions of his prints
in existence to-day, which were printed after his death,
over which, therefore, he had no control, and in which the
printing is careless, whil6 of the colours the least said the
better. While Japanese literature tells us much about the artists,
it is silent about the engravers, upon whom the former were
so dependent for their reputation as designers. This lack
of recognition was no doubt due to the fact that the engraver
was looked upon as nothing more than a mere mechanic —
albeit an extremely dexterous one — ^whose sole province
was to reproduce, line for line and dot for dot, the design
given him by the artist.
His work, therefore, was purely mechanical, and wonder
ful as it may appear to us from the point of view of manual
skill, there was nothing original about it ; it was pure
copying. Had the original drawing been preserved, and
only a copy made for the engraver to work from, we
96

The Landscape Artists

should then have been able to compare his work with the
original. There is, however, in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
a block which has been cut from a copy of the artist's draw
ing, in this case an illustration to a book of birds by Kano
Barei. The original drawing, the copy, the block, and a
print therefrom, are shown together for sake of comparison ;
notwithstanding the intervention of the copyist, it is very
difficult to say which is the print and which is the original
drawing, so skilfully has the engraver done his part.
Little as is our knowledge of the engraver, it is even less
in the case of the printer. While a print occasionally bears
the mark of the former, the writer cannot recall, beyond one
or two prints by Hiroshige, any instances from amongst
hundreds of prints examined of sheets bearing the name or
mark of the printer. Both, however, are often given on
illustrated books.
In the writer's opinion, since these prints are (or should
be) collected for their aesthetic charm, the standard to be
aimed at is one in which subject and artistic merit come
first. The artist's signature is not, by itself, sufficient to satisfy
the discriminating collector whose chief desire is to possess
beautiful examples of these prints. Beauty of drawing,
harmony of colour-scheme, and all those qualities which
appeal to his artistic sense, should form the chief considera
tion. To the true collector a work of art is no better or no
worse for being the product of one person rather than
another. To pay a high price for a picture or print merely
because it is — or is supposed to be — the work of a particular
H 97

Japanese Colour-Prints

master, is a mistake, if the purchaser does not consider
that, at the same time, it is worth that sum from an artistic
point of view, and that its possession will bring him pro
portionate satisfaction.
Hiroshige's numerous landscape series are described in
detail elsewhere, but certain single-sheet prints, which are
reckoned his chief masterpieces as such, cannot be over
looked in any reference to him.
These are two large kakemono-ye and three very fine
triptyches. The former are the famous Monkey Bridge and the
Snow Gorge oj the Fuji River. Both these are extremely
rare, a fine copy of the Monkey Bridge, for example, fetching
^91 in the Happer sale in 1909.
The three triptyches are : Snow Scene on the Kiso
Mountains, View oj Kanazawa in Moonlight, and the Awa
no Naruto Rapids. Modern reproductions of all the fore
going are met with, sometimes so well reproduced as to be
very difficult of detection,
Hiroshige in his very early days, while still a pupil of
Toyohiro, designed figure studies, in response, we presume,
to the insistent demand for this class of subject, before his
genius for landscape diverted public taste into another
channel. Such designs are very rare, and are interesting
both for comparison with the work of recognized figure
study designers and for the fact that they represent the
skill of an artist in one direction who made his name by
striking out in another. Plate 8 reproduces a figure study
by Hiroshige from a series entitled " A Mirror of Faithful
Courtesans," this being a portrait of Umegawa of Tsuchiya.
It shows, also, the earliest form of Hiroshige's signature.
98

HIROSHIGE : Umegawa of Tsuchi-ya ; inset in circle, her lover as
an actor ; one of a series "A Mirror of Faithful Courtesans";
signed Hiroshige ; publisher, Iwato-ya.

Plate 8] [face page 98

The Landscape Artists

Another figure study by Hiroshige is reproduced, full page,
in the Happer Sale Catalogue,
Of Hiroshige's pupil, Ichiryusai Shigenobu {w. 1840-
1868), afterwards Hiroshige II, little need be said. As a
rule his work, which closely follows that of his master, is
very inferior, though at times it was of sufiicient merit to
javourably compare with it.
Reference has already been made to those landscape
series which, while attributed as a whole to Hiroshige, yet
contain certain views contributed by the pupil, and pointing
out by certain characteristics how such may be distinguished
from the work of the master. One series, at least, entirely
by Hiroshige II, entitled " Thirty-six Views of Toto " (i.e.
Yedo), a view from which is illustrated in the author's
previews work, contains some plates equal to any of the
master's similar series, when carefully printed.
Another series of Yedo views (oblong), printed almost
entirely in blue, is also above his usual work, the purity of
the blue atoning for the somewhat faulty drawing.
This series was published by Senichi, and bears the
date 1862. These blue prints owed their origin to an edict
issued in 1842, and which was in force for twelve years,
limiting, amongst other restrictions, the number of blocks
that might be used. It must be admitted that the printers
overcame this restriction in a remarkably effective manner.
It is not unlikely that this edict, which also prohibited the
sale of prints depicting actors and courtesans, was one of
the causes (perhaps, even, a very important cause) that
contributed to the decline and extinction of the art of the
print-designer. Official interference and restrictions were
bound to have an injurious effect upon an art which owed
99

Japanese Colour-Prints

its existence to its ability to cater for the tastes of the
multitude. Circumscribe and limit these tastes, and it is
bound to suffer. It was from the date of this law that
censor's and inspector's seals had to appear on all prints, a
custom which was continued after the edict ceased to be in
force. By prohibiting prints of actors and courtesans, by
limiting the number of blocks which might be used, and
the size of compound prints to triptyches, the law was
aiming at raising the morals of the community and checking
extravagance. This legal restriction of the subjects allowed
to be portrayed naturally created a great demand for the
landscape designs of Hiroshige, the result of which we see
to-day in the great preponderance of his prints over those
of any other individual artist, that is to say, in the number
of copies still extant. It also caused other artists, who were
hitherto figure designers, to apply their brush in the same
direction, or else cease work, and to this period belong the
numerous prints depicting stories, folk-lore, and legend,
such as the many series of this nature designed by Kuni
yoshi, Hiroshige II also designed a series (upright), entitled
" A Hundred Views of Various Provinces," closely follow
ing his master's set of " Sixty Odd Provinces," but both the
drawing and colouring are, as a rule, very crude, though the
writer has seen carefully printed and well-coloured copies
of some of the plates which were as pleasing as the similar
work of the master, but such are scarce. At Plate 24 is
reproduced an excellent snow scene from this series, entitled
Snow at Kiso, Province oj Shinano, which can challenge
comparison with any similar scene by Hiroshige,
Thanks to Mr. Happer's investigations in respect of the
100

The Landscape Artists

date-seals found on Hiroshige's prints after 1840, much
confusion formerly existing between the two Hiroshiges
has now been definitely cleared up, and prints formerly
attributed to the pupil are now properly accorded to Hiro
shige himself, though it is known he sometimes called in his
pupil to assist him in completing some of his numerous
series. Owing to the difference in the signature Hiroshige
appearing on the early oblong views (e.g. Tokaido series) as
compared with that on the later vertical series (e.g.
" Hundred Yedo Views "), it was at one time thought that
the signature on the latter was the form in which the pupil
wrote it, and consequently all vertical prints signed Hiro
shige were attributed to Hiroshige II. Von Seidlitz, how
ever, points out that this difference in the form of signature
is due to the change in the method of writing it, that is
from the Japanese cursive to the Chinese square style,
quite apart from the change naturally induced by increasing
age. If the collector has opportunity of studying a number
of Hiroshige's prints covering his whole career, he will
notice that the change is not abrupt, as anyone comparing
only early and late work, without any intermediate examples,
might think, but is progressive.

IOI

VIII CHARACTERISTICS OF JAPANESE DRAWING

CHAPTER VIII
CHARACTERISTICS OF JAPANESE DRAWING
IN order to understand better Japanese pictorial art,
it is necessary to approach it from a different stand
point to that adopted when criticising Western art,
and to make allowances for the limitations imposed
upon it by their canons of drawing and the medium of
expression employed. It should be recognized as a purely
local product, unique in itself, and cannot be fairly judged
by the highly cultivated and, it must be admitted, highly
artificial work of European artists.
Thus Japanese painting, like its parent Chinese paint
ing, when not showing traces of European influence, is in
two dimensions only, that is, it confines itself to repre
sentation in one plane, the idea of space not being indicated
by strict perspective, as with us, but if shown at all, by one
scene behind or above the other.
Such perspective as the Japanese artist employs is quite
sufficient for the purpose of the subjects he portrays, and
it is not true to say, as has been said, that he knows nothing
of the effect of distance. He is far more appreciative of,
and more truthful to nature in his delineation of animate
creation than any Western artist, while as a colourist he is
unequalled. One has only to study his drawings of flowers,
birds, and insects, to be convinced of the truth of this
fact. 105

Japanese Colour-Prints

Even when European perspective is applied to a limited
extent, as is the case with the landscape designs of Hiro
shige, for example, the whole drawing remains essentially
Japanese. Then again, in the representation of figures, or other
objects, these are not rounded and modelled to shape, nor
do they cast shadows, shadows being considered, according
to the Chinese doctrine, as something purely accidental,
and therefore not worth delineating.
In addition, the proportions of figures are often purely
arbitrary, both to one another and to the surroundings in
which they may be placed, their size being governed by
their importance in the general composition.
Whether this was the deliberate intention of the artist,
or whether it was a point little considered — ^perhaps ignored
altogether — cannot be stated for certain.
A fixed convention, too, is adopted in all portraits and
figure studies, and sometimes even in small figures intro
duced into a landscape, whereby the face is invariably
drawn half way between full face and profile, a convention
enabling the artist to portray all the topography of the
features with more character than in a full face.
It also enabled him to draw his figures with less re
striction as to their attitudes, or the occupations in which
they could be represented.
It will further be noticed that, except in actor-portraits,
where expression is everything, the features are almost
expressionless, or at least immobile, due to the peculiar
Japanese notion then current, whereby to betray one's
feelings outwardly was a breach of good manners.
Another convention is that used to impart the sense of
io6

Characteristics of Japanese Drawing
darkness at night-time by means of a black or grey sky, by
introducing a moon or lanterns into the composition, a
convention which well realizes the desired effect without
causing a sense of incongruity, such as might be expected,
while the picture remains as distinct as if the scene was in
broad daylight.
The Japanese designer of colour-prints did not try to
secure, by means of subtle graduations of light and dark
ness, the results attempted by European artists by pro
ducing a picture which should compete, in its reality and
exactness to nature, with a photograph.
He understood the limitations imposed upon him by the
methods and materials at his disposal ; to have attempted to
secure effects beyond its capacity would have been to sacrifice
the charming results of which the process was capable.
On the other hand his art is suggestive, and to it the
observer must bring his own share of mind and thought if
he would interpret clearly the artist's meaning.
These colour-prints have not inaptly been compared to
the art of the stained-glass designer. Both rely on firm
outline and masses of colour for their effectiveness ; in
other words their charm lies in their simplicity and absence
of meaningless detail.
Thus Hiroshige's snow-scenes owe their wonderful
effectiveness simply to the natural whiteness of the paper,
and are far snowier than any amount of paint could have
made them. Their effectiveness is further enhanced by the
most sparing use of colour, a blue strip of water or sky, or
a few bright figures introduced into the landscape, supply
ing the necessary contrast.
Though these conventions were imposed upon the artist
107

Japanese Colour-Prints

by the materials at his disposal, and by his training, the
reader should not conclude that the resultant pictures are
purely formal or unreal. No pictorial art has better ex
pressed the life, habits, and customs of a people, while the
scenery of Japan will live, as long as these prints exist, in
the wonderful drawings of Hokusai and Hiroshige. They
are indeed the pictures of a " passing world." It is their
very realism, once their conventions have been mastered,
which creates such an attraction for them, in addition to
their pure beauty of line and colour.
Another remarkable feature of the designs of the Ukiyoye
school is the extraordinary fertility of invention displayed
by its artists, particularly those of the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries, not only in ideas for subjects,
but in the arrangement of their colours and patterns.
One may look through thousands of prints in the course
of forming a collection, yet it is very rare to come across
any which closely resemble one another, unless one artist
has deliberately copied another, as Utamaro has sometimes
been copied. Even where more than one artist has taken the
same subject for illustration, their respective designs will
differ widely, yet convey the same lesson.
This talent of inventiveness — due, no doubt, to the
Japanese love and close study of Nature, who never repeats
herself — is well shown in the numerous designs by different
artists of the Chushingura drama ; in many cases the same
scenes are portrayed in each act, yet no one would say one
artist had copied another.
Even when an artist did more than one set of the same
subject, as Hiroshige and Hokusai have, the second or
subsequent series are no mere transcript of the first.
io8

Characteristics of Japanese Drawing
It will be noticed also that, while their skill in drawing
insects, birds, and flowers is such as to excite our admira
tion and the envy of artists of other nations, yet they do not
seem to have mastered the drawing of animals. Their oxen
are such as one never saw yoked to a plough, their horses
never harnessed to a cart, nor would one expect to hear
their dogs bark.
This does not of course mean that Japan produced no
artists capable of correctly painting animals. Okio (1733-
1795), Sosen (1746-1821), and Ganku (1749-1838), three
artists of a naturalistic school of painting, of which the first-
named was the founder, painted animals with extraordinary
fidelity to nature. Okio is famous for his dogs, Sosen for
monkeys, and Ganku for tigers.
But speaking generally, Japanese artists' representations
of animals are usually of the crudest description, and
practically they confine themselves to drawing such purely
domestic creatures as the horse, the ox, and the dog. Japan
itself being devoid of large wild animals, such as the
lion, tiger, or leopard, such attempts as are made to
depict these beasts have been taken from descriptions
or rough drawings which have reached them from other
countries, the opportunity of personal observation being
lacking. The Ukiyoye artists, also, did not apparently pay much
heed to the drawing of hands and feet, which are generally
ill-proportioned, while the figure itself is often drawn out
to an impossible height, an exaggeration very noticeable, for
example, in the later work of Utamaro. This fault, however,
often appears greater than it really is, owing to the effect
produced by the long flowing robes which completely hide
109

Japanese Colour-Prints

the contour of the figure, and was doubtless intended as an
expression of idealism.
In the period of the decline, from 1830 onwards, the
drawing becomes very inferior, the hands and feet being
little better than deformities, while effect is sought less by
the outline than by complexity of design and vividness of
colouring.

110

IXCLASSIFICATION OF SUBJECTS
SURIMONO

CHAPTER IX
CLASSIFICATION OF SUBJECTS
THE subjects illustrated in Japanese prints may be
generally classified under the following heads :
(i) Theatrical scenes and portraits of actors ;
(ii) Portraits of geisha and courtesans, full length
figure and head studies ; (iii) Illustrations of historical and
legendary stories, mythical heroes, and the like ; (iv) Land
scape. A further division might be added under the head
ing of ghosts, a subject which certain artists, particularly
Kuniyoshi, seems to have strongly favoured. Surimono
form a class to themselves, and are of such a varied nature
that it is impossible to group them under any particular
heading. What they were will be best indicated by saying that
they were like nothing so much as our Christmas, New Year,
Birthday, or other form of greeting card, while the designs
on them were as diverse.
They were, as a rule, only printed on commission, and
the regular designers of colour-prints were often requested
by their patrons to supply the drawing for them ; many
again were produced by those who used them, which
accounts for the appearance on some surimono of unknown
signatures, that is of people who were not professional
artists. I 113

Japanese Colour-Prints

Surimono are almost square in shape, measuring about
8 in, by 7 in,, and sometimes they are made up of multiples
of this size, in the form of triptyches or two vertical ones.
Particular care was lavished both by the artist, the engraver,
and the printer upon their production, the decorative effect
being increased by the use of gold, silver, bronze, and
mother-of-pearl, while relief-printing {gauffrage) was liber
ally employed. They were also, as a rule, printed on a much
better quality paper, being thicker and softer than the
ordinary prints sold in the street. Some collectors, indeed,
reject surimono on the ground that they are not true examples
of art, because artistic effect is produced by mere com
plication of technique, so that the medium employed,
instead of the result, has become their sole object. Even
so, fine surimono are very beautiful, while they show the
skill of the engraver and the printer at its highest level.
Some of the finest surimono were produced by pupils of
Hokusai, who excelled even their master in this respect.
Of these Hokkei, Gakutei, Shinsai, and Yanagawa Shige
nobu were the chief.
To revert to our classification, prints combining both
figure studies and landscape are also found, where beautiful
women are compared to beautiful scenery, though sometimes
the connection between the two is not very apparent, or is
too subtle for the European to detect. In such prints the
landscape is often relegated to a small inset view, or it may
occupy the whole of the upper half of the picture.
It is the common experience of many collectors that it
is through the landscape designs of Hiroshige they are first
attracted to these colour-prints. The reason for this is well
put by E. F. Strange, in the Victoria and Albert Museum

HOKKEI : Surimono : Kwanyu studying a book on strategy ; signed
Hokkei.

Plate 9] [face page 114

Classification of Subjects

handbook on Japanese Colour-Prints^ (p. 96), from which we
take the liberty to quote as follows :
" Japanese colour-prints devoted to landscape form a
class apart in the art of the world. There is nothing else
like them ; neither in the highly idealistic and often lovely
abstractions of the aristocratic painters of Japan nor in the
more imitative and, it must be said, more meaningless
transcripts from nature, of European artists. The colour-
print, as executed by the best men of the Japanese popular
school, occupies an intermediate place ; perhaps thus
furnishing a reason why we Westerns so easily appreciate it.
Its imagery and sentiment are elementary in the eyes of the
native critic of Japanese high art ; its attempts at realism
are in his eyes mere evidence of vulgarity. On the other
hand, these very qualities endear it to us. We can under
stand the first, without the long training in symbolism
which is the essential of refinement to an educated man of
the extreme East. And the other characteristic forms, in
our eyes, a leading recommendation. In short, the land
scapes of artists such as Hiroshige approach more nearly to
our own standards, and are thus more easily acceptable to
us than anything else in the pictorial arts of China and
Japan ; while they have all the fascination of a strange
technique, a bold and undaunted convention, and a superb
excellence of composition not too remote in principle from
our own."
It seems, therefore, convenient to deal with our last
class of subject first, namely landscape, as constituting the
most appropriate nucleus in the formation of a collection,
' Japatiese Colour-Prints, by Edward F. Strange. Victoria and Albert Museum
London. 4th ed. 1913.

Japanese Colour-Prints

though historically landscape marks the final years of the
Ukiyoye school. Beginning, then, with the landscape
designs of Hiroshige and Hokusai, we will afterwards pass
on to the consideration of our other subjects, actor-portraits
and theatrical scenes, portraits of women, and illustrations
of stories and legends.

ii6

X

THE FIFTY-THREE STATIONS ON
THE TOKAIDO

CHAPTER X
THE FIFTY-THREE STATIONS ON THE TOKAIDO
OF the numerous series of landscape scenes de
signed by Hiroshige, none are better known, or
have brought him wider fame, than his celebrated
early set of views (oblong) on the Tokaido, the
road running along the eastern coast between the two
capitals Yedo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto, a distance of 323
miles, entitled the " Fifty-three Stations of the Eastern
Road " {Tokaido Go-ju-san-Tsugi), issued about the year
1830, Fuji-yama alone has been depicted more frequently than
this historic highway of Japan, and no artist has done fuller
justice to it than Hiroshige, nor more vividly portrayed the
characteristics of the people who thronged it. All classes
of the population, from the daimyo travelling in his norimon,
surrounded by his escort, to the coolie and mendicant by
the wayside, are depicted, often with a strong sense of
humour. Captain Osborn, to whom we referred in our opening
chapter, and who travelled along part of this road about the
year 1858, says of these stages on the Tokaido : " The
lords of the various manors are compelled by the authorities
to maintain these places of refreshment for travellers ; they
are vastly superior to the caravanserais of the East, and
relays of horses or porters are always ready at these post-
119

The Fifty -Three Stations on the Tokaido
by reason of a greater demand for these particular views,
thus necessitating a new key-block altogether from a fresh
design. Other plates will be found with variations in the colour-
blocks, while the key-block remains the same, or the altera
tion will be confined to the omission in a later issue of
certain lettering, as, for example, with Plate 36 (Goyu
station) or Plate 46 (Shono station).
A complete set, therefore, showing all the known varia
tions of outline and colour-scheme, will consist of consider
ably more than fifty-five prints.
Owing to the great popularity of this series, the blocks
were used again and again for subsequent editions, so that
late impressions show a coarse outHne and faulty register,
and sometimes errors in printing, as, for example, a hill in
the background, from a colour-block cutting across an object,
such as a tree or hut, in the foreground.
The following are the plates comprising this series, with
the variations where they occur : —
Plate I. End view of the Nihon Bridge, Yedo, from
whence all distances were measured — " the London Bridge "
of Japan — with a daimyo' s cortege coming into view over
the summit, A variation of this plate shows more people
in the foreground, and no cloud.
Plate 2, Shinagawa. A street of houses backing on to
the seashore, and the tail-end of a daimyo's procession
passing along it ; behind the houses ships moored in the
bay. A variation shows four more figures in the procession.
Plate 3. Kawasaki. A ferry-boat crossing the river,
and passengers waiting on the further bank in front of a
cluster of houses ; Fuji in the distance. Close to the
121

Japanese Colour-Prints

further bank is a man on a raft, omitted in late issues ;
while there are also other differences. (See note. Appendix II .)
Plate 4. Kanagawa. View of a street along the top of
a cliff overlooking Yedo Bay, and female touts trying to
drag travellers into the rest-houses. Late issues show slight
variations, the chief of which is a row of posts in the water,
while the position of the cloud is altered to the right.
Plate 5. Hodogawa. A bridge over a stream, and
across it two coolies are carrying a closed kago towards a
village on the opposite bank ; behind the viUage rises a low
wooded hill.
Plate 6. Totsuka. A man dismounting from his horse
in front of an open tea-house, while a waitress stands by to
receive him.
Greater differences appear in the variation block of this
view than in any other, as will be seen by the illustrations
of them at Plate 10.
In the second edition the tea-house is boarded up, thus
shutting out the view of the hill beyond, the man is mount
ing his horse, though the attitude of the waitress remains
the same. Other minor differences will also be noticed,
such as in the banks of the stream, and the trees.
Plate 7. Fujisawa. The village by the edge of a stream,
and a bridge leading to it, over which people are passing.
In background, overlooking the village on a wooded hiU,
above the mists, stands the temple Yuji-o-ji ; in the fore
ground a torii, and close to it four blind men following
each other by the bank of the stream.
Plate 7a. Katase, on the Enoshima Road. Katase is a
small village lying between stations Fujisawa and Hiratsuka,
and though this plate appears to have been made for the
122

The Fifty -Three Stations on the Tokaido

Tokaido set, it is not included in the two volumes published
on completion of the series, and it is, moreover, extremely
rare. Its rarity, and the fact that it does not appear in the
bound book of Tokaido views, may very likely be due to the
accidental destruction or loss of the block very early in its
career, when only few impressions had been taken from it.
The view represents the village lying at the foot of a hill on
the left, crowned with trees, and two men admiring the
view from the summit ; in the distance the tree-covered
island of Enoshima, towards which people are wending
their way along the narrow sand-bank connecting it with
the mainland. (Anonymous sale, June, 1913 ; illustrated
at Plate VIII of Catalogue.)
Plate 8. Hiratsuka. The road traversing fields, and a
courier running along and passing two other travellers. In
the background a round-topped hill, behind which Fuji
appears in the distance.
Plate 9. Oiso. The approach through rice-fields to a
narrow street lined with huts, overlooking the sea, and
travellers entering the village under a downpour of rain.
First edition copies have a pale yellow sky and a black
cloud at the top.
Plate 10. Odawara. A daimyo's cortege being carried
across the river Sako ; a background of high hills, the most
distant printed from colour-blocks only. This plate is
found in four different states ; the first may be recognized
by there being only two figures on the near bank of the
river. In the second and third states there are five, and in
the fourth there are four, while in all states the outline of
the distant hills varies, (See note. Appendix IL)
Plate II. Hakone. A high peak, round the base of
123

The Fifty -Three Stations on the Tokaido
River, looking out to sea, and two wrestlers being carried
up-stream, one on a packhorse and the other in a kago. The
somewhat grotesque coolies and fat wrestlers are a blot on
an otherwise pleasing view of land and sea. All copies of
this print which have come under observation have in
variably been well printed, with sharp outline and good
colours, Plate 19, Ejiri. View over Mio-no-Matsu-bara, at the
mouth of the Okitsu River (seen close to in previous plate),
to a hilly coast-line beyond ; junks anchored in foreground
in front of a fishing village, and others sailing in the bay.
Plate 20. Fuchu. A woman in a kago being carried
across the Abe River; others fording the stream from the
opposite bank ; a range of mountains in the background.
Plate 21. Mariko. Two travellers having refreshment
at a wayside tea-house, from which another traveller has
just departed, and a woman with a child on her back waiting
on them. The earliest issue of this plate has the place-
name misspelt MarM-ko, and was very soon withdrawn,
consequently copies with this error are rare. This print is
one of the most charming of any in the whole series, thanks
to the effect produced by the rosy-pink sky, which in some
copies is much faded, and in late issues is often missing
altogether. Plate 22. Okabe. A mountain torrent rushing between
steep banks and walled in on one side by a stone embank
ment, along which people are passing. High peaks in the
background. In first edition copies the banks on either
side of the stream are coloured green, in late issues they differ
from one another, the left slope being a yellowish colour.
Plate 23. Fuji-yeda. Changing horses and coolies out-
125

Japanese Colour-Prints

side a rest-house. The first issue may be recognized by the
very fine grading of the ground from brown to yellow and
then green in the background, an effect which redeems an
otherwise rather coarse design.
Plate 24. Shimada. The wide bed of the Oi River,
with people waiting on its sand-banks to be taken across.
An uninteresting plate, being merely a bird's-eye view of a
wide stretch of river and sand-banks, dotted about with
very small figures.
Plate 25. Kanaya. The further bank of the Oi River,
and a daimyo 's norimon on the point of reaching the shore.
In the distance a high range of mountains, printed from
colour-blocks only, the outline of which is altered in later
issues. This plate is similar to Plate No, 10, Odawara,
showing the ford over the Sako River.
Plate 26. Nissaka. A very steep road in a moun
tainous district, and at the foot of it people examining a
large rock, marking the spot where a murder was com
mitted, A rather uninteresting print,
Plate 27. Kakegawa. Travellers crossing a high trestle-
bridge over a river, two of them peering into the water
below, and behind a small boy watching a kite up in the air,
while beyond another, with broken string, flutters to earth.
On the right Mount Akiha rising above the mists. A
pleasing and effective print. (Illustrated in colours in
Captain Osborn's Japanese Fragments, referred to in
Chapter I.) (See Plate 11,)
Plate 28. Fukuroi. Coolies resting by a wayside shelter,
while a kettle, hung from the branch of a tree, is boiling ;
behind are rice-fields, at the edge of which stands the village.
Plate 29. Mitsuke. A large sand-bank in the centre of
126

The Fifty -Three Stations on the Tokaido

the " Heaven-dragon " River, and people crossing the further
arm in boats ; two other boats in foreground, moored to the
sand-bank, and the distant shore enveloped in mist.
Plate 30. Hamamatsu. Coolies warming themselves by
a bonfire close to a large tree, by the edge of rice-fields,
with the village and castle beyond, A scene similar to
Plate 28. (See note. Appendix IL)
Plate 31, Maizaka. View of Imaki Point jutting out
into the sea, and a white Fuji, from colour-block only, in
the distance. In some copies the sky is all a deep pink, in
others it is yellow on the horizon, fading to white and indigo
at the top,
Plate 32. Arai. A large ferry-boat, with an awning
round it, taking a daimyo across from Maizaka, followed by
a smaller boat with his retainers, A high range of hills
behind the village on the further shore,
Plate 33, Shiratsuka. View out to sea through a dip
in the hill, at the foot of which a daimyo's procession is
passing ; clumps of trees to right and left, (See Appendix IL)
Plate 34, Futagawa. A low hill, covered with small
pine trees ; on the left a tea-house, at which a traveller is
taking refreshment, and three others approaching it,
Plate 35. Yoshida. Bridge over the Toyo River, and in
the right foreground workmen repairing the castle,
Plate 36. Goyu. Main street of the village at night
fall and female touts dragging travellers into the tea-house
on the right, where one is already resting. The large circle
on the wall bears the sign of the publisher of the series,
Take-no-Uchi, which is omitted in later issues. On the
sign-boards inside are given the names of the engraver,
Jirobei ; the printer, Heibei ; and the artist, Ichiryusai. 127

Japanese Colour-Prints

Plate 37. Akasaka. The courtyard of a rest-house, in
the centre of which a sago-palm is growing ; on the left,
guests being served with refreshments, and on the right,
geisha dressing up for their performance.
Plate 38. Fujikawa. The head of a daimyo' s proces
sion at the entrance to a village, and three peasants making
obeisance as it passes,
Plate 39, Okazaki. A daimyo' s cortege crossing the
bridge over the Yahagi River towards the village and castle
on the further bank ; in the background a blue hill, printed
from colour-blocks only,
Plate 40, Chiryu. A number of horses tethered in the
fields, where a fair is held in the summer. An uninteresting
print, the drawing of the horses being crude and the green
of the fields harsh, (See note. Appendix II, )
Plate 41. Narumi. A woman carried in a kago and
two others walking in front, followed by a man on horse
back and two attendants, passing two large open shops in
the main street, where dyed cloths are sold. On a blue
fascia over the front of the nearer shop is the monogram
Hiro in the centre, and that of the publisher, Take-no-Uchi,
each side of it, omitted in later issues.
Plate 42, Miya. Two gangs of men and horses drag
ging a festival car (not shown) past the entrance to a temple
on a fete day, (Reproduced in Captain Osborn's book at
page 95 » over the title " Horse-breaking in Japan " !)
Plate 43. Kuwana. Two large junks moored at the
mouth of the Kiso River, and others sailing away to sea.
Plate 44, Yokkaichi. The Hurricane, A man racing
after his hat, bowled along by the wind, and another
crossing a small bridge over a stream, his coat blown
128

HIROSHIGE : Stations Kakegawa and Otsu on the Tokaido.

Plate 11] [face page 128

The Fifty-Three Stations on the Tokaido
about him. Considered one of the masterpieces of the
series, Plate 45. Ishiya-kushi. A temple in a grove of trees on
the left and the village on the right ; behind, a high range
of hills, printed from colour-blocks. (See Appendix II.)
• Plate 46. Shono. Rain-storm in the mountains ; coolies
carrying a kago, with a straw coat thrown over it, up the
hill, and two others, one with an umbrella, rushing down.
In the first edition the title, Go-ju-san-Tsugi, and the
publisher's name, Take-no-Uchi, are inscribed on the
umbrella, but are left out in subsequent issues, an omission
which is considered an improvement. This plate is con
sidered the masterpiece of the whole Tokaido series. (Illus
trated in On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints)
Plate 47, Kameyama. A celebrated snow-scene of
Hiroshige's. Travellers ascending a steep hill-side, under
deep snow, to the entrance to the castle of Kameyama.
Considered the second masterpiece of the series.
Plate 48. Seki. View outside a rest-house in the early
morning, where a daimyo is stopping, the retainers pre
paring, by the aid of lanterns, to proceed on the journey.
Plate 49. Saka-no-shita. Travellers resting at an open
tea-house, looking across a ravine to the rocky heights
opposite ; blue hills beyond, in colour-blocks only.
Plate 50. Tsuchi-yama. The head of a daimyo's pro
cession crossing a torrent by a bridge towards the village,
hidden in a grove of trees, under a heavy downpour of rain,
Plate 51. Minakuchi. A solitary traveUer walking
through the village, where women are peeling and drying
gourds ; in the background a range of hills, printed from
colour-block only.
K 129

Japanese Colour-Prints

Plate 52, Ishihe. View of a tea-house on left, under a
large tree, and travellers watching a man dancing ; hills in
background from graded colour-block, the lower part in
mist, Plate 53, Kusatsu. View of a rest-house for coolies,
and horses on the road ; coolies passing in the foreground
with a kago and a covered palanquin.
Plate 54. Otsu. Three bullock-carts passing down the
main street of the village, and an open tea-house on the left ;
in the background a hill, faintly printed from colour-blocks,
is found in some copies. (See Plate 11 and Appendix IL)
Plate 55. Kyoto. In the foreground the " long " bridge
over the Kamo River, and people crossing over, with the town
beyond, behind which rise hills overlooking it, the most
distant printed from graded colour-block only, in a reddish
brown tint. The bridge and figures crossing it should stand
out well-defined against the white mists lying over the river
beyond.

130

XI

THE STATIONS OF THE TOKAIDO
[continued)

CHAPTER XI
THE STATIONS OF THE TOKAIDO— {continue^
THE Tokaido series by Hiroshige described in the
foregoing chapter is the earliest and best-known
series of any, and was issued about the year 1830
by the publisher Hoyeido. Some ten or twelve
years later, in 1842, at the beginning of the so-called Pro
hibition period, when prints of actors and courtesans were
forbidden by law, Hiroshige issued another series through
the publisher Masurei, but this edition never attained the
popularity of the first, consequently it is comparatively
rare, neither is it of such a high order of merit.
Owing to the great popularity of Tokaido views, they
were repeated in various editions, in different forms, in sets
rather smaUer than the regulation full-size plate, in half-
plate, or as a miniature set in quarter-plate, that is four
views to a block. All these, however, are uncommon,
particularly the last-named.
Two half-plate series^ were issued, one by the publisher
Sanoki and the other by Tsuta-ya,
In order to obtain an even number of full-size blocks
for printing from, the former series is increased to fifty-six
plates, an extra view being allotted to Kyoto, while the
Tsuta-ya set is reduced to fifty-four by putting stations 24
' Happer sale, 1909. 133

Japanese Colour-Prints

and 25, Shimada and Kanaya, on opposite banks of the Oi
River, into one view.
A miniature series of four-on-a-block was issued by the
publisher Arita-ya, and consists of fifty-six views, that is
fourteen to a block, with a second view allotted to Kyoto,
the plates being divided after printing. It is very rare
indeed to find a sheet of views complete, whatever the
subject or shape, in an uncut state.
Later in life, towards the close of his career, Hiroshige
issued a series of full size, upright plates through the
publisher, Tsuta-ya, each dated 7th month, 1855. The
stations are,, of course, the same as in all other series, but
the scenes differ from the early oblong set. Thus station
Numadzu is a moonlight scene in the latter, and a winter
snow-scene in the upright series.
Again, station Chiryu, one of the least interesting in
the oblong set, is one of the best, when well printed,
in the later one. (Reproduced in author's previous
volume.) It is, however, generally recognized at the present day
that this late series of upright Tokaido views was mainly,
if not entirely, the work of Hiroshige II, working under his
master's instructions. When the master was very busy, or
in consequence of illness, the pupil was called in to make
the drawing after the master's design, though the latter
signed it when completed.
Such designs are called daihitsu, meaning " drawn for
another." Hiroshige's success with his first Tokaido series naturally
led other artists to copy him, particularly during the Pro
hibition period, when prints of actors and courtesans were
134

KUNIYOSHI : Two plates from the series " Five Stations on the
Tokaido."

Plate 12] r/ n^
[jace page 1 34

 The Stations of the Tokaido
forbidden by an edict of the Shogun, thus throwing out of
employment the majority of contemporary artists, unless
they turned their hand to landscape design.
Kuniyoshi contributed a series of Tokaido views, full
size, oblong, complete in twelve plates, which place him
at least on a level with, and, in the estimation of some
collectors, above Hiroshige in the domain of landscape
design. Two views from this series {c. 1840), which is
rare, are here illustrated at Plate 12, one representing
stations Akasaka (37), Fujikawa (38), Okazaki (39), Chiryu
(40), and, on the near side of the river, Narumi (41). On
the scaffolding on the right are hung strips of dyed cloth, a
product of the locality, which we see displayed for sale in
a shop in the view of Narumi in Hiroshige's Tokaido series,
described in the foregoing chapter.
This series by Kuniyoshi gives an excellent idea of the
relative position of the stations to one another. Across the
water we see the long bridge at Okazaki, over the Yahagi
River, and its fifteenth-century castle, which form the subject
for Hiroshige's view of this station (i.e. Okazaki).
The full title of this series is Tokaido Go-ju-san Yeki ;
Go-shuku Meisho {" Fifty-three Tokaido Stations ; Views
of Five Stations "),
In some plates, however, only four stations are shown,
when the sub-title is altered accordingly. Illustration
No. 2, Plate 12, reproduces such a view, the four stations
shown being Okabe (22) (the hill in foreground, up which
the youth on horseback, followed by a peasant, is riding) ;
Fujiyeda (23), the village below them on the right ; Shimada
(24), by the edge of the river ; and Kanaya (25), on the
opposite bank. Each print of the series is signed in the
135

Japanese Colour-Prints

margin Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi, Shu-kuzu (" Sketches by Con
tract ") ; while over the signature are the publishers' marks
of Tsuta-ya and Tsuru-ya, thus showing the series to be a
joint production.
It was left, however, to Kunisada to flatter Hiroshige to
the extent of copying his early Tokaido series in a half-
block set, in many views practically line for line. The
majority are signed Kochoro Kunisada ; others " To order,"
Kunisada, as if in apology for plagiarizing the work of his
fellow-artist, and to make it appear his pubHsher, Sanoki,
was really responsible.
Stations i (Nihon Bashi) and 3 (Kawa-saki) are signed in
full " To order," Kochoro Kunisada ; about four or five
views are signed Gototei Kunisada.
In the foreground of each view is a large figure of a
woman, separated from the landscape view by a conven
tional cloud effect. This series is very uncommon ; the
writer has only once found a complete set of fifty-six views
mentioned,^ and only twenty-seven of the set figured in the
Happer collection. He was, however, able to acquire fifty
of the series from the coUection of the late Mr. Phene Spiers,
and two of them, stations Kakegawa and Otsu, are here
reproduced (Plate 13), for the sake of comparison with the
same views by Hiroshige at Plate 11,
It will be noticed how closely Kunisada copies Hiro
shige in one view, whUe in the other (Otsu) he follows his
own design entirely.
In the complete set two views are allotted to Kyoto, to
make an even number (56) of plates.
Plates I to 41 follow, mostly with but slight variation of
' Orange and Thornicraft sale, March, 1912.
136

The Stations of the Tokaido

detail, Hiroshige's first Tokaido views, so that the detailed
descriptions thereof in our foregoing chapter are equally
applicable to Kunisada's set.
Thus, for example, in Plate i, Nihon Bashi, instead of
a daimyo's procession on the bridge, Kunisada shows a cart
laden with bales and drawn by four men, who appear to
have difficulty in controlling it on the steep slope.
He also shows the peak of Fuji in the distance, and kites
in the air, which do not appear in Hiroshige's view.
Plate 3, Kawasaki, does not show Fuji nor the man on
the raft, thus following the later edition.
Plate 7, Fujisawa. Instead of four blind men by the
bank of the stream, a crowd of coolies are shown,
Plate i8, Okitsu, follows Hiroshige's view; but a curious
error is made, whereby the horse's hoofs are indicated as if
he was walking on dry land instead of in the stream.
From Plate 42 onwards, however, Kunisada appears to
have made his own designs, as they differ entirely from
Hiroshige's, though for No. 42, Miya, he seems to have
taken the latter's Station 43 , Kuwana, for his model, as in
the foreground are two large junks, like Hiroshige's Kuwdna
view. This apparent inversion is due to the fact that Miya
(Station 42) and Kuwana (Station 43) lie on opposite sides
of Kuwana Bay, the distance across being seven ri (a n=
about 2| miles), hence the name " the seven Ri ferry," the
coast-road round the bay being three or four times the
distance by water,
Kunisada, therefore, has shown one end of the ferry and
Hiroshige the other.
Unfortunately, the writer has not seen Kunisada's 137

Japanese Colour-Prints

version of Kuwana station, so is unable to compare it with
Hiroshige's, All the other stations by Kunisada are entirely different.
As if in compliment to this attention on the part of
Kunisada, Hiroshige designed a vertical series, entitled
Tokaido Go-ju-san Tsugi Zu Kwai (" Exact Views of the
Fifty-three Tokaido Stations "), in which oblong landscape
views occupy the upper third of the sheet, while the lower
part is taken up with large figures, drawn after the style of
Kunisada. Again, in another, and very uncommon series, we find
these two artists in collaboration, a series entitled So-hitsu
Go-ju-san T^wg'i (" Fifty-three Stations by Two Brushes"),
and dated between the years 1854 and 1857, in which the
upper part consists of a Tokaido view by Hiroshige, and
the lower part large figures, illustrative of legends, by
Kunisada, over the signature of Toyokuni. Owing to the
size of the figures they encroach somewhat upon the land
scape above. This particular series, however, more properly
comes under the heading of legends, a subject to be de
scribed later.
Hokusai has designed a charming small quarter-block
series of the Tokaido stations, showing people engaged at
various occupations, sometimes an industry for which the
particular place is renowned, for example, making sheets
of seaweed by hand at Shinagawa on the same principle as
paper-making, or the cultivation of silkworms, as at Kusatsu.
The delicacy of the drawing and the exquisite colouring of
this series render them masterpieces in miniature, to which
no reproduction will do justice.
They are found in two issues, either of which are very
138

KUNISADA : Kakegawa (upper) and Otsu (lower) on the Tokaido ;
frorn the half-block series in imitation of Hiroshige.

Plate 13] [full page m

The Stations of the Tokaido

uncommon, particularly the first, which may be distin
guished by having a short poem or verse inscribed on each
view above the picture, which is removed in the later issue.
Each view is signed Gwa-kio Jin Hokusai, meaning
" Hokusai Mad-on-Drawing,"

139

xuTHE SIXTY-NINE STATIONS
OF THE KISOKAIDO

CHAPTER XII
THE SIXTY-NINE STATIONS OF THE KISOKAIDO
THE alternative route between Yedo and Kyoto,
known as the Kisokaido or mountain road, which
ran inland, was also the subject of illustration by
Hiroshige in a series of seventy plates, in which
he had the collaboration of Keisai Yeisen, who contributed
twenty-three of them.
While this series contains about fifteen masterpieces,
worthy to rank with the best views in the first Tokaido set,
the majority of the plates are uninteresting, some of them
indeed very inferior, and the series as a whole has suffered
in the estimation of collectors by reason of the numerous
poor copies of late issues which are in existence.
While fine and brilliant impressions of the Tokaido
series may be acquired fairly readily, with the exercise of
patience, such has not been the writer's experience with
the Kisokaido views, which more often than not are badly
discoloured and faded copies of late editions, whereas copies
of the first edition in brilliant condition are most rare.
Apart from poor colouring,^ late issues may also be
' The reader should not conclude, however, that second edition copies in
variably exhibit poor colouring and defective printing. While such prints are more
often met with than good copies, early impressions of even late issues are sometimes
excellent. The view by Yeisen here reproduced at Plate 14, though a second edition
copy, has as well-graded and brilliant colours, and is as carefuUy printed as the
first issue.
143

Japanese Colour-Prints

detected, particularly in the views contributed by Yeisen,
by the absence of the artist's signature. It is suggested
that the absence of Yeisen's signature on late issues was due
to the fact that, as his reputation as a landscape artist was
not the equal of Hiroshige's, his views did not sell so
readily, so they were issued again without any signature,
in the hope that they would be bought as Hiroshige's
work. When the signature on a print became badly worn, by
reason of the large number of impressions taken off the
block, it was sometimes erased altogether, but in this case
this would apply equally to the inscription of the title of
the series and the place-name, so that the above supposition
to account for unsigned prints in this series seems a sound
one. Views by Yeisen, when unsigned, may be further identi
fied by the different script in which the title Kisokaido
Roku-ju-ku-Tsugi (" Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Road ")
is written, though this evidence does not hold good in all
cases, as one or two unsigned views have the title in the
script of Hiroshige, yet by reason of the style of drawing
they are generaUy attributed to Yeisen,
By reason of the large number of plates comprising this
series, the set was divided between two publishers, Hoyeido,
the publisher of the early Tokaido set, issuing Yeisen's
contributions and a few of Hiroshige's, and Ise-Iri the re
mainder. Second editions of Yeisen's views, however,
generally bear the trade-mark of Ise-Iri. Their trade
marks, particularly that of Ise-Iri, are frequently intro
duced into the picture itself, as upon a horse-cloth, a banner,
the shutter or screen of a house, and so forth.
144

The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido
Station I. Nihon Bashi : Nihon Bridge, Sunrise over
Yedo. View of the canal, with the sun, cut by streaks of
mist, rising behind the houses, crowds by the bridge, and
coolies pushing a cart laden with bales over it.
As on the Tokaido, the Nihon Bridge, Yedo, formed the
starting-point of the Kisokaido, which rejoins the former
highway again at Station 69, Kusatsu (No. 53 on the
Tokaido), this, and the final station, Otsu, being common
to both. In the Kisokaido series, no view is allotted to
the terminus Kyoto, that belonging to the Tokaido set
doing duty for both.
Station 2. Itabashi, A man shoeing a horse by a
roadside hut ; on the left, the first houses of the village.
Station 3. Warabi. Ferry over the Toda River. A
large ferry-boat laden with passengers and a horse being
poled across the river, travellers and horses waiting on
the further bank ; two herons flying over the boat.
Station 4, Urawa. In the distance. Mount Asama in
eruption ; in the foreground, a coolie leading a packhorse.
Station 5, Omi-ya. A traveller carried in a kago along
the road on a high bank bordering rice-fields ; Fuji in the
distance, snow-capped.
Station 6. Ageo. The Shinto temple of Kamo, with
a rest-house outside the grounds, and peasants winnowing
rice in front of it. A poor plate.
Station 7. Okegawa. View of the Common ; a woman
stripping rice outside a thatched hut, and a traveller speak
ing to her.
Station 8. Konosu, A distant view of Fuji seen across
fields, and porters passing along ; on the left a pilgrim, in
a large basket-hat.
L 145

Japanese Colour-Prints

Station g. Kumagae and the " eight-cho " (about fths
of a mile) embankment, A fine colour composition. A
traveller arriving at the cross-roads, at the entrance to the
village, in a kago, and another, on foot, chatting to him ;
on the left, a woman serving two coolies at a wayside tea
house, and behind a horse feeding, with his nose in a bucket.
On the extreme right, a road-direction post, and behind it
a shrine, with a stone figure inside and a candle burning
in front of it ; the embankment stretching away behind in
the distance uphiU, (See Plate -13:)
Station 10. Fukaya, A group of women, guided by
one leading with a lantern, passing along the street. One
of the figures, turning to speak to another, is drawn with
the face in profile, a very unusual position, but the picture
as a whole is uninteresting, and the large figures crude and
clumsily drawn.
Station 11. HoNjo, Ferry over the Kanryu River,
crossed partly by bridge and partly by boat, and a daimyo's
cortege passing over.
All the above plates are by Yeisen ; with the next
commences Hiroshige's contributions to the series in one
of the most beautiful views of the whole set, here reproduced
at Plate 14, which, unfortunately, cannot give any impression
of the exquisite colouring of this print in all its pristine
freshness. The dark fir trees by the river bank are
silhouetted against a pure golden sky, over a distant range
of deep blue mountains, while above it graduaUy melts
into beautiful wine-coloured clouds. For beauty of atmo
spheric effect this print is equalled by few and surpassed by
none. Station 12, Shimmachi. Travellers crossing a bridge
146

I . YEISEN : Kumagae station on the Kisokaido.

2. HIROSHIGE : Shimmachi station on the Kisokaido.

Plate 14] [face page 146

The Sixty -Nine Stations of the Kisokaido
over a stream to a village beyond, and others walking along
the river-bank ; in the distance, a mountain range, printed
from colour-block only.
Station 13. Kuragano, by Yeisen. View of the
Karasu River at Kuragano. Children playing about in the
water by a weir in an irrigation canal ; on the right, a
woman seated in an open tea-house looking at another
cleaning a tub or cooking pot. A rather crude design.
Station 14. Takasaki, by Hiroshige. A peasant bow
ing to a man and a woman, and another, with a fan, running
up to them ; behind them a tea-house, built out over the
river, and a man seated in it admiring the view. Beyond,,
the village by the river on the left bank, and in the back
ground a blue mountain range, printed from colour-block
only. Station 15. Itahana, by Yeisen. Travellers on foot
passing along the bank of a stream, lined with trees, in the
depth of winter. A fine snow scene, showing that Yeisen
could, when so minded, equal Hiroshige in producing an
effective design. This plate, even in first edition copies,
carries no signature, but from the style of the drawing is
generally attributed to Yeisen, though the title is written in
the script employed on Hiroshige's views. The supposition
given above, therefore, to account for the omission of Yeisen's
signature from certain views is hardly sufficient in this
instance. Mr. Happer suggests as a reason that it was
due to Yeisen's careless habits, brought on by his over
indulgence in sake.
Station 16, (From here onwards all plates are by
Hiroshige, except where otherwise stated.) Annaka. A
daimyo's procession seen from above, passing along a
147

Japanese Colour-Prints

narrow road by a few huts at the foot of a steep hill on
the left.
Station 17. Matsuida. Travellers with packhorses on
the road on a hill-side passing a large tree, under the shade
of which stands a small wayside shrine.
Station 18. Sakamoto, Another unsigned plate, but
generally ascribed to Yeisen. A village street with a narrow
stream, crossed at intervals by planks, running down the
centre between the houses ; a high green hill in back
ground. Station 19. Karui-zawa. Another masterpiece of the
series by Hiroshige. A scene at night outside a village ; a
coolie lighting his pipe at a bonfire close to a large tree,
while another lights his from the pipe of a man on horse
back ; in the distance is another bonfire. The effect of the
light cast by the fire on the tree, and from the lantern hung
at the horse's saddle, on to the faces of the two men lighting
their pipes from one another, is wonderful, considering the
simple means by which it is produced. In poor and faded
copies and in late issues the contrast between the light
from the fires and the lantern and the darkness of the
:Surrounding night is very weak.
Station 20, Katsu-kake, by Yeisen, Rain on Hirat
suka Moor. Coolies and two laden oxen caught in a heavy
downpour of rain and gale of wind. One of Yeisen's best
contributions to the series, the rain and wind being very
cleverly indicated.
Station 21, Oiwake, also by Yeisen, but not signed.
Distant view of Mount Asawa from Oiwake, Another
rain-scene by Yeisen, (In some issues the rain block is
omitted,) 148

The Sixty- Nine Stations of the Kisokaido
Coolies carrying loads, and one behind leading a pack-
horse, under a straight downpour of rain, hurrying along the
road round the base of the mountain,^
Station 22. Odaii, Four pilgrims at the edge of a
brook running through a moor covered with grass ; hill in
background. Station 23. Iwamurata, by Yeisen, A very crude
scene of blind men fighting amongst themselves, and a
dog barking at them ; one of the poorest views of the
series. Station 24. Shionada. Coolies resting in a wayside
tea-house under a large tree by the bank of a river ; draw
ing of figures crude.
Station 25. Yawata, Peasants crossing by a plank
bridge a stream flowing past a high bank covered with
bamboos ; blue hills in the background, printed from
colour-blocks only.
Station 26, Mochi-zuki, A wide road lined with large
fir trees overlooking a valley below covered with trees, and
hills beyond ; traveUers and laden packhorses passing
along, the whole scene under a full moon. A very fine
moonlight view.
Station 27, Ashida, The road with travellers passing
seen through a dip of a green hill with trees on it, and re
appearing at the top on the right.
Station 28. Nagakubo, Perhaps the masterpiece of the
' In the catalogue of the print collection in the British Museum this print is
described as being in the first state when printed without the rain block, which Mr.
Binyon considers was added as an afterthought, to give the idea of distance to the
mountain, remarking also that the figures are not drawn as if drenched by a storm.
Though, as a rule, the omission of some feature in a design, such as a rainstorm or
range of mountains, generally connotes a late edition, the reverse might well be the
case in this instance for the reasons Mr. Binyon gives.
149

Japanese Colour-Prints

whole series. A very fine moonlight and mist effect with
figures, one on horseback, crossing a bridge over a river ;
in the foreground, a tree growing by the edge of the river, a
man leading a horse, and two children playing with dogs.
In the background are mountains printed from colour-
blocks (graded black) only, omitted in late issues, in which
also the colour is much weaker. The bridge, the figures
crossing it, and the tree, are all printed in dead black, the
whole forming a very fine composition and relying for its
effectiveness upon the use of black graded to various tones,
and the deep blue of the river in the foreground shading off
to a misty grey in the dim distance. This view is very
uncommon, particularly fine copies of the first issue, and
has been much reproduced.
Station 29, Wad A, the highest station on the road, over
5000 feet above sea-level. A snow-scene, with a view of
the road running between steep slopes, and in front a high
peak covered in snow.
Station 30. Shino no Suwa, by Lake Suwa, famous
for its hot baths. Front view of an inn, with travellers
refreshing themselves inside, and a man in a tub in the
bath-house at the side.
Station -^i. Shio-jiri, The frozen Lake Suwa seen from
Shio-jiri Pass. Another masterpiece by Yeisen, showing
Fuji in the distance under its mantle of snow, and travellers
picking their way across the cracks in the ice of Lake Suwa ;
in the foreground, travellers, one on horseback, on the steep
road leading down to the lake, (See note. Appendix II, )
Station 32. Sema, River scene under a full moon
slightly obscured by clouds, with a man in a punt laden
with (?) rushes, and another behind on a raft ; on the bank
150

The Sixty-Nine Stations ofthe Kisokaido
willow trees bending before the wind. One of the best
plates in the series, (See Plate 15, and note. Appendix IL)
Station 33. Motoyama, A large pine tree blown
across the road by the gale, propped up on a trestle, and
two men to saw it up sitting under it by a fire. Drawing
crude. Station 34, Niegawa. Front view of a large inn, with
travellers resting inside and a waitress bringing tea to one ;
a man leaning over the balcony above and looking at a coolie
unloading his horse ; on the left an empty kago. Like
station 36 (Goyu) on the Tokaido, this view is interesting
for the information given on the sign-boards in the in'n, on
which are inscribed the names of the engraver Fusajiro, and
the printers Yasu-goro and Ichitaro.
Station 35, Narai, by Yeisen, but not signed, " View
of the shop (for the sale of) the famous products (combs)
of Narai," At the top of a steep road a coolie putting down
his load, and two travellers going off down the hill.
Station 36. Yabuhara, also by Yeisen, Travellers
sitting by the wayside, and two women, carrying faggots,
standing under a pine tree and admiring the view from the
top of the Torii Pass.
Station 37, Miya-no-koshi, Another very fine moon
light and mist effect. It is an open question as to which of
the two views, Nagakubo or this one, is the finest, Mr,
Happer appears to favour Miya-no-koshi. Three people,
one a man carrying a child, are crossing a plank bridge
over the Kiso River under a misty full moon. Through the
mist loom up trees like ghosts, and in the distance the dim
figure of a man wending his way to his hut along the river's
bank. 151

Japanese Colour-Prints

Station 38. Fukushima. The guard-house at the
entrance to the village, and a high gate across the road,
with people passing through.
Station 39, Uematsu, A traveller and his coolie stand
ing on a bridge over a torrent and gazing at the Ono water
fall ; a peasant, carrying faggots, crossing the bridge.
Station 40, Suwara. Another of Hiroshige's famous
rain-scenes, A small tea-house, built under the shelter of
an enormous pine tree, to which two coolies rush for shelter
from the torrential downpour ; in the background, two
travellers, one on horseback, throwing on their straw coats
for protection as they plod along through the storm.
Station 41, NojiRi, by Yeisen. View of an arched
bridge spanning a rocky gorge, through which a mountain
torrent rushes ; high up, on the left, on a steep mountain
side, stands a shrine, dimly seen through the mist, while
through the bridge appears the faint outline of a mountain
far off.
Station 42, Mitono. Two peasants at work in a field
and a woman leading a child towards a hill up which the
path leads, under two torii, to a shrine beyond ; roofs of
huts in the background, A poor design ; figures crudely
drawn. Station 43, Tsumagome. A pilgrim, a wayfarer, and a
porter passing along the road cut through the hills, and
trees overlooking it ; beyond, two other travellers appearing
over a dip in the road, and on the hill to the right a faggot-
gatherer passes with his load.
Station 44. Magome, by Yeisen, but not signed.
Another view of the road cut out of the side of the moun
tain, with a peasant riding his ox along it ; beyond, the
152

The Sixty- Nine Stations ofthe Kisokaido
roofs of the village in the valley below, overlooked by high
mountains, printed from graded colour-blocks. One of the
best plates by Yeisen when well printed.
Station 45. Ochiai, On the right, the village on the
side of the hill, and the road through it, along which
travellers and porters are passing downhill and crossing a
small bridge over a stream on the left. In the background,
a range of hills, printed in blue, from colour-blocks only,
and in front of them the forest, overlooking the road.
Station 46, Nakatsu-gawa, This plate was issued in
two totally different states, of which the first is extremely
rare,^ very few impressions having been taken from it,
probably because the block got damaged or burnt in a
fire. The first state is a near view of the village, and three
travellers approaching it in a downpour of rain ; behind
the village rises a high hill.
The second state is a distant view of the village nestling
at the foot of the hill, across fiat rice fields, and the road
winding to it in a series of zigzags ; in the foreground,
people crossing a small bridge over a stream, and a willow
tree growing close by.
Station 47, Oi, Perhaps one of the finest snow-scenes
designed by Hiroshige, the representation of the faUing
snow-flakes being extraordinary in its realism. Two
travellers, mounted on packhorses led by coolies on foot,
all thickly covered with the heavily falling snow.
Station 48. Okute. The road across a bleak moorland
over the Biwa Pass, and two peasants toiling along uphill
with a load of faggots on their backs. An uninteresting plate,
» Anonymous sale (Sotheby), June, 1913. item 210 ; reproduced in Catalogue at
Plate VIII.
153

Japanese Colour-Prints

Station 49, Hosokute. The village lying in a plain
surrounded by hills, seen through the arch formed by two
pine trees leaning across the road to one another, and people
passing under them.
Station 50. Mitake, An open tea-house, at which
travellers are taking refreshment, while outside a man
washes a tub at a small stream ; mountains in the back
ground, faintly printed from colour-block, in a dark sky.
Drawing crude.
Station 51. Fushimi, Travellers resting under a large
tree by the edge of the road, and others passing by.
Station 52, Ota, Travellers waiting for the ferry by
the bank overlooking the river, down which a raft is passing ;
blue hill beyond further bank, and a pink sky ; three trees by
edge of river on left.
Station 53. Unuma, by Yeisen, but not signed, and one
of his best views. On the right stands the Castle of Inuyama,
overlooking the Kiso River ; rice-fields and village in the
distance beyond the river, backed by hills.
Station 54, Kano, Peasants making obeisance at the
approach of a daimyo's procession along a road lined with
trees ; across the fields is seen his castle.
Station 55, KoDO, by Yeisen ; considered one of his
masterpieces. View of the Nagara River, and men fishing
at night with cormorants, the fish being attracted by flares
hung over the punt from a pole. The last of the views
contributed by Yeisen.
Station 56. Meiji, On a green slope, between two
camelias in flower and tall bamboos, a peasant inquiring the
way of another, who points behind him towards the village
across the fields in the distance.
^54

1. HIROSHIGE: Sema on the Kisokaido.

2. HIROSHIGE : Tarui on the Kisokaido.

Plate 15] [face page 154

m ' ;

The Sixty- Nine Stations of the Kisokaido

Station 57, Akasaka, A man and a woman crossing a
small bridge over a stream in opposite directions ; on the
further side stands the village, surrounded by trees not yet
in leaf. Station 58. Tarui, The head of a daimyo's procession
entering the town from under an avenue of trees in a down
pour of rain, and the natives making obeisance. This plate
(reproduced at Plate 15) is interesting from the views of
the two print shops on either side of the street, while on
the shutter of the one on the left appears the trade-mark of
Ise-Iri. Station 59. Sekiga-hara. A woman serving two
travellers at a tea-house, while a coolie stands idly by hold
ing his horse and staring at them ; in the background,
another tea-house.
Station 60, Imazu, On the left, a line of shops ; on
right, a large tree ; a porter and another traveller passing
down the centre of the street which looks out across green
fields to hills beyond. Sitting outside one shop is a man
lighting his pipe from another man's.
Station 61, Kashiwara, Front view of the large
Kome-ya tea-house, and shops adjoining it, and people
having refreshment while their kago carriers wait outside.
Station 62. Samegai. View of the village in a hollow
and mountains beyond, and a large tree in the centre ;
porters passing on one side, and on the other an old peasant
sitting resting.
Station d^. Bamba. The village street, with horses and
coolies waiting about ; on the right, a tea-shop, and a range
of mountains behind the village.
Station 64, Toriimoto. A tea-house on the steep side
155

Japanese Colour-Prints

of a mountain and travellers resting therein, and admiring
the view over the valley, river, and lake below.
Station 65, Takami-ya. Two women with large straw
bales on their backs and a coolie passing behind them, in
foreground ; behind them the dry bed of a wide river, in
which stand the trestles of a washed-away bridge. On the
further bank lies the village amongst trees, and hills rising
in the background. Two large tree-trunks frame the view
in foreground. Station 66. Echigawa. People crossing the Echi River
by a low plank bridge ; a woman leading a laden ox in the
foreground and passing two pilgrims, whose heads are hidden
in large basket-hats. In the distance hills, printed from
colour-blocks, rising above the mists.
Station 67, Musa, Travellers crossing a small stream
by two punts moored end on to one another.
Station 68, Moriyama, A street of houses along the
highway on one side and a stream on the other ; cherry trees
in bloom on hill behind the houses, and in the background a
green hill, printed from colour-block only.
Station 69, Kusatsu, Here the Kisokaido joins the
Tokaido. People walking along the dry bed of the Kusatsu
River. Station 70. Otsu. View looking down a broad street
over Lake Biwa, on which appear the white sails of junks.
Travellers and bullock-carts passing along the street. Pub
lisher's and artist's seals appear on various shop-signs.
Otsu station is the last of the Kisokaido series, there
being no plate for Kyoto, the view in the Tokaido set doing
duty for both.

156

xm THE THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF FUJI

CHAPTER XIII
THE THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF FUJI
EVEN as Fuji is the dominating feature in the land
scape of Southern Japan, so is it also the ever-
recurring theme in Japanese pictorial art.
If Hiroshige made his name amongst the artists
of Ukiyoye by his scenes on the Tokaido, Hokusai, his
fellow-artist in the realm of landscape, is entitled to an
equal, if not a higher place, even if he had done nothing
beyond his incomparable views of Fuji,
The series of " Thirty-six Views of Fuji " (with its ten
supplementary views really forty-six) by Hokusai constitute
one of his two greatest works, the other being the extremely
rare series of ten very large upright prints, entitled " The
Imagery of the Poets," The rarity of this latter series may
be gauged from the fact that a complete set, in exceptionally
fine condition, fetched ;^340 in the Happer sale in 1909,
Each print of the series is illustrated in the catalogue of
this sale.
In looking over Hokusai's designs one is at once struck
by their infinite variety, Fuji is depicted in calm and
storm, in mist and bright sunlight ; sometimes dominating
the whole scene, at others receding to a mere speck in the
distance. Plates Nos. 4 and 18 of the series give a good
idea of such contrasts. In the former it is dwarfed by
distance to a speck on the horizon ; in the latter it towers
159

Japanese Colour-Prints

up into the sky, filling the background, the monarch of all
it surveys. Plates Nos, ii and 24 (here illustrated) also
show Hokusai's contrasting treatment of his subject.
Another point one will notice is the simplicity of the
colour-scheme employed, green, blue, yellow, and brown,
laid on in large masses. Sometimes all four colours are
used, sometimes only three of them. The result is very
bold and effective.
The following are the views constituting this series, and
the order given is that universally accepted nowadays,
corresponding with that given by M. de Goncourt in his
work on Hokusai. In the British Museum catalogue they
are arranged according to locality.
No. I. Fuji seen from Ejiri, Province of Suruga, across
rice-fields, on a windy day.
No, 2, Fuji seen from Ono Shinden, Province of Suruga,
across the water, its base enveloped in mist ; in the
foreground, coolies leading oxen laden with bundles of
straw.
No. 3, Fuji seen from the tea-fields of Katakura, Province
of Suruga, where women are picking tea and coolies
carrying it into the store sheds ; beyond rises Fuji,
snow-covered from base to summit, into a deep blue
sky. This view exhibits a different colour-scheme to
the usual prevailing tints, yellow and a Hght brick-red
predominating.
No, 4. Fuji seen through the circle of a large tub, upon
which a man is working, from Fujimigahara, Province
of Owari, (Reproduced in the author's previous
volume,) 160

1. HOKUSAI: Fuji seen from Narumi, Kazusa; No. II of the
Views of Fuji."

2. HOKUSAI : Fuji from Ushibori. Hitachi ; No. 12 of the " Views
of Fuji."

Plate 1 6] [face page 1 60

The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji
No. 5. Fuji seen from Ko-ishi-kawa, Province of Yedo, in
the depth of winter, across a landscape covered in snow,
and people in a tea-house admiring it.
No, 6. Fuji seen at a great distance from the beach at
Todo through one of two torii standing in the water,
and people gathering shellfish.
No, 7, Fuji seen from the banks of the Minobu River,
along which coolies and horses are passing.
No, 8. Fine weather on the slopes of Fuji, which raises
its red, snow-capped peak into a blue sky fiecked with
fleecy clouds, gradually melting towards its base into
the green of the forest below. Considered one of the
three masterpieces of the whole series, which are most
sought after by collectors, the other two being the
Great Wave, No, 20, and the following plate.
No. 9. Fuji in a thunderstorm, with lightning playing
round its base, (See note. Appendix II.)
No. 10. Pilgrims making an ascent of the mountain and
others assembled in prayer in a cave above.
No. II. Fuji seen from Narumi, in Province of Kazusa,
on the horizon, and two junks in full sail, one filling
the whole foreground of the view. (See Plate 16,)
No. 12. Fuji seen from Ushibori, Province of Hitachi,
over a large junk moored against the bank in the fore
ground, rising above the water- reeds into a deep blue
sky shading off into white at the top. Printed almost
entirely in blue, in various tints, this plate is one of the
best in the series. (See Plate 16.)
No. 13. Fuji seen from Lake Suwa, Province of
Shinano ; a thatched hut under two pine trees, on a
rocky promontory, in foreground. Printed in blue.
M 161

Japanese Colour-Prints

No, 14, A print in blue and grey. Fuji seen from the
Totomi Mountains, through a trestle supporting a huge
log which men are sawing, one below and one standing
on top of it ; on left, another man sharpening a saw,
and underneath the log a fourth sitting by a fire, the
smoke of which trails upwards to the right. Another
very favourite view.
No, 15, Fuji from the Onden water-wheel, which projects
from a thatched shed on the left.
No. 16. Fuji seen from Inume, Province of Kai, across a
valley over which lie mists, its crest snow-covered ; in
the middle-distance two men with packhorses passing.
No, 17. Fuji reflected in Lake Misaka. Blue outline.
No, 18. Fuji seen from the Pass of Mishima, in the
Province of Kahi, with its crest wreathed in a light
cloud, and clouds rising behind its base, while in the
foreground, as if challenging comparison with the peer
less mountain, stands a huge tree, the giant of the forest,
and three men, like pigmies, are endeavouring, with
outstretched arms, to encircle its girth. Another mag
nificent plate, (See Plate 17,)
No, 19. Fuji seen from Isawa at daybreak, rising out of
the mists ; in the foreground, a street between two rows
of houses still closed, and travellers setting forth.
No, 20. Fuji seen across the inlet of Kanagawa, and a huge
wave about to envelop three boats and their helpless
crews. Reprints and reproductions of this plate are
common. Good impressions of original copies should
show some slightly tinted clouds in the upper part of
the sky, which do not appear in late impressions nor in
reprints. 162

HOKUSAI : Fuji from the sea-shore at Tago (No. 24 of the " Views
of Fuji " series).

Plate E] [face page 162

The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji
No. 21. Fuji, its crest white with snow, seen through a
row of pines by the edge of the road, from Hodogaya
on the Tokaido, and travellers, one on horseback,
passing along the highway.
No. 22. Fuji seen from a tea-house at Yoshida on the
Tokaido, and a waitress pointing it out to two ladies
who have been brought thither in a kago. This plate
is hardly up to the standard of the other views in this
series.
No. 23. Fuji seen from the ford over the Oi River at
Kanaya on the Tokaido, with people being carried
across on the backs of coolies, and gangs of men carry
ing norimons.
The representation of the river, like some huge tidal
wave sweeping up it, and the coolies wading through
between steep banks of water, is most curious,
reminding one of the passage of the Red Sea by the
Israelites,
No. 24. A blue Fuji with its crest in white towering up
behind green hills shrouded in yellow mists, over
looking the shore at Tago, near Ejiri ; while in the
foreground two large junks, and others beyond, are
being beached stern foremost. Prevailing colours of
yellow, blue, and green. One of the best plates in the
series. (See Plate E.)
No. 25. Fuji seen in the distance from Enoshima, and a
cluster of houses in green woods with the pagoda of
the shrine of Benten rising above the foliage and
people wending their way to it.
No. 26. Fuji from Nakabara, Province of Soshu. Coolies
passing across a low plank bridge by a small stone way-
163

Japanese Colour-Prints

side shrine on the edge of a stream, and a man fishing
with a net close by.
No, 27. Fuji from Shichiri-ga-hama, province of Soshu,
A print in dark bluish-green, with a snow-capped Fuji
showing on right of clump of trees, and curious white
clouds on the horizon on left.
No. 29. Fuji from Umesawa, Province of Sagami. A deep
blue mountain, graded lighter towards the crater, green
forests at its base ; cranes in the foreground, and two
flying towards the crater. Dense clouds encroaching
from either side upon the mountain, A somewhat
uninteresting plate in prevailing green and blue.
No. 30, Fuji seen from the timber-yard at Honjo, Yedo ;
in foreground a man sawing a log, and on the left
another throwing up billets to a third standing on the
top of a pile of logs for stacking.
No, 31, Fuji seen through the piers of the Mannen Bridge
over the Fuka River ; people passing over the bridge,
a laden barge on the water, and a man fishing.
No. 32. Fuji, from the pagoda of the Five-Hundred Rakan
at Yedo ; people admiring the view from a balcony
adjoining the temple, and a man pointing the moun
tain out to them.
No. 33. Fuji seen across the ancient pine of Aoyama,
whose trailing branches are supported on trestles ;
low-lying mists intervening, and a party picnicking on
the hill-side.
No. 34. A solitary fisherman at Kajikasawa, Kai Povince,
standing on a rock jutting out over the waves and
hauHng in his lines, the outline of the peak of Fuji
appearing beyond above the mist.
164

The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji
No. 35. Fuji just visible from Shimo Meguro, a small
village in the hills near Yedo. This view having no
strongly marked features is difficult to describe in
words.
No. 36. Fuji seen from Senju, a suburb of Yedo, and two
men fishing at a weir, another leading a horse. Another
favourite plate.
No, 37, Another view of Fuji from Senju, looking across
the Yoshiwara ; two women watching a daimyo's pro
cession passing.
No, 38. Fuji seen from Tsukuda-jima, an island at the
mouth of the Sumida River, rising above green hills
on the further bank, and white clouds, printed in
gauffrage, rolling along the horizon. Another very fine
view, (See Plate 17,)
No. 39. Fuji seen across the Tama River, in the
Province of Musashi, with a wide band of mist
stretching across from side to side below the snow
capped crater ; a laden boat crossing the stream. A
favourite plate.
No. 40. A distant view of Fuji from Gotenyama, at Shina
gawa on the Tokaido ; in the foreground, cherry trees
in blossom and people admiring them.
No. 41. Fuji appearing over the roofs of warehouses along
the banks of a canal, at the end of which rise, above the
mists and trees, the towers of the Uyeno Temple ; in
the foreground, the Nihon Bridge crowded with cooHes
and porters. A very fine plate. Blue outHne.
No. 42. Fuji seen from Suruga Street, Yedo, between the
tops of roofs, on one of which on the right are workmen
making repairs ; kites flying. 165

Japanese Colour-Prints

No, 43, Fuji seen across the house-tops in the distance
from Suruga-dai, a hill in the centre of Yedo ; coolies
and others passing in the foreground, A composition
in green and brown.
No. 44, Fuji seen from the Buddhist Temple of Hong-
wan-ji at Asakusa, Yedo. The roof of the temple on
right, clouds over the roofs of the city below, kites
flying, and high trestle fire-outlook tower rising through
the clouds on the left.
No, 45. Fuji at evening, beyond the Ryogoku Bridge,
Yedo ; in the foreground, a large ferry-boat, and beyond
it the long line of the bridge across from bank to bank
and Fuji terminating it in the distance.
No, 46. A distant view of Fuji from the village of Seki-ya,
on the Sumida River, rising above the mists over a flat
landscape ; in the foreground, three horsemen riding
along an embankment in a gale of wind. Blue outline.
The foregoing series was issued between the years 1823
and 1829 » i^ ^^59 was issued a similar series by the pub
lisher Tsutaya, but consisting of upright views, designed by
Hiroshige, He, however, did not live to complete it, and
some of the views are undoubtedly by his pupil, Hiroshige
II. Though issued in 1859, as a memorial to Hiroshige,
each plate is dated 4th month, 1858. When well printed,
which is rare — late, poorly printed copies largely outnumber
ing the good ones — this series takes high place amongst the
various upright series designed by him. The order of the
plates is given on the title-page published on completion of
the series.

166

1. HOKUSAI: Fuji from Mishima Pass, Kai Province; No, 18
of the Views of Fuji."

2. HOKUSAI : Fuji from Tsukuda-jima at the mouth of the Sumida
River ; No. 38 of the " Views of Fuji."

Plate 17] [face page] 66

The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji
The views constituting this series are as follows : —
No. I , Fuji seen across the town from the Ichikoku Bridge,
Yedo,
No, 2. Fuji seen from Suruga Street, Yedo, Manzai
dancers passing.
No. 3, Fuji from the moat round Yedo Castle in the depth
of winter. A very good snow scene.
No. 4, Distant view of Fuji from Tsukuda-Oki, Yedo,
with junks moored in the bay, and one in the fore«
ground, close to a bank of reeds. A very good plate.
(See Plate 18.)
No, 5, View of Fuji from the Tea-water Canal, Yedo, with
an enclosed water-conduit carried across it like a bridge.
No. 6, Fuji seen across Yedo from the Ryogoku Bridge ; a
woman in a boat alongside a landing stage talking to
another standing on it under a willow tree.
No, 7, A grey Fuji seen from the embankment of the
Sumida River, along which two girls are walking under
cherry trees.
No. 8. Fuji from Asuka-yama ; view from a green field
with cherry trees, and people walking about.
No, 9, View of Fuji from the " Fuji View " tea-house, on
high ground overlooking a stream running through rice-
fields, and two women admiring the view. Perhaps a
plate by Hiroshige II,
No. 10, Fuji seen from Meguro Yukiga-oka, between two
maples on the high bank of a stream.
No. II. Fuji rising through a crimson sky above low-lying
mists and the winding Tone River in the foreground,
and saiHng junks on it. People standing under the
trees on a high cliff overlooking the river. 167

Japanese Colour-Prints

No, 12. The cone of Fuji seen through the cleft in a tree-
trunk beside a stream, from Kokanei, Province of
Musashi,
No, 13. Considered one of the masterpieces of the series.
Fuji seen from the Tama River, Province of Musashi,
In the foreground, two people crossing a low bridge over
the river by a willow tree, and in the distance people
fishing from the bank,^
No, 14, Fuji from Koshiga-ya, Province of Musashi, rising
above the surrounding hills, across the intervening
river and fields ; in the foreground, two cherry trees
with red blossom just coming into leaf, A man in
a punt on the river, and four people walking along
the bank.
No, 15, A snow-white Fuji towering up into the sky
and a cloud hanging on its slopes seen from Noge,
Yokohama, lying at the head of an inlet up which
junks are sailing, past a flat promontory covered with
trees.
No, 16, Fuji seen from the sea at Honmaki, Musashi, and
a perpendicular cliff in the foreground, with trees on
its summit, and a boat saiHng past it.
No. 17. Similar to the last view. Fuji from the Sea of
Miura, Province of Shoshu, its base wreathed in red
clouds ; in the foreground, cliffs crowned with trees.
No, 18. Fuji seen above a green hill from the Sagami
River, Province of Shoshu, and two men on rafts, the
one in the foreground with a fire burning.
No. 19, Fuji from the seashore known as the " Seven
Ri " (about eighteen miles) beach, Shoshu Province, and
• Illustrated in the author's On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints,
168

HIROSHIGE : " Views of Fuji " Series
1 . Plate 4. Fuji from Tsukuda, Toto. 2. Plate 1 9. Fuji from the " Seven-Ri " beach, Soshu.

Plate 18] [face page \68

The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji
a man, followed by two children, passing a tea-house on
the beach in which two women are sitting. On the
lanterns hung from the roof of the tea-house appear
Hiroshige's diamond seal, " Hiro." (See Plate i8.)
No, 20, Fuji seen across Enoshima Bay through a large
torii erected on the beach close to a tea-house which
three women are approaching.
No. 21. Fuji from Lake Hakone, Soshu Province, yellow
cliffs along the shore.
No, 22, Fuji seen in the heart of the Izu Mountains, with
a white cloud resting at its base, and a great waterfall
in the foreground.
No. 23. Fuji seen from the coast at Satta Point, and a
great wave breaking in on the shore. Considered the
masterpiece of the whole series.
No, 24, A great white Fuji streaked with grey rises up into
a golden sky, seen from the promontory Miho-no-
Matsubara, one of the stations of the Tokaido ; ships
sailing in the bay.
No. 25, Fuji seen across rice-fields from the edge of a
road lined with great pine trees, along which a woman
and a priest, with shaven head, are passing, at Yoshi
wara, on the Tokaido,
No, 26, Fuji seen in the distance from the ford over the
Oi River, and women being carried across in kagos by
coolies. A poor plate by Hiroshige II.
No. 27. Fuji seen across a wide expanse of calm sea from
the beach at Futami, Ise Province, with the " husband
and wife " rocks in foreground.
No. 28, Fuji seen at the far end of Lake Suwa, sur
rounded by mountains, and boats on it. 169

Japanese Colour-Prints

No, 29. Another, more distant, view of Fuji at the head
of Suwa Lake, with the narrow road between steep hills
leading down to it.
No. 30. A near view of Fuji across the Motosu Lake from
Misakagoshi, Kai Province. A very fine view.
No, 31. Fuji rising above grey hills seen from a field, in
which wild flowers and tall suzuki grass are growing, in
the Plain of Otsuki, Kai Province,
No, 32, Fuji rising above other mountains overlooking a
ravine through which the River Fuefuki flows, and
clouds hanging over it. A plate by Hiroshige II ;
colouring crude.
No. 33, A distant view of Fuji seen across a flat plain with
a small stream meandering through it, and two horses
grazing, the one in the foreground blocking out nearly
half the view. A very poor plate, obviously the work
of the second Hiroshige.
No, 34. Fuji seen across the Bay of Kuroda, Province of
Kazusa, with junks at anchor, and others sailing across.
No. 35. Fuji across Yedo Bay, seen from Rokusozan,
Kazusa ; a large tree in the foreground by the edge of
the road, along which a woman on a led horse is pass
ing under a torii. Probably by Hiroshige II.
No. 36. Fuji from the seashore at Yasuda, Shimosa, show
ing the path running round a projecting headland and
waves breaking on the shore ; in foreground a bare
headed priest gazing at Fuji across the bay, A good
plate.

170

XIV VIEWS IN AND AROUND YEDO
VARIOUS YEDO VIEWS BY HIROSHIGE
"FAMOUS RESORTS OF YEDO"
"HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF YEDO"

CHAPTER XIV
VIEWS IN AND AROUND YEDO
UNDER the title of "Yedo Views," Hiroshige
issued a large number of series with different
publishers. Mr. Happer states that nearly
fifty different series of indefinite number, in
various sizes and shapes, are known, thus giving some idea
of the popularity of this subject.
The earliest known series is a set complete, according to
Mr, Happer, in ten views, each full size, oblong, issued by
the publisher Kawa-Sho, and may be recognized by the
narrow decorative border in varied patterns with round
corners, each signed in full Ichi-yusai Hiroshige. This
series, however, is very uncommon.
The series of most uniform excellence is probably that
entitled " Toto Meisho," " Celebrated (Views of) Toto "
(Toto or Yeto being alternative names for Yedo) the next
earliest issue, pubHshed by Sanoki, whose mark of Kika-
KUDO is stamped on the margin in red with the kiwame
(" perfect ") seal above it. The title is in a frame also
outside the margin, and projects somewhat above the top
border. A view from this series of the Yoshiwara at night,
under a full moon, is given at Plate 19.
Another series, also issued by Sanoki, may be distin
guished from the foregoing by having the title, which is
173

Japanese ColourrPrints

also in a frame on the margin of the print, placed a trifle
lower down, while the shape of the frame is slightly different.
The publisher's stamp in the margin is generally Sanoki,
instead of Kika-kudo, and the border is shaped sHghtly
differently at the corners. Hiroshige's signature, too, is
written in his middle period form ; in the previous Sanoki
issue it is in his early script. (See note. Appendix II.)
The view of the Yoshiwara under snow, here reproduced
at Plate 19, has the Sanoki seal (in black) in the margin
in place of his Kika-kudo seal on the other series.
One of the best views in this series is that of the yearly
festival at Asakusa Temple, showing the crowds of people
thronging up the temple steps under their umbrellas, during
a heavy snow-storm. Except for slight touches of yellow
and green, this is a print in one colour only, effect being
produced by the contrast between the brilliant red of the
temple and the snow.
Yet a third series by Sanoki is one with the title " Yeto
Meisho." Judging from the script of Hiroshige's signature
on the copy of a print from this series in the author's col
lection, he would be inclined to place its date as inter
mediate between the last two. The title is in a frame
similar in shape and position to the previous series, to which
Asakusa Temple under snow belongs, but the publisher's
seal, Kika-kudo (in red) is placed higher up in the
margin. A well-known set of Yedo views by Hiroshige is that
called the Yamada-ya (name of the publisher) figure set,
from the prominence of the figures introduced into the
view. It is supposed to be complete in forty plates, which
are variously dated between the years 1853 and 1858.
174

1. HIROSHIGE: "Toto Meisho:" Yoshiwara by night under a
full moon ; published by Sanoki. (Red " Kikakudo " seal
on margin not reproduced).

2. HIROSHIGE : " Toto Meisho : " Morning snow at Yoshiwara ;
published by Sanoki. (Black " Sanoki " seal on margin not
reproduced).

Plate 19] _.
[face page 1 74

Views in and around Yedo

They also carry the publisher's mark and two small
inspector's seals. (See note. Appendix II, )
The plates comprising this set vary in quality, and
owing to the late date at which some were issued the colour
ing is at times crude and harsh. The best plate is, per
haps, that of the Tea-water Canal, Yedo, in a heavy
snowstorm, the deep blue water of the canal flowing
between high banks, crowned on one side with trees, all
under a thick mantle of snow, and black sky, making a picture
of wonderful contrasts.
This series is interesting from the fact that at this date
Hiroshige had practically abandoned the oblong form of
print for the vertical ; in this set, however, he reverts to his
former shape.
The foregoing constitute some of the principal " Yedo
Meisho " series in oblong shape, prints of which the col
lector is most likely to come across. As stated above, about
fifty different series, in various shapes and sizes, are known,
but as many are represented by only an occasional print,
little purpose would be served by giving up space even to a
portion of them,
A series by Hiroshige II deserves mention, however,
issued by the pubHsher Ichibei (also known as Sen-Ichi),
whose seal appears in the margin, together with the date-
seal for the year 1862, PubHshed at a time when the use of
more than two or three colours was prohibited by law, this
series (oblong), which is printed in blue with occasional use
of red and purple, is remarkable for the purity and effective
ness of the blue, which atones for the somewhat faulty
drawing. Under the title " Famous Resorts (i.e. Tea-houses) of
175

Japanese Colour-Prints

Yedo," Hiroshige issued through the publisher Fuji-Hiko,
about the year 1845, a series of which twenty- nine plates
are known,^ showing the principal tea-houses in and around
Yedo, Like the Yamada-ya " Toto Meisho " series, they
vary in merit considerably, some being much better than
others. The colours at times are somewhat crude, and
certain views are put out of balance by the very prominent
figures in the forjeground, which distract the attention from
the subject of the picture, and tend to blot it out.
The view from this series here illustrated at Plate 20,
showing the tea-house by the Imado Bridge, does not exhibit
these defects, the colours being well-blended, and the figures
in the boat well proportioned to the rest of the design. This
series is very uncommon.
We now come to Hiroshige's most celebrated series of
Yedo views, namely his vertical series, entitled "Meisho
Yedo Hiak'kei," " Hundred Famous Views of Yedo,"
issued between the years 1856 and 1858 by the publisher
Uwo-YEI. This series is complete in 118 plates of very varying
quality, many being so inferior that they must be attributed
to Hiroshige II,
Owing to the enormous demand for these views they
were reprinted in subsequent editions many times over,
and it is copies from these late, crudely printed, editions
that are so abundant at the present day, and against which
the collector should be warned.
About twenty to thirty of the views, however, when
early impressions of the first edition, are worthy to be
» Swettenham sale, May, 1912 : twenty-two views out of the twenty-nine.
176

HIROSHIGE : " The Corner House by the Imado Bridge ; " one
of a series " Famous Resorts (Tea-houses) of Yedo ; " pub-
lisher, Fuji-Hiko.

Plate 20]

[facepage-]16

Views in and around Yedo

included amongst Hiroshige's masterpieces, and about as
many more are good, but the remainder are, as a rule, poor,
some indeed being mere rubbish. Views in which some large
object, such as a tree, the mast of a ship, the body or legs of
a horse, is thrust prominently forward into the design,
blotting out the scene, may safely be attributed to the
pupil. Early copies may be distinguished by the good printing,
in which the colours are carefully graduated and the different
tints in the sky melt imperceptibly one into the other. In
exceptionally good impressions the grain of the block from
which they are printed will be clearly seen.
Late issues also often show an entirely different, and
frequently raucous, colour-scheme.
As the author has already pointed out, the date-seal on
each print is no guide, hy itselj, as to what edition a print
belongs. One must judge by the quality of the printing
and of the colours employed.
For reasons stated above, it is not necessary to give a
complete Hst of the ii8 views comprised in this series. We
will therefore confine ourselves to a selection of the best
of them which have come under observation, and which
includes most, if not aU, the masterpieces.
The plate numbers are those given in the index on the
title page, published on completion of the series, and it will
be noticed that the order does not follow the date at which
the blocks were engraved, the date-seal being cut in the
block and not stamped on the print afterwards. The reason
of this apparent irregularity between the plate numbers
and the date cut on the block is that, when the series was
finally completed, it was arranged according to the seasons,
N 177

Japanese Colour-Prints

Plates I to 42 representing spring ; 43 to 72, summer ;
73 to 98, autumn ; and 99 to 118, winter.
Owing to the margins of some copies which have come
under observation being cut, we have not been able to give
the date thereon in every instance.
Plate 4.^ View over the water on a moonlight night
past one of the piers of the Yetai Bridge, and boats fishing
with flares, and junks at anchor. The stars appear only in
first edition copies. Dated 2nd month, 1857.
Plate 5. Fuji under a mantle of snow seen across the
Sumida River, down which two junks are sailing, and in the
left foreground a high wooden tower with paper flags to
denote a wrestling match is in progress. Dated 5th month,
1857. Plate 6. Strips of blue and brown cloth hung out
between willow trees to dry, and in the background a fire-
outlook tower. Dated 9th month, 1857, One of the best
prints of the series, (See Plate 21 .)
Plate 27. The plum gardens at Kamata, with small tea
houses amongst the trees, and an empty kago in the right
foreground. Dated 2nd month, 1857, One of the most
beautifully coloured prints of any in the series,
Plate 34, A geisha going home at night, after an engage
ment, along the river-bank ; the lantern carried by her
guide just shows on the left. Dated 8th month, 1857,
Plate 35, The woods of Suijin by the Sumida River,
and Mount Tsukuba rising above the mists beyond ; two
sailing boats and a raft on the water. Dated 8th month,
1856, One of the masterpieces of the series, (See Plate 21 .)
' These descriptions do not give the actual titles on each print, but are written
in such a way as to afford easy identification of any view herein mentioned which
may come under the reader's notice.
178

HIROSHIGE : " Hundred Views in Yedo "
I. Plate VI. " First Race-Course. Horse-dealer's Street." 2 Plate XXXV " Tl,-. W J f c • •• . , o •,
i.. nate AAAV. Ihe Woods of Sui-jm by the Sumida
River."

Plate 21] [face page 178

Views in and around Yedo

Plate 36, Another view of the Suijin woods, with Mount
Tsukuba in the distance, seen through a half-open circular
window looking down the river, with rafts and a sailing
boat on it. One of the most charming views of any, (See
Plate 22,) Dated Sth month, 1857,
Plate 38, Revellers passing the Great Gate of the Yoshi
wara on their way home at daybreak. Dated 4th month,,
1857. Another masterpiece,^
Plate 40, People walking by the river-side, and on a
steep wooded slope on the right, overlooking the path, the
house of the poet Basho,
Plate 44, A crowded street scene, and in the centre a
group of five people under an enormous umbrella, followed
by a woman with a samisen,
Plate 48, Found in two states, but the first, by Hiro
shige, is very uncommon, and represents a village by the
edge of a river on the further side seen past two paulownia
trees in the foreground on the near side. Dated 4th month,
1856, The block for this view having been damaged or
lost in a fire early in its career, Hiroshige the second was
called upon to supply a new design. This second edition
represents the woods in the background in a mist and rain
falling, with a cluster of trees close to the river in the fore
ground and people passing them. This plate, dated 6th
month, 1859, is signed " the second Hiroshige," and is one
of his best prints so signed,
Plate 51, A large paper turtle, emblem of age, hung in
an opening of the Mannen (" ancient ") Bridge over the
Fuka River, commanding a fine view of Fuji, and sailing
junks on the water. Dated nth month, 1857.
* Illustrated in the author's On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints.
179

Japanese Colour-Prints

Plate 52, Rain-storm on the Great Bridge over the
Sumida River, and people rushing for shelter ; out in mid
stream is a man poling along a raft. Considered the master
piece of the series, and one of Hiroshige's most famous
rain scenes,^ Dated 9th month, 1857,
Plate 54. A night scene on the Asakusa River, with
stars in the sky ; a covered boat passing under the
branches of an overhanging pine tree, and the shadow
of a woman inside faintly showing on the green blind
(omitted in late and inferior copies). Dated Sth month,
1856. Plate 57, Wistaria at Kameido Temple, The famous
" drum " bridge spanning the lake and people crossing over
it, seen through Wistaria hanging over the water in the
foreground. A very charming view. Dated 7th month,
1856. (See Plate 22.)
Plate 67, Fuji rising up beyond the city, with its ware
houses on the banks of the river, and in the foreground a
laden sailing junk, and two other laden barges being poled
along, and behind them a bank of reeds in the centre of the
stream, A very fine view,
Plate 69, A man on a raft on the Ayase River ; over
head a branch of the Icho tree in blossom. Dated 7th
month, 1857,
Plate 75, A grey Fuji with snow-capped peak seen
from " Dyer's Street, Kanda," between two tall wooden
stagings, on which are hung to dry long strips of blue and
white material. On some of the white strips appear the
monogram of the publisher, and on others Hiroshige's
diamond seal, Hiro, Dated nth (?) month, 1857,
' Reproduced in colours in Von Seidhtz's History of Japanese Colour-Prints,
180

Views in and around Yedo

Plate 78, The Buddhist Temple Tsukiji, at Tepposu,
seen across the river, with its roof rising above the mists ;
in the foreground, the tops of two sails, and other boats.
Dated 7th month, 1858,
Plate 82, An open tea-house with a fine view over the
sea, dotted with junks at anchor, and birds flying across the
face of a full moon. On the paper screen on the left appears
the shadow of a waitress. Dated Sth month, 1857.
Plate 84, Old Man's Tea-house, Meguro, On the left, a
grassy slope with three large trees on it and a man gazing
at Fuji in the distance ; below, a small tea-house by the
edge of the path overlooking a wide plain, across which a
solitary man and horse are wending their way. Dated
4th month, 1857,
Plate 90, Theatres by Night, Young Monkey Street, A
full moon shining down upon the street, lined with buildings
on each side, and crowds of people promenading. This
print is remarkable for the shadows cast by the moon, thus
showing European influence in its design. In first edition
copies a light cloud appears across the face of the moon,
omitted in late issues. Dated 9th month, 1856,
Plate 91, People at a small booth close to the water's
edge looking across to the trees on the opposite bank, the
lake filling most of the view, European influence is again
seen here in the reflection of the trees in the water. Dated
Sth month, 1857,
Plate 92, Another beautiful lake and park scene.
View of the lake in the Park of Gozen, Mokuboji, and
two women landing from a boat and going up to a tea
house, and beyond it a bridge over the lake with people
crossing. 181

Japanese Colour-Prints

Plate 94. View through the overhanging branch of a
maple tree from an elevated point across the Mama-no-
Iri-ye Swamp and its temple to the Oyama Hills in the
distance rising above the low-lying mists. One of the
masterpieces of the series, when well printed.
Plate 95, Konodai, Tone River, People standing on a
high bluff overhanging the river, and admiring the distant
view of Fuji across the Plain of Yedo ; junks sailing on the
river. Dated nth month, 1857, (Compare with same
view in Hiroshige's " Views of Fuji " series, Plate n,)
Plate 97, Fireworks at Ryogoku Bridge, Yedo, with a
great rocket bursting in the sky, and crowds on the bridge
and in boats watching. Dated Sth month, 1858.
Plate IOI, A white cat sitting at the bars of a window
watching a procession in the distance wending its way to
the Asakusa Temple, a snowy Fuji in the distance. In
first edition copies Fuji is tinted grey, an effect missing
in later issues. Dated nth month, 1857.
Plate 103. The Great Bridge at Senju, Yedo, with
people crossing on foot, a man on horseback, and a passenger
in a kago. Three sailing junks on the river, which stretches
away in the distance behind till lost in the mists, above
which rise mountains. Dated 2nd month, 1856.
Plate 105. Two women standing in the bow of a ferry
boat crossing the Sumida River at Asakusa, and just reach
ing the bank close to a mound out of which two willow trees
are growing. In first edition copies the trees stand out in
sharp contrast against the sky, an effect much minimized in
late issues. Dated 12th month, 1857.
Plate 106. Snow scene on the Fuka River, in the timber
district ; logs floating in the water and stacked on shore,
182

HIROSHIGE : " Hundred Views in Yedo."
1. Plate XXXVI. " Seki-ya and the Sui-jin Woods seen 2. Plate LVII " WUt^rl. T • T i v- •,
from Masak" " Wistaria, Fenjm Temple, Kameido.

Plate 22] [face page 182

Views in and around Yedo

the whole scene under heavy snow. In the foreground the
top of a yellow umbrella. Another masterpiece. Dated
Sth month, 1856.
Plate 107. A large eagle hovering in the sky over the
sea, in which a tub is floating ; the adjoining plain and
Mount Tsukuba in the distance under snow. Another very
fine plate,
Plate 112, Another very good snow scene. People
plodding along under heavy snow past some buildings on the
left, and the canal on the right with overhanging bamboos,
Dat^ i2th month, 1857, (See note. Appendix IL)
Hiroshige's very rare series, entitled " Eight Views of the
Environs of Yedo " will be noticed, with other series of
Hak'kei (" Eight Views"), which form a subject in them
selves. Another very rare series of Yedo Views is a set of eight
views, though not following the well-known Hak'kei theme,
by Toyoharu, entitled " Eight Views of Celebrated Places
in Yedo," fuU size, oblong, published by Yeiyudo.^
Hiroshige II designed a set of Yedo Views, full size,
upright, under the title " Thirty-six Views of Toto " (i.e,
Yedo), which is better than most work by him, some of the
plates being excellent. (See note. Appendix II.)
' Swettenham sale. May, 1912 : six plates out of the set of eight.

183

XV MISCELLANEOUS LANDSCAPE VIEWS
EIGHT VIEWS OF THE LOOCHOO ISLANDS
WATERFALLS AND BRIDGES SERIES
VIEWS OF TEMPOZAN
FAMOUS VIEWS IN KYOTO
HARBOURS OF JAPAN
SIXTY-ODD PROVINCES
OMI HAK'KEI
MUTSU TAMAGAWA

CHAPTER XV
MISCELLANEOUS LANDSCAPE VIEWS
IN this chapter we will pass in review those landscape
series which portray the country at large, as distinct
from a particular locality or theme, such as the city
of Yedo or Mount Fuji.
They contain also fewer views than the series already
described, so that they can be conveniently dealt with in a
single chapter.
In addition, most of them are rare — some very rare — so
that not more than titles can be given, as only certain views
have come under observation. Neither is detailed de
scription necessary in all cases, complete sets being very
difficult of acquisition. In some instances even the acqui
sition of a single print will be a matter of good luck, and
certainly will entail the exercise of much patience,
Hokusai's famous series (moderately rare), " The
Hundred Poems explained by the Nurse," of which twenty-
seven are known, in addition to about fifteen original
drawings, while they portray landscape views, are really
illustrations of or allusions to the poems, and as such more
properly come under the representation of poets, as they
are not landscapes in the same sense as his views of Fuji,
for example.
The same applies to his large, and extremely rare,
187

Japanese Colour-Prints

vertical series, entitled " The Imagery of the Poets," to
which reference has already been made.
Mention of the poets calls to mind his series of Settsu
Gekka, " Snow, Moon, and Flowers," the three friends of
the poet, each full size, oblong, published about 1830 ;
very rare. The three views represent Snow on the Sumida
River ; Moon on the Yodo River ; and Flowers at Yoshino,
Hiroshige designed a similar series under the same title,
representing Snow at the Shrine of Benten, Shinobazu
Pond, Uyeno Park ; Fishing by Moonlight on the Tama
River ; and Cherry-blossoms on the Koganei Embank
ment ; also rare, (Happer sale.)
Other landscapes by Hokusai are :
Riukiu Hak'kei, " Eight Views of the Loochoo Islands,"
fuU size, oblong {c. 1820), pubHshed by MoRiji ; very rare,*
The titles to each view are : —
I, The Sound oj the Lake at Riukai.
2. The Pine Wave at Riuto.
3, Moon at Senki.
4, The Sacred Fountain at Jogaku.
5. Sunset at Jungai.
6. Bamboos at Beison.
7. View oj Choko in Autumn.
8, The Gardens oj Naka-jima.
This series of " Eight Views " does not follow the theme
usually associated with this title, and so is here given
separately, Shokoku Takimeguri, " The Waterfalls of Various
Provinces " ; eight views, full size, upright ; published by
Yeijudo, c. 1827 5 J^^^^^-
» Appleton sale, June, 1910 : complete set.
188

Miscellaneous Landscape Views
I. The Kirijuri {jailing mist) Fall, Province of Shimotsuke,
2. The Ono Fall on the Kisokaido,
3. The Kiyo Fall at Saka-no-shita, on the Tokaido.
4. The Yoshitsune Horse-washing Fall, in the Province of
Izumi, so-called in allusion to the warrior Minamoto-
no-Yoshitsune having washed his horse in it, (See
Plate 7, page 92.)
5. The Amida {Buddha) Fall, Kiso Province,
6. The Aoiga Fall, Yedo Province.
7. The Roben Fall, Oyama, Province of So-shu.
S. Yoro Fall, Province of Mino.
Shokoku Meikio Kir an, " The Bridges of Various
Provinces," full size, oblong, published by Yeijudo, 1827-
30 ; rare,^
I , Bridge of the Moon at Arashi-yama, Province of Yama-
shiro,
2. Bridge of Boats at Sano, Province of Kozuke,
3. The " Spider Web " Bridge at Guido, Province of
Shimotsuke.
4. Suspension bridge of bamboo and rope between the
Provinces of Hida and Etchu, and a man and woman
crossing it.
5. Kintai Bridge, Province of Suwo; a wooden bridge of
five arched spans, on massive stone piers,
6. The Yahagi Bridge at Oka-zaki, on the Tokaido,
7. The celebrated drum bridge at the Tenjin Temple,
Kameido, Yedo. (See Plate 23.)
8. Bridges at the mouth of the Agi River, Tempozan,
Osaka.
9. Temma Bridge, Osaka, Province of Settsu.
' Miller sale : complete set.
189

Japanese Colour-Prints

IO. Fukiu Bridge, Province of Echizen.
II, The " Eight-parts " Bridge, Province of Mikawa,
Keisai Yeisen designed a series of Waterfalls, full size,
upright, in close imitation of Hokusai's Waterfalls, entitled
" Famous Views in the Nikko Mountains," This series is
very rare, and is presumed to consist of eight views, as in
Hokusai's set, the only reference to it the writer has found
being in the Miller sale (May, 1911), at which five views
appeared, two of them being illustrated,
Yashima Gakutei, one of the best pupils of Hokusai,
designed a very fine series of land and seascapes, entitled
Tempozan Shokei Ichiran, " Views of Tempozan," Osaka,
intended as illustrations for a guide to Osaka, published in
the year 183S, These views are the full size oblong shape,
known as yoko-ye, an unusual size for book illustrations.
The complete book, text and illustrations, is extremely rare,
while the illustrations, singly in sheets, are almost as rare.
I , A sailing junk in the trough of a huge wave making for
harbour in a heavy rainstorm. The masterpiece of the
series,
2, A fleet of junks entering Tempozan Harbour, under a
burst of sunlight against blue clouds, and cranes flying
overhead. Another very fine plate. (Reproduced in
On Collecting Japanese Prints.)
3. " Escaping the Rain," People amusing themselves crawl
ing through square holes in the two pillars at the
entrance to a temple, for luck,
4, Moonlight, Suyehiro Bridge, A boat passing under the
bridge, over which shines a large moon.
5. Osaka Stone Bridge over the Agi River ; view looking
out to sea,
190

1. HOKUSAI: "Drum Bridge, Tenjin Temple. Kameido
No. 7 of the " Bridges " series.

2. GAKUTEI : " Eight Views into the Mountains," one of the
series " Views of Tempozan " ; signed Go-gaku.

Plate 23] r/ mn
[face page \%

Miscellaneous Landscape Views
6, " Eight Views into the Mountains," TJie stone embank
ment at the mouth of the Agi River, three junks moored
by it, and another sailing past. Clouds lying over the
bank, which is lined with trees, and people ascending a
three-peaked hill overlooking the river, (See Plate 23,)
ToTOYA Hokkei, another pupil of Hokusai, has left a
series, entitled Shokoku Meisho, " Famous Views of Various
Provinces," remarkable for the very unusual shape of the
prints, which are a long, narrow, oblong form, measuring
7 inches by 15, These prints are very rare indeed, but a
set of eleven sheets appeared in the Miller sale, 191 1, one
of them being illustrated in the catalogue thereto, entitled
The Village oj Musashi, a scene of a winding road through
rice-fields, along which three men on horseback are passing,
and a great half-moon resting on the horizon and geese
flying across it. Another view of this series, but not in
cluded in the Miller set, is illustrated in the Catalogue of the
Victoria and Albert Museum, representing a three-masted
European ship of the period of the Armada saluting as she
passes Mount Inasa, at the entrance to Nagasaki Harbour,
The series, therefore, is probably complete in twelve sheets.
As both Hokkei and Gakutei are known by their surimono,
these examples of their work in landscape, rare though they
are, are very interesting,
Shotei Hokuju, a third pupil of Hokusai, also designed
several landscapes and views of sea and coast scenery. His
prints are remarkable for their evidence of European in
fluence, in the drawing of clouds and shadows cast by
figures, while his mountains are drawn in a very curious
angular manner, quite cubist in effect. All these character
istics are well shown in his view of the Tea- water Canal,
191

Japanese Colour-Prints

Yedo (illustrated in the author's On Collecting Japanese
Prints), where the figures on the bank cast shadows, and
the clouds are strongly indicated by gauffrage. He uses a
curious, though very striking, colour-scheme of deep blue,
brown, dark and light green. His prints are called Rangwa,
literally " Dutch " pictures, as it was from the Dutch that
he learnt his ideas of European perspective and drawing.
In addition to the various landscape series by Hiroshige
already mentioned, are the following : —
Kyoto Meisho, " Famous Views in Kyoto," a set of ten
full size, oblong prints, early work, published by Kawa-
GUCHi ; very rare. They may be recognized by having a
narrow double-line frame round each view.
I. The gold-plated Kinkakuji Temple at Kyoto, sur
mounted with a large bird with its wings outstretched ;
behind it a hill.
2. Tsuten Bridge spanning a gorge, with red maples on
either bank, and people picnicing.
3. View of Arashi-yama, famous for its cherry trees, (Also
a well-known view in Hiroshige's " Sixty Odd Provinces"
series,)
4, " The Village of Yase " ; a path through fields, along
which women with loads on their heads are walking,
5. A large boat being poled along the Yodo River with a
company of people under a straw awning having re
freshment, while a small boat is tied alongside ; above
shines a full moon with a light cloud across it,
6. Gion Temple under snow. The torii and railings and
stone lanterns at the entrance to the temple grounds,
and four women under umbrellas coming out. In the
192

1 . HIROSHIGE : Plate 22 of the " Sixty-odd Provinces "
Series ; Moonlight on Lake Biwa.

Plate 24]

2. HIROSHIGE II.: "Snow at Kiso. Province of
Shinna-no;" from the "Hundred Views of
Various Provinces " Series.

[face page 192

Miscellaneous Landscape Views

background, the roofs of the temple buildings covered
with snow,
7. Shimbara, one of the gates of the Yoshiwara quarter
of Kyoto, and a reveller being escorted out in the early
dawn. (See Plate 25.)
8, Tea-houses by the river-side under a heavy downpour
of rain, and people rushing for shelter. In the fore
ground, two people crossing a plank bridge; in the
background, a forest of trees, A masterpiece,
9, View of the Kiyomidsu Temple standing on the hill
side amongst cherry trees in bloom ; tea house on left,
10, People taking " evening cooling " in the dry bed of the
Kamo River at Kyoto,
Honcho Meisho, " Celebrated Views of the Main Island "
(of Japan) ; a set of full size, oblong plates ; published by
Fuji-HiKO ; very rare.^
Nihon Minato Tsu-kushi, " The Harbours of Japan " ;
ten full size, oblong views, published by Marusei ; rare.^
The harbours are Yedo ; Nakasu, in Yedo Bay ; Shina
gawa ; Tepposu ; the Agi River at Osaka ; Marugame,
Province of Sanuki ; Muronotsu, Harima Province ; Uraga ;
Shimi-zu, Suruga Province ; and Shimonoseki,
Naniwa Meisho, " Famous Views of Naniwa " (i.e,
Osaka) ; a series of ten oblong views, published by Kawa-
GUCHi, c. 1S28 ; very rare.
Sankai Mitate Sumo, " Mountain and Sea compared like
Wrestlers," the title written in the top corner on a fan such
as is used by the umpire at a wrestling match, A set of
twenty views, oblong, published by Yamada-ya, whose seal
is on each print. Some views are dated Horse 7 and others
' Complete set in Happer sale, April, 1909.
o 193

Japanese Colour-Prints

Horse 8, that is the 7th and Sth months of the year 1846
or 185S. The writer considers the later year the more
likely, owing to the crude aniline colours employed, staring
reds and blues, and the poor quality of the drawing. The
artist's signature, also, is on a red label, like on his various
upright series, a device employed from 1850 onwards.
Again, as the writer has pointed out elsewhere, the date on
a print is no evidence, by itself, of the date of printing.
The views consist of mountain and coast scenery. The
series is rare, but as they are of little artistic merit this
fact is not of much consequence, (See note. Appendix II.)
Roku-ju yo shu Meisho zu-ye, " Famous Views of the
Sixty Odd Provinces " ; a set of sixty-nine full size, upright
prints, variously dated between the years 1853 ^^^ 1856.
Publisher, Heisuke, (See note. Appendix II.)
Like the upright series of Yedo Views described in our
last chapter, this set is of varying quality. While many of
the plates are uninteresting, some are amongst the finest
of the various upright series designed by Hiroshige.
In particular, the view of Moonlight over Lake Biwa
may be counted one of his masterpieces in this form, (See
Plate 24.)
Another masterpiece is the view of the Monkey Bridge,
Kai Province, spanning a gorge, at the bottom of which
rushes a torrent, almost identical with his famous and very
rare kakemono-ye depicting the same scene,
A third very good view is that of the lighthouse at Suni-
yoshi, in Settsu Province, overlooking the Bay of Osaka.
There are about twelve to fifteen other plates of a high order
of merit, though it must be remembered that, like the other
upright series of this period, they were reprinted in subse-
194

Miscellaneous Landscape Views
quent editions, and only first edition copies are those worth
the attention of collectors.
This series carries the following seals : (i) the engraver
(but not on all of the plates), either on the margin or next
Hiroshige's signature ; (ii) date-seal ; (iii) publisher's seal ;
(iv and v) two small inspector's seals, or, in lieu of them,
the aratame (" examined ") seal. (See note. Appendix II,,
to page 34,)
Various Series of " Hak'kei " or " Eight Views '*
The " Eight Views " was a theme borrowed from Chinese
poetry and adapted to various scenes in Japan, and the
subject for each scene was the same, whatever the locality.
They were snow, rain, autumn moon, vesper bells, boats
returning home at evening, geese flying to rest, sunset, and
clearing weather after a storm.
Of the various localities to which these " eight views "
were adapted. Lake Biwa, in the Province of Omi, is the
most popular and the best known,^ This series is known
as the " Omi Hak'kei," and the finest is the early oblong set
by Hiroshige, any one of which is a masterpiece. A com
panion set, also by Hiroshige, of eight views in the environs of
Yedo, is perhaps the only other series which, as a whole, is
equally as fine. Both series are rare, particularly the latter.
The following comprise the views in the " Omi ''
series ; pubHshers' seals of Kawasho and Hoyeido,
» According to Japanese legend, in the year 286 B.C. (by our chronology) the
earth opened out in the Province of Omi, near Kioto, and Lake Biwa, sixty miles long
and nearly twenty broad, was formed in the shape of a hi'uoa, or four-stringed lute.
from which it takes its name. At the same time, to compensate for this depression.
in the earth, Fujiyama was thrown up, the word " erupted " being an epithet apphed
to it for this reason (see Plate 8 in the " Kisokaido " series).

Japanese Colour-Prints

I. Mount Hira under snow; seal Yeisendo (Kawasho.)
2. Rain at Karasaki, with its huge pine tree in the centre of
the downpour ; seal Yeisendo. (See Appendix II.)
3. Autumn Moon at Ishiyama. A high cliff on left, on
summit of which stands the Ishiyama Temple, over
looking the lake ; seal Hoyeido.
4. Vesper Bells at Mii Temple, the temple hidden in the
woods on the slopes of the mountain ; seal Take.
5. Boats returning to Yabase, One of the best views of the
series. Some are out in the centre of the lake, others
in shore or coming to anchor. In the background a
mountain, printed from colour-block, with its summit
appearing above the mists. This view is illustrated in
the Catalogue of the Victoria and Albert Museum at
Plate XI, but over the incorrect title of The Autumn
Moon on Ishiyama ; seal Hoyeido.
6. Geese flying to rest at Katata ; in the foreground a
fishing boat, with nets hanging up to dry. In back
ground, a mountain shrouded in mist with peak just
showing above ; seal Yeisendo.
7, Sunset at Seta. Perhaps the masterpiece of the series,
showing the long Seta Bridge over the lake in the fore
ground, and the mountain known as the lesser Fuji
(not the Fuji as sometimes described), rising in the
background. It is, in fact, almost identical, except for
the moon, with the view of Lake Biwa from the
*' Provinces " series (see Plate 24) adapted to the oblong
shape and taken from a slightly different view-point. The
view in the " Provinces " series is of course later work.
8. Clearing weather at Awadzu, showing the road along the
shore of the lake lined with trees, and boats on the water.
196

I. HIROSHIGE: Shimbara: View outside the gate of the Yoshi
wara in the early morning, and a noisy reveller being helped
away ; one of the Kyoto Meisho series ; publishers' seal of
Yeisendo in margin, printed in blue.

2. HIROSHIGE : " Musashi, Chofu Tama River " ; one of the
oblong Tama River series, published by Tsuta-ya (title and
publisher's mark on margin of print not reproduced).

Plate 25] [face page 196

Miscellaneous Landscape Views
As with other series, Hiroshige issued these Lake Biwa
views in other forms, as a full size, vertical set (dated 1857),
through the pubHsher Uwo-yei ; in a half -plate set, through
Tsuta-ya {very rare), which another artist, Utagawa Sada
nobu, copied almost line for line ; and various miniature
quarter-plate sets.
Utagawa Sadahide has concentrated all eight views into
one large view in a triptych (illustrated in Orange and
Thornicraft Sale Catalogue, March, 1912) which shows Seta
Bridge in the foreground. Mount Ishiyama in the left panel,
and Mount Hira under snow in the distance on the right.
The " Eight Views of Lake Biwa " was a subject por
trayed by several artists besides Hiroshige, though his
series is the best known.
Toyohiro, for example, his master, has designed a set,
almost square, in which the views are in a circle,
Hiroshige's " Eight Views of the Environs of Yedo "
contains what many collectors consider to be his principal
masterpiece in landscape design, namely his Autumn Moon
on the Tama River. Just above a willow tree in the fore
ground a misty full moon shines down on the river, and
fishermen on the shore. In the dim distance is seen a range
of hills. Next to this view is Evening Rain at Azumasha (illus
trated in Happer Catalogue), showing a road along the top
of a low embankment, with a torii at the side marking a
road to a temple in a grove of trees, all under a heavy down
pour of rain.
Any print in this series is very rare, and these two excep
tionally so, PubHsher, Sanoki, 197

Japanese Colour-Prints

We now come to his third great series of Hak'kei, the
" Eight Views of Kanazawa," the title of which is written
in a horizontal panel on each print. Publisher, Heisuke.
Like the foregoing this series is also very rare.
As the titles are the same for all Hak'kei views, there is
no need to repeat them, (One view, Sunset at No-jima, is
illustrated in the author's previous book on Japanese Prints)
These last two series do not appear to have been issued
in an upright form, like the Omi set, but Mr. Happer
mentions two miniature quarter-plate sets of the Kanazawa
Hak'kei. Mr, Happer also alludes to a set of " Eight Views of the
Sumida River," by Hiroshige II, full size, upright, dated
for the year 1861, and reproduces the snow scene from it.
In the Swettenham sale is mentioned a Hak'kei series,
full size, oblong, entitled Meisho Hak'kei (" Eight Famous
Views "), by Gosotei Toyokuni, following the usual themes.
Five of the set also appeared at the Crewdson sale in March
of this year (1919). As one does not, as a rule, associate
Toyokuni (Gosotei) with landscape design, this series,
which is very uncommon, showing his attempts in this
direction, is interesting. One view from it. Autumn Moon
on the Tama River, is reproduced in the Catalogue of the
Victoria and Albert Museum at Plate LXXII, and shows
men fishing from boats, while Fuji appears above low-lying
mists on the horizon, the snowy peak lit up by a full moon
across which a cloud passes. Judging from this view his
efforts at landscape seem not to be unsuccessful. This
series may be recognized by the title being written in a
large horizontal purple panel at the top.

198

Miscellaneous Landscape Views
The last Hak'kei series we have space to mention is a
series of " Eight Views of Yedo," full size, oblong, by
Keisai Yeisen, whose work in landscape we have already
referred to in his collaboration with Hiroshige in the " Kiso
kaido " series.
Another series of Yedo Views by him, though not follow
ing the Hak'kei theme, is a set of upright views having a
peculiar black border, with the word Holland in curious
European lettering.

MuTsu Tamagawa — Six Tama Rivers
The six rivers of the same name in various provinces
furnished another favourite theme for landscape designs.
As in the Hak'kei views, each river had its one particular
theme for treatment,
Hiroshige designed two full-size series, oblong and up
right, of this subject, besides some in a panel shape. The
most important are the two full size series, the early oblong
set issued by Tsuta-ya (a view from which, showing the
Musashi Tama River, is here reproduced at Plate 25), and
the later vertical set issued by Maru Kyu, each print of
which is dated Snake n — nth month, 1857. Although
this vertical series was issued barely a year before Hiroshige's
death, it is, in the writer's opinion, perhaps his masterpiece
in this form, while the colouring is exceptionally good for
so late a date. The view of the two women beating cloth
by moonlight, by the Kimuta Tama River, is a master
piece in the art of producing the greatest effect with
the simplest means, and of his many moonlight scenes this
one is amongst the finest, (See note. Appendix II,) 199

Japanese Colour-Prints

Before describing each plate in these series, we may
explain that they are called Mutsu Tamagawa instead of
Roku (the usual word for six in Japanese), by saying that
the former (sometimes written " Mu ") is an alternative for
six, and is used in this particular case because Mutsu is also
the name of one of the Tama River provinces, likewise
known as Michinoku ; a designation, however, only used in
literature. The different scenes for each river are as follows : —
I. The Kimuta Tama River, Province of Settsu. Two
women beating cloth by the river side in the light of
the full moon, across the face of which wild geese are
flying. The masterpiece of the set.
2. The Noji Tama River, Province of Yamato, A noble
man, with two retainers, looking at the moon's reflection
in the stream. In the background, a green hill rising
above the mists,
3, The Ide Tama River, Province of Yamashiro, The
Poet, Ariwara no Nari-hara, crossing the river on horse
back, with two attendants ; on the banks yellow roses
in bloom,
4. The Chofu Tama River, Province of Musashi, Two
women pounding cloth in a mortar, another rinsing it
in the river, and some distance behind a fourth spread
ing it out on the ground to dry. Fuji in the back
ground. Another very fine view, (See Plate F.)
5, The Koya Tama River, Kii Province, Two pilgrims
standing by the edge of the stream (in the oblong series
three are shown) gazing at the water, said to be poisoned.
In the background, a high mountain, and on the right,
a waterfall,200

HIROSHIGE : Musashi Chofu Tama River (from the " Six Tama
Rivers " series, upright).

Plate F] [face page 200

Miscellaneous Landscape Views
6. The Noda Tama River, Mutsu Province, A court lady
or poetess (in the oblong series two ladies) and her
attendant watching a flight of sanderlings across the
water.
In the panel form (measuring 14^ inches by 5 inches)
there are two editions, one issued by the publisher Kawa
sho, and the other, and later, by Fuji-hiko, They foUow
the large series in treatment sufficiently for them to be
identified from the foregoing description of the vertical
and oblong views. The plate for the Koya Tama River,
however, shows, instead of two pilgrims standing by the
edge of the river, a temple boy standing on a bridge gazing
at the waterfall as it dashes over the face of the rocks, Mr.
Happer also mentions a half-plate set issued by 0-hira,
but no views from this series have come under the observa
tion of the writer.
None of the foregoing " Tama River " series are at all
common, the vertical set, issued by Maru-Kyu, being the
one most frequently met with.

201

XVI ACTOR PRINTS
founding of the popular theatre
hokusai and baiko
THE theatre of TO-DAY
sharaku and his actor prints
torii kiyonobu
katsukawa shunsho
torii kiyonaga
shunyei
utagawa toyokuni
kunimasa i
japanese wrestlers

CHAPTER XVI
ACTOR PRINTS
THE first regular theatre in Yedo was built about
1624, some fourteen years before the birth of
Hishi-kawa Moronobu, who was destined to
develop later the art of colour-printing by the
application to it of the art of wood-engraving.
The coming of the theatre and the colour-print, there
fore, both appealing solely to the masses, were nearly
contemporaneous events.
It is also interesting to record that both artists and
actors often worked together, the latter coming to seek the
advice of the former in the matter of theatrical design in his
costume, such advice being treated as law. This was par
ticularly the case in the time of Toyokuni I, when actor
prints were all the rage, and this intimacy between actor
and artist became even closer as time went on, down to the
period of Yoshitoshi, the last master of Ukiyoye (he died
as late as 1892), who was frequently consulted by the two
most famous actors of the day, Danjuro and Kikugoro.
Previous to the institution of the popular theatre, the
only drama in Japan was that called the No, a classic per
formance which flourished solely in the palaces of the
daimyos, but was not for the populace at large, who had
to be content with mountebanks, wrestlers, and street
performers for their amusement. 205

Japanese Colour-Prints

The success of the popular theatre was instantaneous,
but its morals appear not to have been of the highest order,
so that actors came to be considered as outcasts, and they
found it so difficult at last to obtain permission to act in the
public gardens that they were obliged to have resource to
the (in summer) dried-up river-beds.
As a consequence, actors for a long time were known as
river-bed folk.
But in the estimation of the populace, a great actor,
such as a Danjuro or Hanshiro, was of a status not unlike
that of a popular football-player or prize-fighter in England,
He was a popular idol, and his portrait sold by hundreds ;
but his social condition was of the lowest, and the artists
who portrayed him suffered from their association with him.
One of them, indeed, Shunsho — perhaps the foremost
actor-painter of his day — states in the preface to a book of
actor-portraits by him that, though he enjoyed going to the
theatre, he would have nothing to do with the actors them
selves, and did not know them.
Other artists, again, such as Harunobu and Utamaro,
went further than this, and made a virtue of the fact that
they never painted actors, though the latter overcame his
prejudice against them sufficiently to depict them in private
life, if not on the stage.
The well-known story of Hokusai and the actor Baiko is
another illustration of the social standing of actors,
Baiko, when at the zenith of his fame, visited Hokusai,
then living in great poverty, in order to persuade him to
accept a commission for the design of a ghost-picture, a
subject for which Hokusai had a considerable reputation at
that time {c. iSio),
206

Actor Prints

Baiko, who visited the artist's dwelhng, over which was
written the word " peasant," in some state, first spread his
own carpet over the soiled mats which did service for
Hokusai, before sitting down, and then began the polite
forms of conversation usual to the occasion,
Hokusai, however, his feelings deeply wounded by this
ostentation on the part of his visitor, took no notice of him
whatever, but continued with his work, so that the latter
had finally to depart, humiliated and angry. Later, how
ever, Baiko repeated his visit, this time with many apologies
for his former conduct, and eventually induced Hokusai to
accept his commission.
Apropos of this story it is interesting to note that, at
the present day, the chief actor of the Imperial Theatre in
Tokyo is also named Baiko, and like his ancestor of a
century ago who came to Hokusai for a ghost design,
specializes in ghosts and other representations of the weird.
And this in turn leads us to another interesting fact in
connection with the Japanese stage. Actors were divided
into clans, and the name of the head of the clan was handed
down from one generation to the next, through master to
pupil, though they were not necessarily related to one
another. Thus there were several actors of the name of
Ichi-kawa Danjuro, perhaps the most famous clan of any,
founded by the original actor of that name about the middle
of the seventeenth century. There is still a Danjuro on the
stage to-day ; in fact, the native theatre, in its form of acting
modes of expression, and in the costumes worn, differs but
little from that which we see portrayed in the colour-prints
of a hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago.
Apropos of this fact, we take leave to quote from a
207

Japanese Colour-Prints

modern writer {Behind the Shoji, by Evelyn Adam, London,
1910) who lived some years in Japan, upon the subject of
the Japanese stage of to-day,
" The real Japanese theatre is most interesting, I have
seen comedies written in dialects of which I could not
understand a word, and yet laughed heartily at the lively
gestures and the wonderful skill with which an actor
contracted or expanded his face to suit the character he
happened to be portraying — making it very short and broad
for a toothless old woman, for example, or very long and
narrow for a modern dandy. The tragedies are, perhaps, a
little heavy for our taste. No time is wasted over portraying
emotions which the characters find out in the last act that
they never had, A Japanese audience clamours for incident,
for unlimited noise and a murder every now and then to
liven up the proceedings. But even in the most blood
thirsty play it was a continual delight to watch actors like
Danjuro and Kukogoro, whether they were slashing at their
enemies with their eyes, like the poet's ' in a fine frenzy
rolling,' or simply soliloquizing to a sick child,
" Danjuro was the only Japanese actor to receive any
courtesy from society with a capital S, He, and he alone
of all his class, succeeded in partially overcoming the
prejudice against actors — a prejudice still strong enough to
keep some old-fashioned aristocrats away from the theatre.
The Emperor and the Empress, and the Court, never go,
and if they should even ' command ' a troupe of players to
amuse them in the palace, a revolution would certainly
break out,"
Owing, probably, to the low moral tone of the theatre in
its early days, a law was passed in 1643 by which women
208

1. SHUNSHO: The Actor Sawamura
Sojuro as a pedlar ; hoso-ye print ;
signed Shunsho.

Plate 26]

2. SHUNYEI: The Actor Sakata Hangoro
as a samurai; hoso-ye print;
signed Shunyei ; publisher, Yama
guchi-ya Chusuke.

[face page 208

-"!:£ :^ -iig-V'*-

Actor Prints

were forbidden to take part in theatrical performances,
though as a play in Japan was a twelve hours' affair, from
6 a,m. to 6 p.m., it seems unlikely that women could have
done so except to a limited extent.
As a result of this edict, certain actors confined them
selves to taking women's parts, and their skill in such im
personation was of a very high order. The actors under
the name of Iwai Hanshiro, for example, appear to have
achieved considerable fame in female roles, judging from
the frequency with which their portraits appear on prints.
Actors trained to take women's parts wore women's
garments even in private life, and were brought up like
women, in order to render them perfect in such parts on
the stage. Their voice, of course, remained masculine, but
as the voice is of less account in Japanese acting than
posturing, this fact was of secondary importance.
In this connection it is interesting to note that in England,
previous to the year 1660, women did not appear on the stage,
their parts being filled by men, as in Japan, Nell Gwynn,^
the mistress of Charles II, was one of the first women ta
appear on the English stage.
The grotesque attitudes and, to us, distorted features in
which we often find actors represented in prints make them
appear to some merely ugly caricatures.
The reason for this is explained when we remember that
the interpretation of a play in Japan depends to a much
greater extent than with us upon attitudes and movements,
while elocution plays a very secondary part. The various
shades of passion and sentiment are expressed by the
features and movements of the body rather than by the
tongue. p 209

Japanese Colour-Prints

It is clear, therefore, that an artist, if so minded, could
easily exaggerate the posings and facial expressions of an
actor, so that they appear to us, unaccustomed to see our
plays so interpreted, little better than caricatures.
It is obvious, also, that such acting must have been
extremely trying to the performers, particularly as plays
lasted for twelve hours, while it required an ofiicial edict to
limit them to the nine hours they occupy at the present day.
No artist took a greater advantage of the characteristics
of Japanese acting, nor portrayed them with more vehemence
than Sharaku {w. 1790), an actor in the classic No
performance turned print-designer.
He was originally a performer in the employ of the
daimyo Hachisuka of Awa, and the character of his actor-
portraits is due to this fact.
The No performance was a highly-developed form of
classic drama, beyond the comprehension of the common
people, and was acted only before the aristocracy. The
actors who took part in it were in the pay of the daimyos
and never mixed, unless secretly, with the actor of the
common theatre, from whom they were as far removed as
a leader in grand opera from a clown in a travelling circus.
The performer in a No drama appeared before his
audience in a mask ; these masks were fashioned to
represent every possible emotion, from laughter to the
deepest hatred, and also devils, demons, grotesques, and
deformities. It was, therefore, with these masks in his mind's eye,
that Sharaku came to Yedo to depict the, to him, despised
actor of the common theatre with an intensity born of con
tempt, an intensity which no other artist approached.
210

Actor Prints

This realism — though perhaps this is not quite the right
expression, as Sharaku's work was something more —
brought down upon him the indignation of the public of
Yedo, angry at seeing their favourites treated with so much
malignity, so that he was compelled to discontinue after
working but a short time only, and his actor-prints — his
sole output — are in consequence extremely rare.
Such prints by Sharaku as are still in existence
are mainly in the hands of French collectors, as they were
the earliest to appreciate them where others found him
repellent. Though the actors of the common theatre wore no
masks, they frequently painted their faces with red streaks,
to heighten the effect of facial expression, an effect often
reproduced in prints.
The elaborate and strikingly designed costumes they
wore also formed excellent material fox print-designers,
of which they were not slow to take advantage.
In fact it is often the magnificent costumes, so peculiarly
adapted to the technique of the colour-print, that form the
chief attraction of actor-prints for many who find the
portrayal of the features and the modes of expression
employed difficult to appreciate.
Actor-portraits are found full and three-quarter length
in character, or as head studies only ; singly and in
pairs. Generally the name of the actor is given, and the
character in which he is represented ; at other times the only
identification is by the mon, or crest, on his sleeve, as in the
print by Shunyei illustrated at Plate 26. This is the crest
211

Japanese Colour-Prints

of the clan to which the actor belonged, and in this case
identifies him as Sakata Hangoro.
On the death of a favourite actor his memorial portrait
was issued, representing him in the attitude of a Buddha,
his head shaved, and dressed in the pale blue robe of a
priest or religious recluse. A short biography is also added,
giving his age, date of his death, his private and posthumous
names, the chief parts in which he acted, and so forth.
Torii Kiyonobu (i 664-1 729), founder of the Torii
school, was the first artist to raise the level of actor-portraits
to the important position which this subject has held in
colour-print designs, so that it became the special privilege
of this school. In these early days of Ukiyoye prints were
coloured by hand only, the next stage being with one or
two colour-blocks and then three.
With regard to actor-prints signed Kiyonobu there
appears to be a difficulty at times, or at least some confusion.
There are in existence two-colour prints (in red and green)
signed Kiyonobu, but as Kiyonobu died in 1729 (not 1755
or 1756, as is sometimes stated), several years bejore printing
from two colour-blocks came into existence, such prints
must be the work of a second Kiyonobu. This second
Kiyonobu worked between the years 1740 and 1755, the
best period of the two-colour print, and signed himself
Kiyonobu only (not being the head of the Torn school),
whereas the first of this name signed in full Torii Kiyonobu.
Then again, owing to the characters " nobu " and
" masu " being very similar in form, particularly when
written in a rapid, cursive script, it is difficult sometimes to
say whether a print is by Kiyonobu or Kiyomasu.
212

Actor Prints

Reference to Plate B, from a two-colour print by Kiyo
masu, showing the actors Nakamura Sukegoro and Ichi
kawa Yaozo in character, will make our point clearer.
The signature, written in a rapid script, appears at first
sight to read Torii Kiyonobu jude (" with brush ") ; but
being a two-colour print from blocks it cannot, for reasons
given above, be by the first Kiyonobu, As it is signed in
full, Torii Kiyonobu, it is not by the second artist of that
name. Close inspection shows the signature to be KiyomfWM.
Reference to the actors portrayed will give further
evidence on this point. The actor Nakamura Sukegoro,
holding above his head a large iron pot, was first known
as Sengoku Kametaro, being born in Yedo in 1711, son of
Sengoku Hikosuku, He changed his name to Nakamura
Sukegoro in 1739, that is ten years ajter the death of Torii
Kiyonobu ; further proof this print must be by Kiyomasu,
We have given these details with reference to this par
ticular print in order to make clear to the reader how, when
there is doubt as to the signature on a print, evidence may
be adduced from the print itself by the simple process of
reasoning and analysis from certain known facts.
The scene depicted represents Nakamura Sukegoro in
the character of a strong wrestler, Matano-no-Goro, threaten
ing to crush Ichikawa Yaozo as Sanada-no-Yoichi, who in
turn is holding down a third actor, whose name and character
is not given, but may be identified as Sakata Hangoro by
the mon, or crest, on his sleeve.
Two incidents are here depicted in one scene, in the
form of parody.
Matano-no-Goro was a famous strong man, jealous of
the strength of Sanada-no-Yoichi, a youth of sixteen. One
213

Japanese Colour-Prints

day, seeing the youth standing at the foot of a cliff, he
hurled an enormous rock at him, but Yoichi caught it and
threw it back. Here Matano-no-Goro is shown threatening
Yoichi with a large iron pot, while the latter has thrown a
man on the ground and is preparing to decapitate him with
his short sword, in reference to the occasion when Yoichi
met Matano in combat, and would have overthrown him,
had not the latter's followers rescued him before Yoichi
was able to unsheath his sword. Two of the actors there
fore in this scene represent the same character at different
episodes in his career.
The artist entitled to rank as the principal designer of
actor-portraits when the true /)o/j;chrome print came into
being was Shunsho (i 726-1 792), the virtual founder and
head of the Katsukawa school as a school oi print designers,
the real founder being his master Shunsui, a painter only.
In him and his pupils the representation of actors
reached its highest level in the polychrome print. His chief
rival in this sphere was Torii Kiyonaga (1752-18 15), the
last master but one of the Torii school, and in many respects
the greatest, who took up actor-portraiture towards the end
of his career, having previously devoted himself to the
portrayal of beautiful women.
Next to Shunsho as an actor-painter comes his pupil
Shunyei (i 762-1 8 19), by some rated even higher than his
master, and particularly noted for his large prints of
wrestlers, a subject very few artists attempted. An unusual
form of wrestler-print by him is illustrated at Plate 28,
showing the wrestlers Shachihoko and Nishikigi at grips
with one another, and is remarkable for its representation of
strength and vigorous action. Wrestler-prints, as a rule,
214

1. TOYOKUNI: Theatrical Duo: Nakayama Tomi
saburo as the geisha Sankatsu, and Ichikawa
Komazo as Hanshichi, two celebrated lovers ;
signed Toyokuni ; publisher, Tomoye-ya.

Plate 27]

2. KUNIMASA : Theatrical Duo : Sawamura Sojuro
(standing) as Sonobe Hyoe, and Segawa Klku-
no-jo as Usu-yuke Hime ; signed Kunimasa ;
publisher Tsuru-ya.

[face page 214

Actor Prints

are individual portraits, the figure drawn in a somewhat
stiff and formal attitude. In actor-portraits Shunyei is
chiefly known by his prints in hoso-ye form, though he also
did a few in full size sheets, but these are rare.
Next after Shunsho and his pupils we have to turn to
yet a third school, the Utagawa, to find the last exponent of
actor-portraiture, namely the prolific Utagawa Toyokuni
(1769-1S25), With him we come to the actor-print wherein they are
depicted otherwise than in their stage character ; in picnics
on land and water ; in the company of beautiful women,
surrounded by eager admirers anxious to learn how their
stage favourites comported themselves when off the " boards"
and taking their pleasures abroad.
Toyokuni's best actor-prints are those issued between
the years 1790 and 1800, both as full size sheets, with a
grey background, and in hoso-ye form.
While, perhaps, Toyokuni's reputation as an actor-
painter was at one time held too high, there seems a
tendency at the present day, particularly with American
collectors, if we may judge by the criticisms of Mr. A, D.
Ficke, one of the most recent writers on the subject, to
unduly discredit him, in proportion as the estimation of
other artists in this respect has risen.
Doubtless this lower estimation of Toyokuni is primarily
due to the relative abundance of his late work, which is of a
poor quality, and which we see perpetuated in an even worse
form by his numerous pupils, particularly by Kunisada,
As an actor-painter, however, he should be judged by
his early work, which is of a high order of merit. On this
point we take leave to quote from Mr, Strange's Handbook 215

Japanese Colour-Prints

to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which contains a very
complete collection of Toyokuni's large early actor-prints,
certainly the best in England, if not in existence.
With a collection such as this before one, it is possible
to arrive at a better judgment with regard to Toyokuni's
powers as the designer of actor-prints,
" These portraits of actors," writes Mr, Strange, " are
the work of a master of the highest artistic rank, whatever
be his social position. They have not the prettiness of the
graceful but, truth to tell, somewhat inane females of
Toyokuni's predecessors and contemporaries. The face
and pose are often hard and angular ; but, as anyone will
admit who has ever seen a Japanese play, these qualities are
absolutely inherent in the Japanese actor at work. Indeed
the face was as a mask, and the Japanese stage of old times
held nothing like the human restlessness of a European
actor. Thereon movement was slow, studiously controlled,
and worked into what was really nothing more than a series
of tableaux ; exactly such as Toyokuni, in fact, represents
over and over again with perfect realism. His rendering
of dramatic emotion is intense ; but it is that of the
Japanese, and not of the European actor,
" And the simplicity of his convention, the unerring lines
of his composition, and the inimitable dignity of his subjects,
when such is required of them, are all evidences of great and
personal skill. His colour is always good and generally in a
somewhat subdued key . , , a notable characteristic is the
fine use he made of black in solid mass. Probably no other
artist of his class has excelled him in this respect — few have,
even occasionally, equalled him,"
The above constitutes, in the writer's opinion, a much
2X6

Actor Prints

fairer estimate of the power of Toyokuni as a designer of
actor-prints than what most collectors and writers on the
subject seem disposed to concede to him,
Toyokuni's powerful rendering of dramatic scenes is
well shown in the example by him reproduced in colours
at Plate C. This print, which by itself would entitle him to
rank amongst the greatest of dramatic artists, depicts the
actors Ichikawa Omezo and Onoye Matsusuke in the char
acters of Watanabe-no-Tsuna and the Oni of Rashomon,
There are two versions of this legend, one in which Watanabe
is attacked by an Oni during a rain-storm at the gate of
Rashomon, when he cut off its arm. He hid this arm in a
box, refusing to show it to anyone, but was at length pre
vailed upon to do so by an old woman. As he opened the
box, the woman assumed the form of a witch with the
horned face of Hannya, and pouncing upon the arm, carried
it away. The other version is as follows : A beautiful woman
asked Watanabe to escort her to Gojo, as she was afraid to
travel alone. He helped her on his horse, but during the
journey she changed into a demon, and seized him by his
hair ; whereupon he drew his sword and cut off her arm.
The remainder of the story is the same as the first version.^
The only other artist of the Utagawa school whose actor-
prints show a high level of excellence — by some esteemed
even above those of Toyokuni at his best — ^was his pupil
Kunimasa I (1772-1810), Owing to his early death, however,
his prints are very rare,
A fine example by him is here reproduced at Plate 27,
and shows the actors Sawamura Sojuro (standing) in the
1 Vide Joly's Legend in Japanese Art. 217

'^t^^'.P£i <•; Jf,« '54*.-S-tiirt

Actor Prints

and, as they could make nothing of the heavy features and
elephantine limbs of their model, the few studies of the
wrestling arena that have reached us have little attraction
for the art collector. This failure on the part of the artist
to render a subject that might have appealed strongly to his
European confrere is an interesting contradiction of the
theory that the magnificent creations of the sculptors of
ancient Greece were inspired by the opportunities that those
great artists had of studying the nude form. The Japanese
artist had at least equal facilities, and many worthy subjects,
but not one of the men who in certain directions showed so
perfect and instructive an appreciation for beauty of line
has ever made a serious effort to do justice to the matchless
curves of the human figure."
We have, when dealing earlier in these pages with the
characteristics of Japanese drawing, commented on the
fact that the Ukiyoye artists paid little or no attention to the
drawing of the human figure, even in respect of the hands
and feet, the most easily noted parts besides the face, but
followed a pure convention in this respect.
Then, again, the fact that they did not model their
figures to shape, would render the wrestler, with his heavy
paunch and unwieldy, puffy limbs unsuitable in their eyes
as a subject for delineation, developments unnaturally
exaggerated in drawings of wrestlers, save when intended
as caricatures. The Japanese wrestler, however much he may be admired
in his own country, forms a striking contrast to our notions
of how a wrestler should be trained.
Like the actor he was considered a low, vulgar fellow, but
enjoyed a certain amount of familiarity with his patrons like
219

Japanese Colour-Prints

jockeys and prize-fighters in our own country. Champion
wrestlers were allowed the privilege of wearing a rope
girdle, and also of giving exhibitions of their prowess before
the Shogun.
Wrestling was a very old institution in Japan, the first
historical record of a match occurring 24 B.C. In the eighth
century (a.d,), when Nara was the capital of Japan, the
Emperor Shomu instituted wrestling as part of a religious
ceremony, a custom not discontinued till 1606, Later, about
1640, was instituted the custom of having public wrestling
matches in the streets of Yedo, for the purpose of raising
funds for the building or repair of temples, a custom still in
force in the nineteenth century.

220

xvn
JAPANESE PLAYS: THE "CHUSHINGURA"
THE historical EPISODE ON
which the play is FOUNDED
DRAMATIS PERSONiE
THE ELEVEN SCENES OF THE PLAY
PARODIES AND BURLESQUES

CHAPTER XVII
JAPANESE PLAYS: "THE CHUSHINGURA"
^F the numerous plays of old Japan, by far the
most popular as a subject for colour-prints was
the " Chushingura," or the " Loyal League of
Forty-seven Ronin." This play, which at the
present day still holds a foremost place on the Japanese
stage, is founded on an historical event which took place in
the fourteenth year of the Genroku period, that is a.d. 1701,
and relates how a certain daimyo, Asano Takuni-no-Kami,
was so persistently insulted by another daimyo, Kira
Kotsuke-no-Suke, his instructor in Court etiquette, that he
was at last compelled to draw his sword and attack him in
the latter's palace, though he only managed to inflict a slight
wound. Such an offence was punishable by death, and Takuni-
no-Kami was condemned to commit seppuku, or self-
immolation. Briefly, the story of the Forty-seven Ronin upon which
the play is based is as follows : —
At the time when these incidents occurred, the Shogun
at Yedo, Tsuna-yoshi, the fifth of the Tokugawa line, was
the real, or temporal, ruler of the country, the Mikado, the
hereditary and spiritual ruler, being but little more than a
figure-head, and practically a royal prisoner with his Court
223

Japanese Colour-Prints

at Kyoto. When therefore the Mikado wished to make known
his will to the Shogun, communication was made through
an envoy, who was received with royal honours, and the
duty of entertaining him was entrusted to nobles of high
rank. The two daimyos appointed on this occasion to
receive the Emperor's envoy were Asano Takumi-no-Kami,
Lord of Ako, and Kamei Akino-Kami, Lord of Tsuwano.
For brevity's sake we shall refer to these two by the names
given them in the play, Takumi-no-Kami being called
Yenya, and Akino-Kami, Wakasa, The counciUor, also of
high rank, appointed to teach these two the proper cere
monies to be employed in discharge of their duties towards
the envoy was Kira Kotsuke-no-Suke, otherwise called
Moronao in the play. Now this Moronao was of an
avaricious nature, and not deeming the presents which Yenya
and Wakasa gave him, according to time-honoured custom,
in return for his instruction, sufficient, took no trouble to
instruct them, but on the contrary not only insulted
them, but also taught them wrongly, so that they made
mistakes, Yenya at first bore his insults patiently, but Wakasa
determined to rid the world of so pestilent a fellow, well
knowing that if he killed Moronao within the precincts of
the castle, his own life would be forfeit, and his family and
retainers ruined. So calling together his councillors in
secret, he advised them of his purpose to kill Moronao on
the morrow, to which they were, perforce, obliged to concur,
seeing remonstance was useless.
His chief councillor, however, a man of much wisdom,
knowing Moronao 's greedy nature, determined to buy off
his hostility towards Wakasa, and during the night collected
224

KUNIYOSHI : Portraits of Yenya (left) and Moronao (right).

Plate 29] [face page 224

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Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "

all the money he could, and early in the morning, before
the latter arrived at Moronao's castle, presented it, together
with a sum for his retainers.
This had the desired effect, and Wakasa was agreeably
surprised by the changed demeanour of Moronao towards
him. Not so, however, was it with Yenya, towards whom
Moronao was, if possible, more insulting. Unfortunately
Yenya's own chief councillor, Yuranosuke, was not with
him at the time, and the councillor in attendance in his place
was not quick-witted enough to propitiate Moronao as
Wakasa's had done. Had Yuranosuke been with his lord,
the drama of the " Chushingura " might never have been
written. As a crowning insult, Moronao ordered Yenya to tie up
the ribbon of his sock, which the latter felt in duty bound
to do. When he had done so, Moronao, affecting to be dis
pleased with the way he had tied it, called him a clumsy
boor. This proved the last straw, and Yenya no longer able to
contain himself, rushed at Moronao with his dirk, but the
blow was only a partial one, infiicting a slight wound. Yenya
essayed another blow at his enemy, but again missed his aim.
At this point a retainer (Honzo in the play) rushed up and
held back Yenya, thus allowing Moronao to make good his
escape, Yenya was arrested, disarmed, and kept in custody till
sentence was pronounced upon him to the effect that, for
attacking another daimyo in his own castle, even under
great provocation, he must commit seppuku, or self-
immolation, his castle of Ako and other property be
Q 225

Japanese Colour-Prints

confiscate, and his retainers to become ronin, that is
leaderless men.
Some of these attached themselves to other daimyos,
while others turned merchants, but forty-six of them banded
together under Yuranosuke, the chief, to avenge the death
of their lord.
Such is the historical episode which furnished the theme
for the play. During the Tokugawa regime {c. 1 600-1 868)
it was forbidden, when dramatizing history, to use the real
names of persons of high rank. As this episode occurred
during the Tokugawa period, the principal characters were
taken from the time of the first Ashikaga Shogun, Takanji
{c. 1330), and the scene is laid at Kamakura instead of
Yedo. By comparing the foregoing historical account with the
description herein given of each scene, it will be seen how
the two versions differ.
For this purpose we have taken the well-known set by
Hokusai, complete in eleven scenes, yoko-ye shape. This is
the largest and finest " Chushingura " set designed by him,
and is found in two issues, one by the publisher Tsuruya
(dated Tiger 4) and the other by Senichi, the first scene of
which is dated Tiger 6, equivalent to the sixth month 1806
or iSiS ; the former is generally considered the correct year.
The scenes here reproduced at Plates 31 and 32 are from
the issue by Senichi, (See note. Appendix IL)
In order to render the play more intelligible we give
on the opposite page a list of the characters in it, with
their names as they occur in the story and in the
dramatized version of it.

226

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura

55

Real Name. Dramatized Name.
Asano Takumi-no-Kami, Lord Yenya Hangwan, a daimyo
of Ako, in the Province of under the ShUgun, Ashikaga
Harima. Takanji.
Kamei Sama, Lord of Tsuwano Wakasa-no-suke (or in short,
(also called Kamei Akino- Wakasa), another daimyo.
kami).
Kira Kotsuke-no-Suke, expert in Ko-no-Moronao, a daimyo.
Court ceremonial.
Oishi Kuranosuke, chief coun- Oboshi Yuranosuke, leader of
cillor to Lord of Ako, and the forty-seven ronin.
_ Prime Minister of Ako.
Oishi Chikara, his son. Rikiya.
Kajikawa Yosobei, retainer to Kakogazoa Honzo.
Shogun, Ashikaga.
These two only occur in the j Tonase (Honzo 's wife).
play.) ( Konami (his daughter).
Kayano Sampei, one of the Hayano Kampei.
ronin. — Okaru (betrothed to Kampei),
Terasaka Kichiyemon, a low- Tera-oka Heiyemon, brother ta
class ronin. Okaru.
Ono Kurobei. Ono Kudayu, a former retainer
to Yenya, turned spy.
Ono Gunyemon, son of Kurobei. Ono Sadakuro, a robber.
— Oishi, wife of Yuranosuke.
Aminoya Rihei, a loyal merchant, Amakawa-ya Gihei.
and contractor to Lord Asano
Takumi. — 0-Sono (his wife).
— Sagisaka Bannai, a retainer to
Moronao (appears in Acts III
and VII).

227

Japanese Colour- Prints

The " Chushingura " drama was originally written for the
marionette theatre by Tsikimatsu Monzaemon and Takeda
Izumo, and was first performed in 1748, fourteen years after
the death of the first named.
Act I, Koboto Aratame : " Examination of the
Helmets," Scene in the grounds of the Hachiman
Temple of Kamakura. Moronao offers his verses to the
Lady Kawoyo, wife of Yenya, Wakasa standing behind
him, (See Plate 31,)
Lady Kawoyo has been brought to the Hachiman Temple
to identify the helmet of Nitta Yoshisada, a rival to the
Shogun Taka-uji, from amongst forty-six others, the spoils
of war. Yoshisada was the famous Minamoto warrior, who,
in 1333, became an adherent of the Emperor Go Daigo
Tenno, and attacked the Hojo clan, at this time the real
rulers of Japan, at their Castle of Kamakura,
In return for his services the Emperor presented him
with this helmet. Now before Kawoyo married Yenya she
had been in service at the Castle of Nitta Yoshisada, and was
the only person who knew which one it was out of the forty-
seven. In the presence of Moronao, Yenya, Wakasa, and
other daimyos, she at last picks out the helmet and hands
it to Ashikaga Tadayoshi, brother to the Shogun Taka-uji,
After the examination of the helmets, Moronao secretly
hands a love-letter to the Lady Kawoyo, with a request for
a sympathetic answer, at the same time making himself
agreeable to Yenya, but insulting towards Wakasa, because
the latter upraided him for making advances towards another
man's wife.
Act II. Scene in the grounds of the Castle of Wakasa-
no-suke, On the veranda is seated Wakasa, and in front of
228

KUNIYOSHI : Portraits of Honzo (left) and Wakasa (right).

P^*"301 [face page 228

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Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
him is Honzo cutting off the branch of a pine tree ; behind,
love scene between Konami and Rikiya.
Wakasa, his patience exhausted by the insults of Moronao,
has decided to kill him on the morrow. Honzo, however,
knowing that such a deed would ruin the family of Wakasa,
and all dependent on him, is determined to prevent it. So
taking his (i.e. Wakasa's) sword he cuts off the branch of a
pine tree, saying, " You cut off Moronao's head like that,"
at the same time putting back his sword in its sheath with
out jirst wiping it. Owing to the great amount of wax in
the Japanese pine, this would have the effect of causing the
sword to stick fast in the sheath when the wax dried, so
that the blade could not be drawn.
Act III. The scene now changes to the Castle at Kama
kura, outside the walls, and we are shown Kampei being
attacked by Bannai and his men, and Okaru assisting by
entangling them in her scarf.
To connect this with the last act we must retrace our
steps, and pick up the thread of the narrative.
During the night Honzo propitiates Moronao with suit
able gifts, so that when Wakasa appears early at Kamakura
Castle the next morning, prepared to carry out his threat
against Moronao, the latter flatters him and apologizes for
his former insults. This abrupt change of behaviour throws
Wakasa off his guard, so that he loses his chance of killing
Moronao, and goes off,
Yenya then appears on the scene, and hands Moronao
an answer from the Lady Kawoyo to his love-letter (Act I).
Moronao is at first very gracious to Yenya, but when he
reads the answer, rejecting his overtures with scorn, he
completely changes his attitude, and deeply insults him.
229

Japanese Colour-Prints

Yenya, unable at last to keep his temper any longer,
rushes at Moronao with his short sword, or dirk, to kill him,
but at this moment Honzo seizes him from behind and
allows Moronao to escape with nothing worse than a slight
wound. While these scenes were being enacted inside the castle
grounds, Kampei remained outside with the rest of Yenya's
body-guard, and spent his time chatting with Okaru,
While thus engaged Bannai and his men approach, and the
former, being in love with Okaru, tries to arrest Kampei,
and run off with her, but the attempt fails.
During this scrimmage between Kampei and Bannai
outside the castle grounds, Yenya is made prisoner, and
handed over to the safe custody of another daimyo, till
sentence should be passed on him. On learning the fate of
his lord, Kampei is so mortified that he decides not to
return to the Castle of Ako, but to go instead, on the advice
of Okaru, to her father's home at Yamazaki, near Kyoto,
over three hundred miles from Kamakura,
Act IV. Interior of the Castle of Kamakura. Rikiya
receiving the commissioners who have brought sentence of
death, by seppuku, on Yenya ; the Lady Kawoyo seated with
attendants, and surrounded with branches of the rare eight
fold cherry-blossom, and other presents, brought to console
her for the loss of her husband.
Before Yenya dies he wishes to see his chief councillor,
Yaranosuke, who was not at Kamakura when these scenes
were being enacted, but remained behind at the Castle of
Ako, but he is not yet arrived.
Three times Yenya asks Rikiya if his chancellor has
come, but the answer each time is in the negative.
230

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
Just as Yenya, however, begins the act of seppuku,
Yuranosuke appears, and his dying master just manages to
convey to him sufficient to understand what has happened
between Moronao and himself, and that he expects Yurano
suke to avenge the insult Moronao has caused him and his
family. Act V. View on the road to the village of Yamazaki.
The murder and robbery of Yoichibei, father of Okaru, by
Sadakuro, for the sake of the money he obtained from a
joro-ya keeper by the sale of his daughter, to help Kampei,
Sadakuro is himself accidentally killed by Kampei, while
stepping aside to avoid the charge of a wild boar the latter
is hunting, Kampei then helps himself to the money stolen
from Yoichibei, In the background, the meeting of Kampei
and Senzaki Yagoro, one of the ronin. This scene is
generally represented as taking place in a rain-storm, hence
the umbrella carried by Yoichibei which Sadakura is cutting
through with his sword, but Hokusai here only indicates
rain by a black sky.
We now take up the story from the end of Act III, where
Kampei decides to go with Okaru to her father's house at
Yamazaki, They are now married, and live together as
husband and wife, Kampei is anxious to be one of the band
of forty-seven ronin, and learns that Yuranosuke is collect
ing money to pay for their armour and equipment.
But, unfortunately, neither he nor his wife, nor her
father, Yoichibei, have any money, all being poor, so Okaru
decides to sell herself as a courtesan to the tea-house,
Ichiriki, in Kyoto, with her father's consent, but does not
tell Kampei. 231

Japanese Colour-Prints

Yoichibei goes to the tea-house and receives payment in
advance, to the amount of 50 Ryo (about ;£5o present rate).
Just as he nears home he is attacked by Sadakuro, who was
lying in wait behind a stack of rice-straw for any traveller
who happened to pass. At the same moment a boar rushes
by which Kampei was hunting, and Sadakuro, starting aside,
receives the shot intended for the animal.
While out hunting Kampei meets Senzaki Yagoro, one
of the ronin, and tells him where he (Kampei) is living.
From him he learns that Yuranosuke wants money, and
that if he (Kampei) wishes to join them, he must subscribe
his share. With this they part.
Kampei having fired his shot at the boar goes up to it,
and to make sure of its being dead beats it violently with
the butt of his gun, and then touches the body, when to
his horror he finds that, in the darkness, he has been beat
ing a man. At first he is inclined to run away, but thinking
perhaps the man had been lying there ill, he searches his
pockets for medicine and finds the purse of money stolen
from Yoichibei.
Though not intending to steal the money, yet knowing
how urgently he wants it to help on the revenge of his lord
and join the ronin, he takes it and, running after Yagoro,
hands it to him.
Act VI. Yoichibei 's house, the scene of Kampei's
seppuku. Okaru being taken away in a kago to the tea
house Ichiriki, at Kyoto.
Kampei is now returned to Yoichibei's house, and at
the same time Yoichibei's corpse is found and brought
home to his wife 0-kaya, who suspects Kampei as the
murderer, and reviles him.
232

HOKUSAI : Chushingura ; Acts I and 7.

Plate 31] [face page 232

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
Two of the ronin, Hara Goemon and Senzaki Yagoro,
then come to the house, and return Kampei his money,
saying Yuranosuke does not want money obtained by
murder, and they also begin to revile him.
As they turn to go Kampei calls on them to wait and
hear his explanation.
He then tells them how, after Yagoro had left him last
night, he saw a boar and shot at it, but found he had killed
a man instead. While searching the body for medicine he
found money, which he gave to Yagoro, On his return home
he hears how the money was what Yoichibei had got for the
sale of Okaru, and that he must have killed his father-in-
law by mistake. Owing to the darkness he could not see at
the time whether it was Yoichibei or Sadakuro he had shot.
While telling this to the two ronin, he attempts to
commit seppuku on himself. The two ronin then say,
" We will examine Yoichibei's body to see if he is killed
with a gun-shot or by a sword-thrust." Finding it is by a
sword, this is proof Sadakuro killed him and not Kampei.
Therefore Kampei was quite right in killing Sadakuro, a
murderer, in revenge for the death of his father-in-law.
Being thus satisfied of Kampei's innocence, he is asked
to sign the roll of the ronin, and the scene shows him
holding it out. Kampei willingly signs it, but dies soon
afterwards, and the ronin hand back his money for his
funeral and leave.
The true account of how Kayano Sampei (Kampei in
the play) came to his death is as follows : —
After Yenya's death, Sampei returned home to live with
his father. As all the ronin have strictly promised to keep
233

Japanese Colour-Prints

their revenge secret, and to tell no one, his father is in
ignorance of the fact that Sampei is one of them, and refuses
permission to him to leave home when attacking time
approaches. In his dilemma, being unwilling to disobey
his father by going away without leave, and unable to join
the ronin, he commits seppuku.
Kuranosuke, in honour of Sampei's loyalty, when
making the attack on Moronao's castle, carried a spear with
a paper attached, on which was written " Kayano Sampei,"
and with it killed an enemy on Sampei's behalf.
Act vii. Scene at the tea-house Ichiriki, Kyoto.
Heiyemon dragging out the spy Kudayu from under the
engawa, and raising his sword to kill him ; Okaru standing
by. Yuranosuke squatting on the engawa looking on, and
two other ronin inside the tea-house. (See Plate 31,)
On the death of Yenya, Moronao, expecting that the
former's retainers would seek one day to be revenged on
him, had spies set to watch their movements,
Yuranosuke, however, in order to throw these spies off
the scent, ordered the ronin to scatter, while he and his
son went to live at Yamashima, near Kyoto, Yuranosuke
himself appearing to lead a dissolute life with wine-bibbers
and spending his time in the courtesan quarter, having also
just divorced his wife. Every night Yuranosuke would come
from Yamashima to Kyoto and spend his time in the
Ichiriki tea-house, and often give supper-parties. During
such a party, three of the ronin enter with Heiyemon,
brother to Okaru, and ask when Yuranosuke intends going
to' Kamakura, that is to attack Moronao. Knowing there
are spies about, he replies that he has no intention of taking
any revenge ; it is Yenya's fault they are now all ronin.
234

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
Such a reply creates consternation amongst Heiyemon and
the other ronin, and they leave the tea-house, thinking
Yuranosuke must be mad, or at least drunk with sak£. At
this point there enter the two spies, Kudayu and Bannai,
who join Yuranosuke's party. Kudayu, in order to test
Yuranosuke, offers him a piece of fish. As he was on the
point of taking it, the former reminds him that it is the
anniversary of the death of Yenya, but Yuranosuke eats it
all the same, thus showing he troubled himself little about
his late lord. To show respect to the departed, Buddhist
families never eat fish or meat on the anniversary of the day
on which their parents or, in the case of a ronin, their lord
died. These tactics on the part of Yuranosuke, which were all
duly reported by spies to his enemy, entirely threw Moronao
off his guard, who thought little was to be feared from a
man who appeared not to trouble himself in the slightest
about the fate of his lord, nor show any intention of avenging
him, so that he gradually relaxed his precautions.
In the meantime, other ronin, disguised as pedlars or
workmen, contrived to gain entrance to Moronao's castle,
and thus made themselves familiar with the plan of the
building, and also ascertained the character of the inmates,
all of which matters they make known to Yuranosuke.
Other versions of this act show Yuranosuke playing
blindman's-buff with the tea-house girls, or reading a letter
which Rikiya has brought him from the Lady Kawoyo,
while the spy Kudayu, hiding under the engawa, reads it
from below, and Okaru also reading it by the aid of a
mirror from the balcony above.
This refers to the scene which takes place after Yurano-
235

Japanese Colour-Prints

suke has eaten the fish Kudayu offered him, when the
former goes out, and is handed a letter about the condition
of Moronao from the Lady Kawoyo by his son Rikiya, He
sits down on the balcony outside to read it, while the spy
Kudayu hides underneath and reads from below as Yurano
suke unrolls it, while Okaru, who has gone up into the
balcony of the floor above, also reads it by the aid of a
mirror. Suddenly Yuranosuke becomes suspicious that
others are reading his letter, and, looking up and seeing
Okaru, calls to her to come down. (Yuranosuke helping
Okaru down the ladder from the balcony above is a scene
portrayed in a " Chushingura " set by Utamaro.) He then
tells her he proposes to pay her debt and free her from the
joro-ya keeper, but wants her to be with him for three days,
not knowing she is already Kampei's wife.
At this point her brother Heiyemon enters, and having
seen her reading Yuranosuke's letter from the balcony
threatens to kill her as a spy, but Yuranosuke intervenes
and says she is no spy, and commands him to drag out
Kudayu from under the balcony, whom he (Yuranosuke)
had stuck through with his sword, and throw him into the
river, (An early set of "Chushingura " scenes by Hokusai, over
the signature Kako, includes a scene showing Heiyemon
threatening Okaru, and Yuranosuke intervening to save
her,) Act viii, Tonase and her daughter Konami walking
along the seashore at Tago while on their way to Yama
shima, near Kyoto, to find Rikiya, to whom Konami is
betrothed, and who had gone to live there with his father,
Yuranosuke. 236

HOKUSAI: Chushingura; Acts 9 and 10.

Pl-ATE 32] [/ace page 236

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
This scene introduces characters which only occur in
the play, and have no part in the actual story, so calls for
no detailed description. In the play this is a gay scene of
dancing and singing, and is introduced as an antidote to the
others, which are too full of murder and sudden death.
Act IX, The house of Yuranosuke at Yamashima.
Rikiya attacking Honzo, who is also defending himself from
Ishi, wife of Yuranosuke, and Konami holding him back.
Yuranosuke appearing from behind a screen in the back
ground ; beside Ishi stands Tonase sheathing the sword
with which she was going to kill Konami, an act Honzo
arrives just in time to frustrate. (See Plate 32.)
Ever since Yenya's death, there has been bad blood
between Honzo and Yuranosuke because the former stopped
Yenya from killing his enemy, Moronao, by holding him
back. Honzo, in this scene, comes to Yuranosuke's house
disguised as a ronin beggar with the bamboo flute and
basket hat of the komuso, to apologize and make amends,
bringing with him a plan of Moronao's castle.
We now take up the story from Act VIII, showing Tonase
and Konami journeying to Yamashima. In Act IX they
have arrived at Yuranosuke's house, and Tonase, wife of
Honzo, says to O-ishi, wife of Yuranosuke, " I have brought
my daughter to marry your son, Rikiya, as you have
promised." O-ishi flatly refuses to sanction the marriage,
saying, " Your husband, Honzo, interfered and prevented
my lord, Yenya, from killing his enemy, Moronao, at Kama
kura Palace ; I refuse to allow my son to marry the daughter
of such an unchivalrous man."
Tonase and O-ishi then start quarrelling, and Konami,
to settle matters, and knowing that if she married Rikiya
237

Japanese Colour-Prints

without consent, she would be divorced, consents to sacri
fice herself, and to this her mother agrees, and takes up a
sword to kill her. At this moment Honzo, disguised as a
komuso, knocks at the door, and stops her. (This incident
is often made the subject of this Act.) He then enters and
insults O-ishi, who thereupon snatches up a spear to stab
him, but he is too quick for her, and overcomes her. Rikiya
then suddenly appears and attacks Honzo with a spear,
which the latter seizes by the shaft and guides into his own
body. The dying Honzo then confesses his fault in hold
ing back Yenya when he attacked Moronao, and appeals to
Konami, his daughter, to marry Rikiya, at the same time
producing a plan of Moronao's castle which he explains to
Yuranosuke, who has just appeared on the scene. Yurano
suke consents to the marriage of Rikiya and Konami, and
Honzo expires, Yuranosuke then takes the dress of Honzo
and, disguised as a komuso, starts on his journey to Kama
kura to fulfil his revenge on Moronao,
Act X, Scene at the house of Amakawa Gihei at Sakai,
(See Plate 32,)
Gihei was a contractor to Lord Yenya, and Yuranosuke
entrusted him with the making of the arms and armour to
be used by the ronin in their night attack on Moronao,
Yuranosuke, however, was very anxious as to what
might happen supposing the authorities were to raid Gihei's
house and, finding a store of arms and armour there, accuse
the latter of being in a conspiracy against the Government,
Gihei himself was prepared for this eventuality, and know
ing he would be executed if discovered, divorced his wife
in order to avoid trouble, (Gihei's wife being sent away
from the house, or trying to regain admission, is often
238

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
taken for the scene of this Act in some " Chushingura "
sets,) Yuranosuke, therefore, sent some of the ronin to Gihei's
house, disguised as police, in order to see if he would dis
close the arms he had or confess for what purpose he had
made them.
The ronin, therefore, raided his house, and finding the
arms, threaten him with arrest, on the ground that he is
plotting against the Government, Gihei, however, is true
to his salt, denies the charge, and says they may kill him if
they don't believe him, (This is the incident portrayed in
Act X, in Hokusai's set, which we are here describing,)
This proof of loyalty satisfying the ronin, they reveal their
true identity to Gihei, saying they are not police, but ronin
formerly in the service of Lord Yenya, and go off.
True Story oj Gihei (Amanoya Rihei).
Amanoya Rihei was a native of Osaka, and business
took him, one day in summer, to the Castle of Ako, Lord
Asano's residence. It so happened that this was a " spring
cleaning " day, and all the treasures of the house were
placed in one or two rooms while their proper resting-place
was being cleaned and renovated. Rihei asked permission
to examine them, which he was allowed to do. When the
cleaning was over, and everything was being put back, it
was discovered by the servants that a small, but valuable
cup was missing.
As no one but Rihei had had access to the collections,
suspicion naturally fell upon him, and on being questioned
by Kuranosuke confessed that he had stolen it, and would
wiUingly abide by the consequences.
This candour on his part proved to Kuranosuke that
239

Japanese Colour-Prints

Rihei was no ordinary man, so not knowing what he should
do under the circumstances, referred the matter to Lord
Asano for decision, who said there was no necessity to
make a fuss as he himself had just found the cup, at the
same time showing it to Kuranosuke.
When Kuranosuke, after his lord's death, began to make
his plans to take revenge on Moronao, he remembered how
Rihei had proved his honesty on an earlier occasion, and
decided to make use of his services by entrusting him with
the fitting out of the ronin with arms and armour.
Rihei secretly made them, having first sent away his
wife and children, and as secretly forwarded them in readi
ness for the attack to Yedo.
But after they had been delivered in Yedo, one of his
workmen reported the matter to the authorities, because
the arms were of a very unusual kind.
Rihei is arrested and put on trial, but though questioned
many times, never reveals the true purpose for which the
arms were made. Eventually he is submitted to torture to
make him confess, but he remains firm in his trust.
At last he pleads his memory has gone, owing to the
trials and torture he has endured, and asks to be set free
till next spring, so that he may recover, when he will explain
everything. The authorities accede to his wish, but before
the time comes for his re-trial the ronin attack Moronao
and attain their revenge. Rihei, thus released from secrecy,
then confesses, and the authorities, in consideration of his
fidelity to his trust, set him free.
Rihei then returns home and retires from his business,
which is carried on in his stead by one of his sons. He
died at Osaka in January, 1727, aged 66.
240

55

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura
Act XI. The ronins' attack on Moronao's castle.
Yuranosuke, at last satisfied by the reports he received,
that Moronao was now thoroughly off his guard, and quite
certain no attack was to be feared from Yenya's retainers,
appointed a secret meeting-place for the ronin, and decided
to make the attack at midnight, in the season of mid-winter,
when the whole country was deep under snow.
The ronin, to the number of forty-seven, including
their leader, dressed in a black uniform with a white
diamond pattern, and on the sleeve the " kana " character
(the Japanese alphabet, hirakana, consists of forty-seven
characters), attack the principal gate and break it open, the
actual forcing of the door being done by one of the younger
ronin, Owashi Bongo (real name Otaka Gengo), who may
be identified in the scene of this Act by his carrying an
enormous wooden mallet.
After a severe fight with the defenders of the castle,
Moronao is eventually found hiding in an outhouse used as
a coal-cellar. He is dragged forth and, in consideration of
his rank, given the option of despatching himself by seppuku^
as Yenya was obliged to do. This incident is portrayed in the
scene, here reproduced at Plate 33, from a " Chushingura"
set by Kuniyoshi, depicting Yuranosuke showing the crouch
ing and trembling Moronao the dirk with which Yenya
despatched himself, and inviting him to follow his example.
As Moronao declined to die the death of a nobleman,
Yuranosuke was obliged to despatch him himself, cutting
off his head with Yenya's dirk.
Thus did the forty-seven ronin avenge the insult
and death of their lord, and then set out on the return
to Yedo, to lay the head of their enemy as an
R 241

Japanese Colour-Prints

offering before the grave of Lord Asano, at the Temple
of Sengakuji. In some " Chushingura " sets this last episode, the journey
to Sengakuji, completes the series, instead of ending with
the attack on Moronao's castle, as in Hokusai's set, described
in this chapter.
True story oj the attack on Moronao.
On the 14th day of December, the anniversary of the
death of Yenya, in the 14th year of Genroku (1702), the
ronin assembled at the house of one of them, 0-no-dera
Junai, under the command of Kuranosuke, and started near
midnight, under heavy snow, for Moronao's castle,
Moronao who was now expecting an attack by Yenya's
ronin about this time, was on this night entertaining his
friends at a farewell dinner, preparatory to departing next
morning for Yonezawa, in the Province of Dewa, the terri
tory of the daimyo Uesugi, whose daughter he had married.
The ronin arrived at the castle, divided into two forces ;
half under Kuranosuke attacked the main gate, while the
remainder under Oishi Chikara, son of Kuranosuke, who,
though only sixteen years old, was a giant in size and
strength, attacked the back gate.
One of the party at the front gate gained entrance over
the wall by means of a rope ladder, and all the guard being
asleep, opened the gate from inside,
Kuranosuke and the rest immediately dash in, while at
the same time his son forces the back gate. Most of the
defenders run away, but some put up a strong fight against
the ronin. They are, however, all finally overpowered ; and
then begins a hunt to find their enemy Moronao, He cannot
be found, and the ronin in despair resolve to commit seppuku.
242

KUNIYOSHI: Chushingura. Acts 10 and 11.

Plate 33] [face page 242

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "
At last, however, one of them goes to the coal cellar, where
bags of charcoal are stored, and thrusts his spear well into
them in case anyone is hiding behind. Drawing out his
spear he finds it blood-stained, so immediately removes the
bags of charcoal to find Moronao crouching behind them.
He is immediately dragged out and the signal, a whistle »
given that he has been found,
Kuranosuke runs up and identifies Moronao by the
wound on his forehead, inflicted by Yenya when he attacked
him a year ago, Moronao is invited to die the death of a
nobleman by committing seppuku, Kuranosuke offering to
act as his second. But being a coward he steadfastly refuses,
so Kuranosuke has no option but to dispatch him himself,,
and completes the revenge by cutting off his head.
In spite of the severe fighting with the defenders of
Moronao's castle, none of the ronin were killed, and only
some were even wounded.
Having achieved their purpose the ronin are reassembled
and leave the castle, with Moronao's head, to make their way
to Sengakuji Temple, about seven miles distant, at Taka-
wana, a suburb of Yedo, where their lord, Yenya, is buried.
Before they arrived at Sengakuji the day broke, and
everyone came out to watch the procession. On reaching
the temple, they washed the head of Moronao in a well in
the grounds and laid it as an offering before their lord's tomb,
while the abbot read prayers and they each burnt incense.
Having done this they departed, and awaited the sentence
of the Government. They were divided into four parties,
and sent to four different daimyos in Yedo, till sentence
should be passed upon them, namely Lords Hosokawa,
Matsudaira, Mori, and Mizuno. 243

Japanese Colour-Prints

They were kept in custody till the following spring,
when, on the 4th day of the second month in the i6th year
of Genroku (1703) the Tokugawa Government ordered that
all the ronin, except Terasaka Kichiyemon (Heiyemon in
the play), should commit honorary execution by seppuku
for the murder of Moronao.
Knowing this would be their fate they were prepared
for it, and met their death bravely. The priests of Senga
kuji Temple prayed that they might be allowed to have the
bodies, which, on their request being granted, they rever
ently buried round the grave of Lord Asano. Kichiyemon
was also buried there when he died later. Owing to his
low rank, he was not allowed to die by seppuku, an honour
only for nobles and samurai.
The fame and loyalty of the ronin caused crowds to flock
to their burial-ground to pray there, and at the present day
it is still a place of pioua pilgrimage.
Actually there are forty-eight graves besides the larger
one of Lord Asano, The history of the forty-eighth grave is
as follows : —
When Kuranosuke was living at Yamashima, in order to
deceive Moronao's spies, he frequently pretended to be
drunk, and used to fall asleep in the road. One day a
samurai of the Satsuma clan came across him lying thus in
the middle of the road, and reviled him, saying he was a
disgrace to the rank of samurai, at the same time kicking
and otherwise insulting him.
When, after the death of the ronin the story of their
loyalty to their chief and how they plotted to avenge him
became known, the Satsuma man was so ashamed of his
behaviour towards Kuranosuke at Yamashima, that, in
244

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura

55

atonement for his insult, he came to their burial-place at
Sengakuji, and there committed seppuku, and was buried
alongside the graves of the ronin by the priests of the temple.
Such is the story which inspired the most famous drama
on the Japanese stage, a story of loyalty and heroism one
cannot but admire.
Practically all the chief artists of Ukiyoye since the
middle of the eighteenth century have depicted the
" Chushingura " in one form or another. In the Harmsworth
collection, exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
November, 1913, there was shown a print, coloured by hand,
by Torii Kiyomasu (1679-1763) representing the actor
Ichikawa Masugoro as one of the forty-seven ronin dis
guised as a street sweetmeat-vendor.
As the play was not put on the stage till the year 1748,
this must have been one of the first prints of any taking its
subject from the " Chushingura."
The play is generally depicted in eleven, twelve, or
sixteen scenes, as in a set by Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi has left
two series (full-size, upright), consisting of portraits of all
the forty-seven ronin, with their biographies, one set, entitled
Seichu Gishiden, " Biographies of the Ronin," being a single
figure of each ronin. Belonging to this set, but with the title
slightly altered to Seichu Gishi hottan, " Beginning of the
Loyal Ronin," are four portraits of Yenya, Moronao, Wakasa
and Honzo, with their biographies. (See Plates 29 and 30.)
The other series shows each ronin engaged in combat
with an enemy, and may be recognized from the previous
set by having the title Chushin Gishi Komyo Kurake, " A
comparison of the persons in the Loyal League," written
on a tsuba, or sword-guard. Each plate is numbered. 245

Japanese Colour-Prints

Kunisada has designed a set complete in eleven trip
tyches, while Toyokuni has portrayed the whole eleven acts
in the form of a pentaptych.^
It is impossible to name all the artists who have taken
the " Chushingura" as a subject for illustration ; sufficient
has been said to show in what varied form it may be found.
Apart from the play itself, we often find it parodied by
comparing its scenes with incidents in everyday life, such
prints being called " brother pictures,"
Probably the best set of this nature is that designed by
Utamaro (Satow collection, complete set) in eleven scenes,
full size, upright. The scene parodied is shown in a small
inset view, the analogue filling the main picture. Thus
Act III, Yenya's attack on Moronao, is parodied by a man
attacking a nagging wife, while another man and a woman
hold him back (as Honzo restrained Yenya), and another
woman tries to quiet the wife.
Of the same nature is a set, also by Utamaro, in which
the various scenes are compared to children's amusements.^
Another series, also by Utamaro, shows us ladies taking
the place of actors and imitating the various scenes. Plate 34
is an illustration of the first scene of this set, which is
entitled Komyo Bijin Mitate Chushingura (" A Comparison
of Beautiful Women with the Chushingura "). The scene
here imitated is that of Lady Kowayo selecting Nitta Yoshi-
sada's helmet, sake cups taking the place of the helmets.
Behind the lady representing Kowayo stands another in
the part of Moronao,
A very unusual treatment is the " Chushingura " scenes
' Swettenham sale.
' Act 6 of this series illustrated in the author's On Collecting Japanese Prints.
246

UTAMARO : Ladies imitating Act 1 of the "Chushingura.

Pi ATE 34] [face page 246

Japanese Plays : The " Chushingura "

applied to the eight celebrated views of Lake Biwa, under
the title " Chushingura Hak'kei," by Choki (Shiko). (Set
in Appleton sale.)
Hiroshige has treated the subject from a humorous
point of view in a series of five upright prints, with three
incidents on each sheet, entitled " Selected Comic Chushin
gura," Thus in the scene where Moronao is found in the coal-
cellar, we are shown Moronao, with a large basket hat
crammed on his head, springing out of the cellar like some
ghost or demon, and the ronin falling back horror-struck.
In the tea-house scene (Act VII) Yuranosuke is buying fish
to eat from a street fish-vendor, in allusion to the spy
Kudayii offering him fish while supping in the Ichiriki tea
house at Kyoto.
In a very rare series of eight prints, full size, upright,^
by Hiroshige, entitled " Ancient and Modern Dramas
Illustrated," two scenes. Acts III and VIII, of the " Chushin
gura," are included. (See note. Appendix IL)
^ Baker sale, complete set, 1916.

247

xvra FIGURE SUBJECTS: COURTESANS
AND GEISHA
THE YOSHIWARA
UTAMARO AS THE PAINTER OF WOMEN

CHAPTER XVIII
FIGURE SUBJECTS: COURTESANS AND GEISHA
THE majority of designs in figure studies, either
full-length or head and shoulders, are portraits
of the inmates of the licensed quarter of Yedo,
called the Yoshiwara, a name also applied to the
similar districts of other large towns, such as Kyoto and
Osaka. The gorgeous apparel and elaborate coiffure adopted by
the beauty of the " green-houses " appealed strongly to the
colour-print artist in search for material for his brushes.
Apart from such purely artistic reasons, there was also a
personal motive to account for the popularity of the
courtesan. To understand the cause of this, we must first
put behind us all preconceived ideas as to what the
term courtesan usually implies.
The late Lord Redesdale, in his " Tales," says, in a
foot-note on the courtesans of Y^'edo, that, in his opinion, in
no country is the public courtesan more looked down upon
than in Japan, Doubtless contact with the outer world,
and all that such conveys, did not tend to improve matters
in this particular respect, but such can hardly have been
the attitude adopted towards the courtesan in the days when
Japan was a hermit empire.
Considering that all the great masters of Ukiyoye
lavished their highest skill upon her portrayal, she must
251

Japanese Colour-Prints

have been a very different person from the moralless creature
of the streets of our cities.
She was, on the contrary, a woman who had received
the highest education, spoke a peculiar, old-fashioned
language, and was remarkable for her intellectual refine
ment. There were, of course, varying degrees of courtesans,
and, as a rule, it is only those of the highest class, called
oirans, that are represented in prints.
Neither was her position in society considered de
grading ; in many instances it was due to filial piety, a
daughter selling herself for a term of years to a keeper of a
tea-house in the Yoshiwara to rescue her parents from the
consequences of debt. On the expiration of the term on
attaining the age of twenty-seven, she was still considered a
virtuous and marriageable woman. Her state, indeed, was
not unlike that of a princess. Each oiran had two young
girls attendant on her, called kamuro, who, on reaching a
certain age, were themselves promoted to the rank of their
mistress. These kamuro were children bought by the y Oro
ya keepers, at the age of five or six years, for the purposes
of prostitution, and, during their novitiate, were employed
to wait upon the fashionable oiran like female pages. Like
the oiran they were generally sold to the Yoshiwara to
relieve the poverty of their parents, or they were unfor
tunate orphans whose unfeeling relatives would thus dispose
of, rather than be at the expense of maintaining them.
Sometimes an oiran is represented with one or more atten
dants, in addition to her kamuro ; these elder attendants
were in the nature of maids of honour, called shinzo, and
ranked next to an oiran.
252

Figure Subjects : Courtesans and Geisha
The dress of all courtesans, particularly of the oiran,
was of a splendour wholly different from the costume of
the ordinary woman, and their coiffure also was of a very
elaborate nature, which was built up upon a light frame and
kept in position by a regular forest of light metal or wooden
pins, which framed the head like the halo of a saint in a
stained glass window.
They were further distinguished by wearing the sash
{obi) tied in front, whereas all other women, including
geisha (dancing and singing girls), tied them with the bow
behind. It is often in the decoration of the obi that we
find the most elaborate and brilliant designs, even in a
costume which is gorgeous throughout.
The Yoshiwara, euphemistically termed " Flower Dis
trict," the name given to the courtesan quarter of Yedo,
and afterwards applied to the similar districts of Kyoto,
Osaka, Nagasaki, and other towns, was founded in 1612 by
Shoji Jinyemon, and was so called from its being built on
the site of a rush-moor (Yoshiwara). The name is also
sometimes derived from the town Yoshiwara, because the
majority of the women in the Yedo Yoshiwara were supposed
to have come from that place, but the derivation from the
site of its location is generally considered the more correct
of the two. Previous to the year 161 2, the courtesans were
scattered throughout the city of Yedo in different quarters,
according to the town from which they came. This arrange
ment being distasteful to the reforming mind of Shoji
Jinyemon, he petitioned the Government in 161 2 that all
courtesans should be made to live in one *' Flower Dis
trict," which petition was granted five years later.
After a great fire in 1657 it was moved to its present
253

Japanese Colour-Prints

site on the north side of the city, not far from the great
Asakusa Temple, and enclosed by a wall. Entrance to it
was gained by a single great gate, which gave access to the
main thoroughfare in which the tea-houses (or " green
houses " as they were called) were situated. (See Plate 19.)
The fronts of these " green-houses " were barred like cages
on the street level, and behind these bars sat the gorgeously
arrayed oirans. Through the gate on the right, in our illus
tration of the Yoshiwara at page 174, can be seen the bars
of these cages.
We are also shown the interiors of these houses. Thus,
in an unusually large size, oblong print ,^ i2f in, by 18 J in,,
by Kiyonaga, is depicted the interior of the " House of the
Clove," showing the inmates entertaining their guests and
others walking about, and behind, on one side, a small
army of cooks and servants preparing the viands.
Again, in a triptych by Toyokuni,^ we are shown the
U' per floor of the same house, the foreground filled with
courtesans and their kamuro, and in the centre one with her
guest. The geisha fulfils a totally different role in Japanese
society. Since actresses were forbidden on the stage, the
geisha was called upon to take her place as an entertainer,
and no banquet would be considered complete without
them, Japanese wives were not expected to have accomplish
ments, such as dancing and singing, so if the husband
desired this form of entertainment for himself and his guest^
he would send to an establishment and hire geisha to come
and perform at his house. A geisha was trained to dance
> Anonymous sale, June, 1913. ' Satow sale, November, 1911.
254

1. YEIZAN: A summer shower; signed Yeizan;
dated 6th month, 1807.

Plate 35]

2. RYUKOKU: Portrait of Motosuye of Daimoni-ya
and another Oiran ; signed Ryukoku ; publisher
So-shu-ya.

[face page 254

'\^^^^^ -^t^'^ > ^~*-'

Figure Subjects : Courtesans and Geisha
or sing from the age of seven, and retired from the pro
fession while still young, when, if not married, she would
keep a school for the training of others.
Apart from being able to dance, sing, and play, the
well-trained geisha was expected to know all the latest
jokes and stories, to be quick at repartee, and an accom
plished conversationalist.
Her dress was as beautiful as that of the courtesan, but
she wore her obi tied behind, while her head was not
adorned with the enormous hair-pins of the latter.
While courtesans and geisha were generally painted for
the sake of their portraits, we also find them represented
engaged in all sorts of occupations, such as in practice are
only carried on by artisans and peasants ; in processions of
nobles, with their retinue of samurai ; as warriors or poets,
and in comparison with beautiful scenery.
Again the portraits of tea-house beauties are often
nothing more than fashion plates, and the most celebrated
series of this nature is that to which both Kiyonaga and
Koriusai contributed, entitled " First Dyed Designs for
Spring Grasses."
A print from a similar series of fashion plates by Yeizan
is here illustrated at Plate 35, entitled " Present Day Patterns
of Dyes," and shows a geisha accompanied by her maid
holding an umbrella over her in a heavy shower, the rain
indicated by gauffrage on a wash background.
Of the many artists who devoted their brushes to the
portraiture of women, it is perhaps Utamaro who has gained
the highest reputation in this branch of design, and become
noted as the painter of women. 255

Japanese Colour- Prints

His type is purely his own, and quite unlike that of any
other artist, but it was closely followed by his numerous
pupils and imitators, while that of Kiyonaga and Shuncho,
the two other great artists in feminine portraiture, may be
termed the classic type of beauty.
Yeishi, the fourth great figure artist, combined the
gracefulness of Utamaro at his best with the more natural
style of Kiyonaga.
A short acquaintance with examples by Utamaro is
sufiicient to enable the collector to quickly recognize his
work from amongst that of other figure artists, quite apart
from the signature on them, so marked is his individuality.
Mr. A. D. Ficke,^ in the following well-chosen words,
thus sums up Utamaro's characteristic type : " Her strange
and languid beauty, the drooping lines of her robes, her
unnatural slenderness and willowiness, are the emanations
of Utamaro's feverish mind ; as her creator he ranks as the
most brilliant, the most sophisticated, and the most poetical
designer of his time. His life was spent in alternation
between his workshop and the haunts of the Yoshiwara,
whose beautiful inhabitants he immortalized in prints that
are the ultimate expression of the mortal body's longing for
a more than mortal perfection of happiness. Wearied of
every common pleasure, he created these visions in whose
disembodied, morbid loveliness his over- wrought desires
found consolation."
In similar language Von Seidlitz says of him : " Utamaro
has glorified the Japanese woman with an enthusiasm un
excelled in any other age or nation. It is true that he conse
crated his worship to a class of woman that stands outside
• Chats on Japanese Prints. London, 1915.
256

Figure Subjects : Courtesans and Geisha
the pale of society and, in spite of the splendour that sur
rounds her, is one of the most unfortunate of all creatures ;
but he did not depict her as she appears in reality, but formed
of her an ideal of nobility and loveliness that stamps her as
a goddess." It would require a whole chapter almost to give
merely the titles of the innumerable series designed
by Utamaro in which courtesans, geisha, or ladies are
portrayed. We have referred to the representation of woman
engaged in various occupations. Utamaro's most famous
series of prints of this nature is his set of twelve sheets,
intended as illustrations to a book, showing " Women's
Work in the Cultivation of Silk- worms."
A complete set of this very rare series appeared in the
Dankwerts sale (July, 1914), and a reproduction, in colours,
of the second sheet is given in Seidlitz's History oj Japanese
Colour-Prints, at page 126, from a copy in the British
Museum. Descriptive sub -titles are given on all the sheets
except the first two and the last two, written on conven
tional clouds ; the set can be put together complete as one
picture of twelve sheets, which are numbered, or they may
be kept separate.
Another well-known large print by Utamaro, in seven
sheets, represents the procession of the Korean Ambassador
parodied by geisha wearing peaked hats, on the day of the
Niwaka Festival, a subject parodied by other artists in the
same way, and also with children in place of geisha.
Yet another well-known, but very rare, print, entitled
" The Chief Product of Yedo : making Brocade Pictures,"
or rather series of prints, probably complete in five scenes,
s 257

Japanese Colour-Prints

shows women engaged in making colour-prints, cutting the
block, preparing the paper, taking prints, etc, another
instance of the representation of women at occupations in
practice followed by men. One print of this series, showing
one woman at a low bench with a chisel and mallet cutting
out the superfluous wood between the outlines of a design,
another at a second bench engraving the block from the
artist's drawing, while a third is sharpening a knife on a
stone, is illustrated at Plate LXXVII in the Victoria and
Albert Museum Handbook. This print has been closely
Copied by Kunisada, under the name of Toyokuni, in a
triptych which may be seen at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, Women imitating scenes from plays have already
been noticed under the " Chushingura,"
Representations of the famous poets, the seven gods of
good fortune, historical events, legends, and so forth, all
furnished themes for the portraiture of Yoshiwara beauties
and geisha.
Perhaps the most graceful series of figure studies by
Utamaro is that entitled Seiro Ju-ni-toki, " The Twelve
Hours of the Clock," the title written on a Japanese clock,
each represented by two full length figures.
To give an idea of the estimation in which this series is
held, apart from its rarity, it is known that the sum of £275
has been asked for a complete set.
Owing to Utamaro's widespread popularity as a designer
of portraits and figure studies of women, he was extensively
copied by contemporary artists, even to the point of forging
his signature, so that he was obliged in some prints to add
the word shomei (" the real ") before his signature. One
series of portraits with this addition to his name is a set in
258

UTAMARO : Kisegawa of Matsuba-ya ; signed " Shomei " Utamaro ;
publisher, Omi-ya.

Plate 36] [face page 258

Figure Subjects : Courtesans and Geisha
which the name of the tea-house beauty is given in a rebus,
or picture-puzzle. Plate 36 is an illustration of a print from this series, and
is a portrait of Kisegawa of Matsuba-ya. In a circle in the
top right-hand corner is the rebus giving her name : A
tobacco pipe {Kise-ru, shortened into Kise) ; below the pipe
a representation of a stream or river {gawa) ; at the top of
the circle, pine needles {Matsu), and below them an arrow
{ya, also means a house). Therefore we have " Kise-gawa,
of the House of the Pine." Over one edge of the circle,
in a frame, is the title Gonin Bijin Aikyo Kisoi, " A Com
petition of Five Lovely Women," PubHsher, Omi-ya.
Below Utamaro's signature is a red seal, Honke, meaning
" the main house,"
Other prints of this series which have come under
observation are : Sakura-matsu of Choji-ya reading a scroll
of poems ; the rebus in the top left-hand corner, which
reads: Cherry-blossom flower= ^a^Mra ; pine tvfig=matsu ;
coiffure in form of a butterfly= CAo/V ; an arrow =j'«,
also means house.
Matsu-yama of Wan-ya, looking to the left, holding a
pipe ; the rebus in top left-hand corner reads : Pine=
Matsu ; hills (in top of c\.Tc\&)=yama ; a cup or bowl==
Wan ; arrow =j'a (also " house ").
Another series with the signature " Shomei " Utamaro
is one entitled Seiro Nana Komachi, " Tea-house (Beauties)
as the Seven Komachi." This series is considered one of
the earliest by Utamaro in the form of large head studies,
of which the following have come under observation :
Kisegawa of Matsuba-ya ; Akashi of Tama-ya ; and Hana-
murasaki of Tama-ya. 259

Japanese Colour-Prints

Another series in which the name of the beauty is given
in a rebus is a set entitled Komei Bijin Rok'kasen, " Cele
brated Beauties as the Six (Famous) Poetesses " ; signed
simply Utamaro,
Two series in which Utamaro also uses an unusual
signature are sets entitled Fujin Ninso Jippin, " Ten
Physiognomies of Women," and Fujin so gaku Ju-tei, " Ten
Types of Learning in Women," These are signed Kwanso
Utamaro, Utamaro the Phrenologist.
In the comparison of beautiful women with scenery.
Von Seidlitz mentions a series by Utamaro in which the
Ffty-three Stations of the Tokaido are represented by
women, half length figures, each station being indicated in
a small circular landscape in the upper right-hand corner.
This was a theme followed by other artists, particularly by
Yeizan and Yeisen.

260

XIX
ILLUSTRATIONS TO HISTORY.
LEGENDS, AND STORIES
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS

CHAPTER XIX
ILLUSTRATIONS TO HISTORY, LEGENDS, AND STORIES:
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS
IN history, scenes from the life of Yoshitsune, one of
the most famous warriors of old Japan, are amongst
the most popular.
The best known series of this subject, perhaps, is
the set,^ complete in ten full size, oblong plates, by
Hiroshige, entitled Yoshitsune Ichi dai Zu-ye, " Biography
of Yoshitsune, Illustrated," The titles to each plate are
as follows : —
I , Tokiwa's Flight through the Snow with her Children, in
allusion to the fiight of his mother, Tokiwa Gozen, the
fairest woman in Japan, with her three children,
Iwawaka, Otawaka, and Ushiwaka (otherwise Yoshit
sune), in the depth of winter, after the death of her
husband, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, from the soldiers
of his enemy, Taira no Kiyomori,
2, Learning to Fence from the King of the Tengus. This
refers to his early (legendary) life, when he was taught
fencing, wrestling, and other physical attainments by
the Tengus, mythical creatures, half bird and half
human,
3, Visiting Ise no Saburo, a hunter whose services
Yoshitsune enlisted,
• Happer sale : complete set. 263

Japanese Colour-Prints

4. Yoshitsune and Joruri Hime, daughter of Ki-ichi
Hogen, the great Taira strategist, whose books on war
he induced her to let him see.
5. Combat with the Priest Shirakawa no Tankai at the
Gojo Temple, (See Plate 37.)
6. The Combat and Defeat of Benkei on Gojo Bridge,
Kyoto. Perhaps the best-known print of the set.
Benkei was a famous swordsman, a giant in strength
and stature, who allowed no one to pass over the Gojo
Bridge without challenging him to fight. At last, after
innumerable victims, he met in Yoshitsune, though a
much smaller man, one who was more than a match
for him, thanks to his thorough training as a swords
man under the Tengus. From that day to the end
Yoshitsune had no more faithful adherent than Benkei.
7. Killing of Yoichi. (See Appendix II.)
8. Battle of Mikusayama, at which Yoshitsune defeated
the Taira.
9. Climbing the Cliffs of Hiyodori Goye, in order to attack
the Taira Castle, Ichi no-tani, from behind. These
cliffs were so steep that it was said even monkeys
could not descend them.
10. The Descent on the Castle of Ichi no-tani. While one
party attacked the castle in front, Yoshitsune and his
warriors descending the cliffs behind, from which no
attack was considered possible, broke into the strong
hold from the rear, and entirely defeated the Taira clan.
Another biographical series is that depicting scenes
from the life of the priest Nichiren, by Kuniyoshi, entitled
Koso go Ichidai Rya-ku-zu, " An Abridged Biography of
264

I. HIROSHIGE: Combat between Yoshitsune and the priest
Tankai at Gojo Temple.

2. KUNIYOSHI : Nichiren attacked by Yamabushi.

P^^'^^^^l [face page 264

-^'a

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
Koso, Illustrated," Koso being another name for Nichiren,
the founder of a sect of Buddhists named after him in the
thirteenth century (a.d.).
This series which is very rare, consists of ten full size,
oblong plates ; publisher, Ise-ya Rihei.
The following are the scenes comprising this series ^ : —
I , Preaching to Fishermen from the Bank of the River,
2, Buddha appearing to Nichiren, by Moonlight, in the
Trunk of a Tree.
3, Nichiren 's defence with his Rosary, Attacked at
Koshigoye by a horseman and other soldiers on foot,
sent by the Shogun to arrest him for execution, at the
instigation of his enemies, he invokes Buddha, and
their arms are rendered powerless. This enmity was
due to his attacks upon other sects,
4, The Averted Execution. As the sword of the execu
tioner touched his neck it broke, and at the same time
the Shbgun's palace at Kamakura was struck by light
ning. Nichiren was then ordered to be exiled.
5. Quelling a Storm raised by the Demon Daimoku,
while on his way to Exile in the Isle of Sado,^
6, Nichiren Praying for Rain after a long Drought at
Kamakura, whither he had returned from Sado in
1273, K^ is shown standing by the sea under an
umbrella held by a companion,
7. Attacked by Yamabushi (a sect of " mountain-
warriors," half monk, half warrior), who hurls a rock
at Nichiren to crush him, but he keeps it suspended
in the air by merely gazing at it, (See Plate 37.)
' Complete set in Swettenham sale, May, 191 2.
' Illustrated in the author's On Collecting Japanese Prints. 265

Japanese Colour-Prints

8. While Nichiren was praying at Mount Minobu, whither
he had gone from Kamakura, a beautiful woman ap
peared to him in the form of a huge snake,
9. Defeat of the Mongols in 1281, whose invasion
Nichiren had predicted in a book written in 1260, in
a great storm caused by his prayers,
10. Nichiren walking barefoot up a Steep Mountain-side
in deep snow, while on a Pilgrimage in the Tsukahara
Mountains, in Sesshiu, Considered the masterpiece of
the series. A snow scene worthy to rank with any of
Hiroshige's similar masterpieces, (See Appendix IL)
Another well-known character, scenes from whose life
are portrayed in colour-prints, is Kintoki (or Kintaro), the
golden boy, wild child of the forest, and his foster-mother,
Yama Uba. He is supposed to have been lost in the Ashi-
gara Mountains by his mother, and to have been found
eventually by Yama Uba, who adopted him and brought
him up. Kintaro is the boy Hercules of Japanese mythology,
who performed prodigious feats of strength, such as
struggling with a gigantic carp, or vanquishing a bear and
an eagle at the same time, uprooting a huge forest tree to
make a bridge over a rushing torrent when overtaken by
a storm on his way home.
His attributes are the deer, hare, monkey, and she-bear,
while his weapon is an enormous axe. He is also frequently
shown accompanied by oni, a generic term for devils, with
horns growing out of their heads.
The three principal artists who portrayed scenes
from the life of Kintoki are Kiyonaga, Utamaro, and
Kuniyoshi. 266

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
Plate 38 is taken from a series by Kiyonaga, showing
Kintoki riding a wild boar and holding a small open fan, on
which is inscribed the character for the first syllable of his
name. On the far side is his bear carrying his axe, and on
the near side two oni, one carrying his sword and the other
a staff with a bunch of gourds at the top. It will be noticed
that this series has no title ; it is signed Kiyonaga, and
bears the publisher's sign of Yeijudo of Yedo.
It is uncertain how many prints are comprised in a
complete set, but twelve different scenes have come under
observation, and of these ten appeared in one collection
(Anonymous sale, June, 1913). Out of some twenty-four
different collections which have appeared at Sotheby's
since 1909, in only three was this series mentioned, one
containing a set of ten plates (as quoted above). This series,
therefore, must be very uncommon. The plate here repro
duced was originally in the Hayashi collection.
In the collection of Sir Daniel Hall — sold at Sotheby's,
July, 191 8 — there appeared a black and white proof of a
print apparently intended for this series, showing Kintoki
with his foot planted on the back of his bear, a process
evidently painful to the latter. This proof bears no signature
nor publisher's mark ; this print, therefore, probably never
got beyond the outline proof stage.
Akin to the foregoing are the Hundred and Eight Chinese
Heroes, a popular subject with Kuniyoshi, Then we come
to the Hundred Poets, the best known of which are Hokusai's
" Hundred Poems explained by the Nurse," a set of illus
trations to the poems, of which twenty-seven are known,
and about fifteen original drawings which were never used
for reproducing as prints. The " Hundred Poets " was an
267

Japanese Colour-Prints

anthology collected in a.d, 1235 by Fujiwara-no-Sudaiye,
himself one of the hundred, and ranges from a.d, 670 to the
year of compilation. The best English translation of this
anthology, which preserves very well the spirit and inten
tion of the original, is that by WiUiam N, Porter,^ On one
page is the original, below which is a wood-cut taken from
a native edition of about 1790 ; on the opposite page is the
translation, " Perhaps what strikes one most in connection with the
Hyaku-nin-isshiu (' Single Songs of a Hundred Poets ') is
the date when the verses were written ; most of them were
produced before the time of the Norman Conquest, and
one cannot but be struck with the advanced state of art
and culture in Japan at a time when England was still in a
very elementary stage of civilization," (Porter,)
The series by Hokusai is entitled : —
Hyaku-nin-Isshu TJragawa Yetoki, " The Hundred Poems
explained by the Nurse," full size, oblong ; publisher,
Yeijudo of Yedo, The scene portrayed generally illustrates
the poem, or the circumstances under which it was written,
but often there appears to be no connection between them,
or it is too subtly veiled.
The following constitute the poets illustrated : —
I. The Emperor Tenchi (reigned, a,d. 668-671). The
poem tells how, while watching harvesters at work,
the Emperor took shelter from a shower of rain in a
neighbouring hut, which afforded only slight protection.
The scene shows us peasants gathering the rice-crop.
• A Hundred Verses Jrom Old Japan. Clarendon Press.
' Complete set. Miller sale. May, 191 1.
268

KIYONAGA

1. A Samurai, seated on a bench, admiring a courtesan
and her shinzo ; signed Kiyonaga.

2. Kintoki riding on a wild boar, attended by a bear and
two oni ; signed Kiyonaga ; publisher Yeijudo.

Plate 38]

[face page 268

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
2, The Empress Jito (reigned, 690-696), daughter of the
Emperor Tenchi, Poem on the coming of summer.
People crossing a stream, and two men bowing to one
another.
3, The Nobleman Kaki-no-moto (died, 737). After
death he was deified as the God of Poetry. There is
no apparent connection in this case between the poem
and the illustration, which shows us some fishermen
dragging a net up a stream ; across the scene trails the
smoke of a fire. In the poem the Nobleman laments
his loneliness.
4. Yamabe-no-Akahito (a.d. 700), also deified as a god
of poetry ; one of the most celebrated of the poets.
His poem is on the beauty of the view of Fuji from
Tago Bay, and the illustration depicts Fuji, seen from
Tago, with people climbing the hillside overlooking
the bay.
5. Sarumaru Taiyu {c. 800). Poem on hearing the cry
of a stag wandering in the mountains in the autumn-
time. Women listening to the stag's call as they travel
through the mountains.
6. Chunagon Yaka-mochi. Men on a junk watching a
flight of magpies, in allusion to the " Magpies' Bridge,"
mentioned in the poem {vide Tanabata festival, at
page 281, for meaning of the Magpies' Bridge).
7. Abe-no-Nakamaro, who was sent to China to discover
the secret of the Chinese Calendar, and when about to
return home was starved to death by the Emperor's
orders. The illustration depicts him admiring the
rising moon, the subject of his poem, which he com
posed the eve before his return to Japan. 269

Japanese Colour-Prints

9, Ono-no-Komachi, a famous poetess (a.d, 834-880),
noted for her great beauty in her youth, followed by a
most decrepit and penurious old age, a fact which she
bewails in her poem. The illustration shows us
peasants outside a house engaged in various daily tasks,
II. Sangi Takamura. He composed his poem while being
deported across the water in a small boat to Yasoshima.
Illustration : women diving for shells, and a boat
putting out to sea.
12. Sojo Henjo, who took holy orders and was made a
bishop ; he died in the year 890. His poem is an
invocation to the winds of heaven to arise and bring up
the clouds and bar the passage of the fair ladies who,
he fears, will otherwise assume the form of angels and
fly away ; the ladies being a nobleman's daughters
performing the Nii-name Matsuri, a sacred dance,
at a Court festival at which Sojo Henjo was present
before he entered the priesthood. The illustration,
therefore, depicts the scene which inspired the poem,
(See Plate 39.)
17. Ariwara-no-Narihira, Poem on the music of the
Tatsuta stream as it flows by, red with fallen maple
leaves. Peasants crossing a high-arched bridge over
the Tatsuta stream, along whose waters are borne
fallen maple leaves,
18. Fuji-wara-no-Toshiyuki. A large junk saiHng across
the Bay of Suminoye, Settsu Province,
19, The Princess Ise, A woman and her daughter in the
upper part of a house, with men working on the roof,
20, Motoyoshi Shinno, In foreground, a coolie dragging
along an ox, and two women behind large umbrellas
270

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
looking across Osaka Bay ; behind them a small boy
carrying a load on his back.
34. Michi-zane Suga-wara (Kwan-ke), a learned scholar,
deified as the God of Calligraphy, and a favourite with
schoolboys. The poet visiting the temple on Mount
Tamuke, Nara, the scene of his poem,
26, Prince Tei-shin (Tadahira Fuji-wara), Scene on
Mount Ogura, with the Emperor Daigo being received
by the monks of the temple. The poem is an invitation
to the Emperor to visit Ogura-yama, famous for its
maples.
28. Minamoto-no-Mune-yuki. Men outside a hut covered
with snow, warming themselves at a fire, the smoke of
which trails upwards across the scene, in allusion to the
poem on the dreariness and loneliness of winter-time.
32. Harumichi-no-Tsuraki (died, 864). Two men sawing
up a large log, and a woman and child crossing a stream
covered with maple leaves. The poem alludes to the
stream choked up with fallen leaves so that it cannot
flow on.
36. Kiyowara-no-Fukayabu. The forepart of a large
pleasure boat, lit by lanterns, on the river at night.
Poem on the summer night.
37. Bunya-no-Asa-yasu. Women in a boat, gathering
lilies. Poem on the dew glistening in the grass like
sparkling jewels.
39. Sangi Hitoshi, A daimyo with two retainers on a
wild moor on which bamboo reeds are growing. Prob
ably meant to be the poet himself, who alludes to reeds
growing on a wild moor as easier to hide than his
passion for his lady-love, 271

Japanese Colour-Prints

49. Ona-Katomi Yoshinobu. The poet is seated on a
hill overlooking a plain, and below are men around
the warder's fire at the palace gateway, the subject of
his poem,
50. Fuji-wara-no-Yoshitaka. A bath-house by the edge of
a lake, over which people are looking from the balcony.
Appears to have no connection whatever with the poem,
52, Fuji-wara-no-Michinobu. Day-break, the subject of
the poem, and coolies setting out to the day's work,
68, The Emperor Sanjo (a,d, 1012-1015), Poem on the
moon. Ceremony in a temple in honour of the moon-
god,
71, Dai-nagon-Tsune-nobu, Road on a hillside over
looking rice-fields, and women filling buckets at a
stream,
97, Fuji-wara-no-Sada-iye, the compiler of this anthology,
who died 1242. This plate is the rarest of the series,
which as a whole is moderately rare.
The following are the fourteen original drawings for the
key-blocks, which, left by Hokusai at his death, were never
used.^ 14. Kawara-no-Sada-ijin, another instance of the illus
tration having no connection with the poem.
21. The Priest Sosei.
25. Sanjo-no-Udaijin (Sadakata Fuji-wara).
34. Fuji-wara-no-Oki-kaze.
43. Chu-nagon Yatsu-tada,
53, Udaisho Michi-Tsuna-no-Haha, a poetess famous for
her beauty.
• Amateur collection sale (anonymous), March, 1910. It is stated in the
catalogue thereto that these drawings were originally bought in Japan by the late
Dr. Ernest Hart.
272

HOKUSAI: No. 12 of "Hundred Poets" series; Poem by the
priest Sojo Henjo.

Plate 39] [face page 272

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
57, Murasaki Shiki-bu, another poetess, famous in Japanese
Hterature as the authoress of the historical romance
Genji Monogatari (" Tales of Prince Genji ").
70, The Priest Riyo-zen.
72. Yushi Naishinno-ke-kii, a Court lady.
73, Gon Chu-nagon Masafusa.
74, Minamoto-no-Toshi-yori-Ason.
75, Fuji-wara-no-Moto-toshi.
76. Hosho-ji Nyudo sakino-Kwambaku Daijo-daijin (Tada
michi Fuji-wara).
83. Kwo-Tai-Kogu no Tayu Toshinari,
In addition to the Hundred Poets there are also the
Thirty-six Poets, and the still more select Rok'kasen.,
or Six Famous Poets, who also appear amongst the
hundred. These six select poets are Kizen Hoshi, represented in
priest's robes with a fan ; Ariwara-no-Nari-hira, with a
sheaf of arrows at his back ; Sojo Henjo, in priest's robes ;
Oto-mo-Kuronushi, in Court dress ; Bunya-no-Yasuhide,
also in Court dress ; and the poetess Ono-no-Komachi,
Of these the last named is the most popular, the seven
incidents from her life being frequently the theme of illus
tration, often in parody or transferred to scenes in every
day life, just as the " Chushingura " drama, and other popular
subjects, are treated in various ways.
The seven incidents are as follows : —
I. Soshi arai Komachi: " Komachi Washing the Book,"
in allusion to a poetical contest at the Imperial Palace,
when a rival poet accused her of having stolen from an
old book of poems the verse she recited as her own
composition, and in support of his claim produced a
T 273

Japanese Colour-Prints

copy with the verse in it, Komachi, however, was
equal to the occasion, and, calling for water, took the
book and washed it, when the poem, being but freshly
written, disappeared, leaving the original writing un
touched. The accuser, thinking to get the better of
Komachi, had hidden himself while she recited the
poem to herself in her house, and had copied it into the
book.
2, Seki der a Komachi: Komachi seated in a temple, or
seated on a mat,
3, Kiyomidzu Komachi : Komachi at the Kiyomidzu
Temple.
4. Kayoi Komachi : Komachi visiting,
5 , Amakoi Komachi : Komachi praying for rain ; alluding
to an incident when the country was suffering from a
severe and prolonged drought, and the power of her
magic alone broke the spell.
6. Omu Komachi : Parrot Komachi, so called because,
when given a poem sent her by the Emperor, she re
peated it with but one word altered.
7, Sotoba Komachi: Komachi (seated at) a grave post, in
allusion to her penurious old age, when she was obliged
to beg by the wayside.
In deities there are the Seven Gods of Good Fortune,
who are generally treated humorously. Their names are :
Fukuro-kuju, the god of wisdom and longevity, identified
by his abnormal forehead. This abnormal development is
due, so his votaries maintain, to his constantly racking his
brains to secure to his believers their happiness and long
life. He is represented as a venerable old man with a
beard, and sometimes he carries a fan in his hand,
274

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
Next to him comes Daikoku, the god of riches. He can
be readily recognized by his mallet, a stroke with which
confers wealth on its recipient, and his rice-bales, upon
which he is sometimes shown seated. His familiar is the
rat, the thief and destroyer of rice, emblematic of the care
with which the wealth hidden in his bales must be guarded.
The Festival of Daikoku is held on the day of the rat.
The third deity is Yebisu, the god of food, and the
patron of fishermen. He wears the black cap worn by
persons of rank, and is always shown with a large tai fish,
and often also with the rod and line by which he caught it,
Yebisu's festival is on the twentieth day of the tenth month.
After Yebisu comes Hotel, the god of contentment, who
corresponds to our Friar Tuck. He is portrayed as a fat,
jovial person, often scantily attired, thus showing the ample
proportions of his stomach. He carries a staff and a linen
bag {ho-tei), from which he derives his name. He is a
particular favourite of children, and when represented singly,
as in surimono, is often shown carrying children in his bag.
The fifth deity is Juro-jin, the patron of learning. As a
sign of his wisdom he is shown with a highly-developed
forehead, though not to the exaggerated extent of Fukuro-
kuju ; but as he wears a large cap, something like a bishop's
mitre in shape, this physical peculiarity is less noticeable
in his case. He is of a venerable aspect, with a white beard
and of a more solemn mien than his companions ; he carries
a long staff.
When all the seven deities are represented together on
board their ship, Juro-jin is often shown in conversation
with Benten, the lady of the group, and the goddess of
fertility and music. In the latter capacity she is shown
275

Japanese Colour-Prints

holding a biwa, a stringed musical instrument she is said to
have invented.
Lastly we have Bishamon, a warrior in armour, the god
of war and glory. He holds a lance in one hand and a small
pagoda shrine in the other, emblematic of his patronage of
the priestly caste.
A popular representation is to show these seven deities
grouped together on board their ship, the Takarabune,
which is supposed to sail into port every New Year's Eve
bearing the takaramono, or treasures. Amongst these
treasures are Daikoku's mallet and rice-bags ; the hat of
invisibility ; the inexhaustible purse of money ; and the
lucky raincoat, which protects its wearer against evil spirits.
Accompanying the Takarabune are the crane and the
tortoise, both emblems of long life. The tortoise is repre
sented as a more or less supernatural creature ; while its
body is natural, it is finished off with a broad, hairy tail,
said to grow when it is over five hundred years old ; hence
the hairy-tailed tortoise as an emblem of longevity.
Other deities are Kwannon, the female Buddha, and
Shoki, the demon-queller.
Ghost stories and legends was another popular subject,
particularly with Kuniyoshi, who designed a large number
of prints of this nature. Such is a series of Tokaido views,
upright, the joint work of Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige, in
which the title, Tokaido Go ju San Tsugi, is written in large
white characters on a black label in the top right-hand
corner, which with descriptive matter occupies the upper
third of the print, the rest being an illustration of a ghost
story or other legend connected with the station,
276

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
There is also a similar series by Kuniyoshi of the Kiso
kaido stations, each place being depicted in a small inset,
leaf-shaped panel, while the principal illustration portrays
a ghost story or legend.
Of the same nature as the foregoing is a series, also the
joint work of Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige, entitled Ogura
Magai Hyak'unin Isshu, " An Imitation of the Ogura
Selection of the Hundred Poets," that is the anthology
collected by Fujiwara-no-Sada-iye. Like the above Tokaido
series, the title and poem occupy the upper third of the
print, and below an illustration to a story or of a character
famous in history or legend, which is supposed to have a
connection, real or imaginary, with the poem. Sometimes
the poem only is given, and sometimes a portrait of the poet
on a bean-shaped panel, with the poem written round the
figure, Plate 40 shows the two forms. Illustration i,
representing the celebrated warrior Akushichi-bioye Kage
kiyo, famous for his great strength, is the poetess Izumi
Shikibu, No, 56 of the anthology. Her poem is an invita
tion to her lover to visit her on her death-bed before she
passes away, but the connection between it and Kagekiyo,
one of whose exploits was the murder of his uncle, is not
very apparent.
Illustration 2 is the poem of the minister Yoshi-nobu,
No, 49 of the anthology, and the principal subject is the
samurai Endo Musho Mirito, In this instance one can see
some connection between the poem and the illustration. The
poet compares the constancy of his love to the watchfulness
of the palace guards at night, the allusion intended being,
probably, to Endo's fierce love for Kesa, the wife of another
samurai. As she resisted his entreaties, he vowed to kill
277

Japanese Colour-Prints

her family unless she allowed him to make away with her
husband and be his wife. She accordingly told him to
come on a certain night, when he would find her husband
asleep ; but she selected a time when the latter was absent,
and Endo, coming to the room appointed, killed the sleeping
individual he saw there, only to find afterwards it was Kesa
herself. Overcome with grief, he repented and became a
priest, inflicting penance on himself.
Each print of this series carries the number of the poem
and the publisher's mark, Ibasen, in the margin, while
some of them have also the engraver's mark of Take,
A well-known set of prints by Kuniyoshi, full size,
oblong, is the series entitled Ni-ju-shi-Ko Doji Kagami,
" The Twenty-four Examples of Filial Piety," which are
remarkable for their curious application of European
pictorial ideas to a Chinese subject, but which detracts
from them as works of art. They represent scenes of chil
dren doing some pious work or sacrificing themselves for
the benefit of their aged parents. The characters in them
are Chinese, drawn in a semi-European manner. As an
example of the subjects portrayed, we will quote two of
the scenes : (i) Moso looking for bamboo sprouts in winter
time to make soup for his mother, and (ii) Yoko rushing in
front of a tiger to enable her father to escape. These
prints, which are uncommon, are interesting to the collector
rather for the curious nature of the drawing than for any
artistic merit.
In romance we have illustrations to the " Genji Mono
gatari," incidents in the life of Prince Genji, generally repre
sented in the company of beautiful ladies, in allusion to his
inveterate habit of love-making. These tales were written
278

KUNIYOSHI
1 . The celebrated warrior, Akushichi Kagekl-yo. 2. The Samurai, Endo Musho Mirito.

Pl.4TE 40] [face page 278

LWK*

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
in the tenth century by a Court lady, Murasaki Shikibu,
already alluded to as a poetess.
In some cases the title, Genji Monogatari, is merely a
fanciful one, the picture being a portrait of a tea-house
beauty. Prince Genji and his lady-loves brings us to the repre
sentation of lovers famous in Japanese stories. Of these
the best known are Gompachi and Komura-saki, who also
provided the subject for a play. They first meet at what
Gompachi supposes to be an inn, but is in reality the abode
of robbers, who had kidnapped Komura-saki, She warns
Gompachi of his danger, and when the robbers attack him
to steal his sword — a very valuable one — he is prepared for
them, and, being an expert swordsman, overcomes them.
They thus both escape, and Komura-saki is restored to her
parents. Later, misfortune overtaking her family, Komura-
saki sells herself to the Yoshiwara to pay their debts.
Gompachi here meets her a second time, and determines
to redeem her, but the methods he employs to attain his
end, killing and robbing people of their money, finally land
him in the hands of the public executioner, A few days after
his death, Komura-saki breaks out from her prison in the
Yoshiwara, and commits self-immolation on his grave.
Other famous lovers are O Chiyo and Hambei, and
Umegawa and Chiubei ; while Yeizan has left a set of
twelve small upright prints, entitled Michi-yuke Soroi, " Two
Lover Scenes," each representing a pair of lovers famous in
story and legend. (Happer sale.)
In miscellaneous subjects we find representations of the
twelve months, with people at occupations suitable to each
279

Japanese Colour-Prints

month, or taking part in a festival which occurs in that
month. Or again, as in a set by Toyomasa, with whom
children were a favourite subject of illustration, we have
children playing at a different game for each month.
Similar to the twelve months are the Go-sekku or Five
Festivals, being the five chief festivals throughout the year.
These are as follows : —
I . The first day of the first month (Shogatsu), that is. New
Year's Day, when people wrote congratulatory poems
to one another,
2, The third day of the third month, the girls' doll festival
(Yayoi).
3. The fifth day of the fifth month, the boys' festival
(Tango), which is to a Japanese boy what a birthday is
to a European boy.
4. The seventh day of the seventh month (Tanabata), the
weavers' festival.
5. The ninth day of the ninth month, chrysanthemum
festival (Choyo).
One of the finest set of figure studies by Shuncho is a
series^ entitled "The Five Festivals," representing Yoshi
wara beauties in costume emblematic of the festival, and
each with a small circle inset containing an emblem appro
priate to the fite. (See note. Appendix II.)
These festivals are, unfortunately, gradually falling into
disuse. Evelyn Adam in Behind the Shoji, written in 1910, says
that, ten years ago, the boys' festival, like the Tanabata,
was still universally kept ; in another ten years both will
* Appleton sale, June, 1910.
280

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
have fallen into oblivion, like many an old custom in this
country. On the fifth day of the fifth month there floated above
every house, where there was a son in the family, a large
paper fish tied to a long bamboo pole. The fish represented
was the carp, the emblem of perseverance, which the parents
hoped their sons would emulate in their struggle through
life against any obstacles they might encounter, A fish was
displayed for every son in the family.
At the Tanabata festival a branch of freshly-cut bamboo,
hung with strips of coloured paper on which short poems
are written, is displayed over each dwelling.
There are different versions of the legend which the
Tanabata festival celebrates. The story concerns the
daughter, Shokujo, of the sun-god, and the herdsman,
Kengin, chosen by him to wed her. On the wedding day
the bride became so frivolous that her father became angry
with her, and exiled Kengin to the other side of the Milky
Way (in Japan called the Celestial River), while Shokujo
became the weaving princess. They were allowed, however,
to see each other once a year, on the seventh night of the
seventh moon (corresponding in our calendar to the latter
part of August or the early part of September). On that
night the Milky Way is spanned, if the sky is clear, by a
bridge of magpies, by means of which the lovers may meet.
If, however, it rains, the River of Heaven rises so that the
bridge cannot be formed, and husband and wife must remain
separated for another twelve months. The poems attached
to the bamboos which float over every dwelling are prayers
for fine weather, the bamboo being emblematic of the River
of Heaven (in Chinese legend the " Bamboo Grove "),
281

Japanese Colour-Prints

In bird and flower {Kwa-cho) studies, the chief ex
ponents were Hokusai, Utamaro, Hiroshige, and two inde
pendent artists, Sekkyo and Sugakudo.
Hokusai designed a set of ten small upright prints of this
subject, which are extremely rare, and are considered
amongst his best work. They are on a deep blue back
ground, which state probably denotes a first edition, A
reproduction in colours from a copy of one of the set in the
British Museum is illustrated in Von Seidlitz's book on
Japanese Prints.
This set has been reproduced exceedingly well, and the
writer has seen copies without the blue background of
which it was difficult to say whether they were originals or
reproductions. There is also a well-known set of twelve, full size,
oblong bird and flower prints, designed for a book published
in Osaka about 1848, by Katsushika Taito {w. 1816-1850),
pupil of Hokusai, but bearing the forged signature of Zen
Hokusai I-itsu (i.e, I-itsu, formerly Hokusai), one of
Hokusai's well-known signatures. These prints have also
been exceedingly well reproduced, Hiroshige has designed
some excellent " Kwa-cho " prints in panels of various
sizes, while Sugakudo {c. 1855) has left a very fine series of
forty-eight prints, full size, upright, which are worthy to
rank amongst the best illustrations of any artist in this
subject. (See Plate 6.) They are divided into the four
seasons, with twelve birds and flowers appropriate to each.
The best print of the set is generally considered Plate 10,
representing a large red parrot and a flowering plant.
Another very fine plate is No, 17, a white heron half hidden
behind a clump of iris in flower,
282

Illustrations to History^ Legends^ and Stories
Utamaro's work in this subject chiefly takes the form of
book illustrations. Of this nature are two volumes, entitled
Raihin Zue, " Exotic Birds," published in Yedo, 1793,^ of
which the first consists of ten full size (that is double-page)
plates of birds and flowers, and two plates of pictures of
Chinamen, these latter inserted, according to the preface,
because they were the importers of the birds. The second
volume consists of text only.
In addition to the bird and flower series by Hiroshige
mentioned above, he also designed a series of fishes, full
size, oblong. This series is in two sets of ten prints each,
one signed in full Ichiyusai Hiroshige, and the other Hiro
shige only. This series is rather rare, and the collector
should beware of late issues and reprints, which often show
faults in printing, neither do they carry the publisher's seal
(Yeijudo), nor, sometimes, the artist's signature.
In mythical creatures we find representations of the
dragon, the ho-ho bird, and the shishi, either introduced as
screen decorations or otherwise brought into a picture when
showing, for example, the interior of a room. They also
appear as subjects for surimono, particularly the dragon.
The ho-ho is represented as a gorgeously coloured bird
with a superb tail of long waving feathers. It is something
like a pheasant or a peacock, a fanciful combination of both.
The shishi is a highly imaginative lion of Chinese origin.
Stone shishi are found in the gardens and grounds of
Buddhist temples, like their stone lanterns. In pictorial
art shishi are often depicted throwing their cubs from the
top of a steep cliff, and watching them climb back, in order
to test their strength. Should the cub survive this ordeal
' Happer collection. 283

Japanese Colour-Prints

it was sure to have a long life. We have in mind a print
by Hiroshige depicting a shishi watching the struggles of its
cub to scale the steep cliff.
The semi-mythical hairy-tailed tortoise has already been
alluded to as one of the attributes of the Gods of Good
Fortune, It is interesting to note that other Japanese art objects,
such as inro and sword-fittings, were frequently decorated
with designs taken, in some instances, almost line for line
from those found in prints or book-illustrations.

284

CONCLUSION
IT is the common experience of most collectors that,
attracted in the first instance by their pure artistic
beauty, as their interest in colour-prints grows with
every new acquisition, so does the desire to under
stand more fully the artist's meaning and the scene or
personage portrayed.
Insufficient knowledge is often responsible for letting
slip an opportunity of acquiring a print, the artistic value
or interest of which was not at the time properly appre
ciated. If the foregoing pages have assisted the amateur
and student towards a better understanding of the subjects
portrayed in Japanese prints, or have helped, even in a
slight degree, in spreading a wider knowledge of a fascinat
ing subject amongst art lovers, the author will feel amply
rewarded for his efforts in this direction.

[Appendices 285

APPENDIX I
JAPANESE CHRONOLOGY AND THE
DATING OF PRINTS
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

APPENDIX I
JAPANESE CHRONOLOGY AS APPLIED TO THE
DATING OF PRINTS
AS the dating of prints is a matter of interest and
/ % importance to the collector and student, it will
JL ^ not be out of place to say a few words on
Japanese Chronology,
Their longest unit of time is a cycle of sixty years,
which is subdivided into shorter cycles of twelve years,
to each of which is assigned the name of an animal in
regular sequence, similar to our twelve signs of the Zodiac,
In addition to these regular divisions, there are also
various periods {Nengo) which date from some particular
event, such as a great earthquake, an epidemic, or other
visitation, and are purely arbitrary in length, a change
being often made because of ill-luck. To this is due their
frequency previous to the Meiji (" enlightened ") period,
which dates from 1868 down to the death of the late
Emperor in 191 1, the present period, Taisho, commencing
in 1912, The Meiji period, therefore, was a comparatively
long one, and in marked contrast to the Manyen and Genji
periods, which only lasted one year each, for i860 and
1864 ; or the Kiowa period of two years, 1802-3.
The same animals which denote the years are also
assigned to the hours of the day, which is divided into
twelve periods of two hours each,
u 289

Japanese Colour-Prints

In the date-seal on a print the month is denoted by a
number, the year itself by one of the twelve animals.
Sometimes a cypher for the particular period within which
the year falls is also added, which enables us to fix the
exact date, unless the period is over twelve years in extent,
in which case some of the animals will be repeated. Between
the years 1764 and 1868, however, only two periods,
Kwansei (1789-1801) and Tempo (1830-1843) lasted more
than twelve years. Thus Tiger year. Tempo period, may
be either the equivalent of 1830 or 1842 ; to decide which
we must refer to other evidence, if it can be found, such
as the years within which the artist worked, the style and
quality of the print, and so forth.
When the activity of an artist extended over a long
period, as was the case with Hokusai, the exact dating of a
print becomes very difficult if not almost impossible, apart
from other evidence, when only the year is indicated.
Thus the first act of the well-known large " Chushingura "
set by Hokusai, published by Senichi, mentioned in Chapter
XVII, is seal-dated for the Tiger year, which fell in the
years 1806, 1818, and 1830. These three years occurred
in the Bunkwa, Bunsei, and Tempo periods respectively.
In this instance 1806 is probably the correct year.
On page 292 are reproduced on an enlarged scale three
seals with their corresponding cyphers, two of which,
Nos, 2 and 3, are often found on prints. Seal No, i, which
is the seal for the Ansei period, does not, however, occur
on prints, but it is here given to show the difference between
it and the aratame seal (No, 2) with which it is often confused.
The aratame seal is an inspector's seal meaning
" examined," and prints carrying this seal are often wrongly
290

The Dating of Prints

described as being seal-dated for the Ansei period, whereas
it only signifies they have passed the censor. Many of the
upright prints by Hiroshige bear the aratame seal, and it is
only a coincidence that they are also sometimes dated for
a year lying within the Ansei period (1854-59).
If the period is indicated at all as well as the year, it is
generally included by a cypher within the seal, giving the
name of the year and the number of the month.
Seal No, 3 occurs frequently on prints and reads kiwamky
meaning " perfect," It has no connection with the censor,
but was affixed by the publisher himself to prints only of a
certain merit. It was, therefore, intended as a kind of
hall-mark ; but as the art of the colour-printer fell into
decay towards the middle of last century, it became
customary to put it on every print issued, so that it
eventually lost its significance as the mark of a good print,
Aratame may also be translated " changing to," as
when an artist is on the point of adopting another name
and signs himself (for example) Kunisada aratame ni sei
Toyokuni, " Kunisada changing (his name) to the second
Toyokuni," The twelve animals, the signs for which are reproduced
in Appendix III, are : — Rat (i). Ox (2), Tiger (3), Hare or
Rabbit (4), Dragon (5), Snake (6), Horse (7), Sheep or
Goat (8), Monkey (9), Cock (10), Dog (11), and Boar (12),
the numbers in brackets being the years in the sixty-year
cycle, which begins with the Rat, this order being repeated
five times through each cycle.
When they represent the hours of the day the sequence
begins with the Ox (i a.m. to 3 a.m.) round to the Rat
(11 p,m. to I a,m.), 291

Japanese Colour-Prints

On page 293 is given a comparative table of Japanese
Chronology for the period during which date-seals were
used on prints. As this method of dating prints does not
go back earlier than the beginning of the nineteenth century
(only one instance, a print in the British Museum, earlier
than 1802 has come under the writer's notice, though the
Yeizan print here illustrated at Plate 5 may be cypher-
dated 1799, but is difficult to transcribe), it has not been
thought necessary to give dates earlier than the year 1800.
A full table of comparative dates from 1688 onwards is given
in Strange's Handbook to the Collection in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, and also in the Catalogue of the
British Museum Collection,

" Sei " seal. " Aratamfe " seal. " Kiwamfe " seal.
v.(Abbrev. of Ansei.) (Examined.) ('Perfect.')
JFX f^ m
In cypher. In cypher. In cypher.

292

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Japanese Colour-Prints

COMPARATIVE TABLE, "Ere— continued

Japanese

No. of

Zodiacal

Japanese

No. of

Zodiacal

Period.

Year.

Sign.

A.D.

Period.

Year. 6

Sign.

Kayei

I

Monkey

1848

Ansei

Goat

1859

i>

2

Cock

1849

Mangen

I

Monkey

i860

5>

3

Dog

1850

Bunkin

I

Cock

1861

J>

4

Boar

185I

>>

2

Dog

1862

)>

5

Rat

1852

>>

3

Boar

1863*

>>

6

Ox

1853

Genji

I

Rat

1864

Ansei

I

Tiger

1854

Kei-5

I

Ox

1865

>»

2

Hare

1855

>>

2

Tiger

1866

>>

3

Dragon

1856

»»

3

Hare

1867

>)

4

Snake

1857

Meiji

I

Dragon

1868

>5

5

Horse

1858

* Denotes the last year of a sixty-year cycle.
294
APPENDIX II
NOTES

APPENDIX II
NOTES
Chapter I, page 5,
The first public exhibition of prints in England were
those amongst the collection of Japanese Arts and Handi
crafts formed by the late Sir Rutherford Alcock, then
British Minister to Japan, for the International Exhibition
of 1862, but they were most probably the late and inferior
specimens then being sold in the streets of Yedo, Osaka,
and other towns, as Sir R, Alcock states in his book. Art
and Art Industries in Japan, that he made his collection in
the markets of Yokohama,

Chapter II, page 12,
In the Catalogue of the British Museum Collection of
Colour-Prints, under Kiyonaga, are mentioned both a print
and the original sketch for it, thus showing that the print
itself was reproduced from a second drawing. Both the
print and the sketch are illustrated at page 116, the latter
showing slight variations of detail over the final drawing
as reproduced in the print, A preparatory design such as
this must be extremely rare, and it is stated in a foot-note
in the catalogue that " this example only escaped destruction
through being used in the binding of an album." 297

Japanese Colour-Prints

Page i8,
Yoshitoshi 's most celebrated work is his series entitled
Tsuki Hiak'ushi (*' The Hundred Moons "), which occupied
him over five years to complete.
Page i8.
It is interesting to note that a revival of the art of wood-
engraving and printing more japonico is on foot in England
at the School of Art, University College, Reading, where
it is now being taught by Mr, Allen Seaby. The blocks
are coloured by hand with water-colours, and the impression
taken by hand-rubbing. The craft is still too much in its
infancy to forecast its future, but if it revives in this country
the (practically) lost art of wood-engraving, which has been
killed by photography, it will serve a good purpose. If an
exhibition of the craft of the School could be shown in the
Department of Wood-Engraving and Illustration, at the
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, it would
be much appreciated by students and others interested in
the process, and would also help to revive the art.
Chapter III, page 33.
Dirty or creased prints may also be wetted and pressed
between clean white blotting-paper, which should be
changed several times until they are dry.
Page 34. " Sixty Odd Provinces " series.
The earlier plates in this series have the date-seals on
the print itself, and the later ones on the margin, the order
of the prints being given in the list of contents on the title-
page of the set,
298

Notes
Page 40.
In the late autumn of 191 5 a loan exhibition of Japanese
Art and Handicraft, planned by members of the Japanese
Colony in London, and formed from specimens in various
private collections in this country, was held at Messrs,
Yamanaka's Galleries, in Bond Street, Included in it were
about 170 colour-prints and drawings. This exhibition,
however, though open to the public, was due to private
enterprise, and was organized to aid the funds of the British
Red Cross Society during the late war.
Chapter V, page 70,
Another artist, like Ryokoku a follower of Utamaro, an
example of whose work has recently come into the posses
sion of the writer, and which is of considerable merit, is
Hiakusai Hisanobu, Judging by this example, a triptych,
his drawing is graceful and his colouring rich but harmonious.
His work is very rare, only one other example, a pillar-print,
having come under notice. Three single sheets (one of
them a sheet from a triptych) by him are mentioned in the
British Museum Catalogue.
Chapter X,page 122,
Plate 3, Kawasaki. The second issue of this plate
shows both inferior drawing and inferior colour compared
with the first state. In addition to the variations already
noted, other differences in the second issue are : the boat
man's head is turned towards the left instead of to the
right ; Fuji is indicated only by a white outline in a yellow
sky, no outline block ; fewer trees and more roughly drawn,
299

Japanese Colour-Prints

and fewer huts in the village in the background. The first
issue carried the red Hoyeido seal, the second a red gourd-
shaped seal marked kiwame and Take.
Page 123, Plate 10, Odawara.
The differences between the four issues of this plate,
in more detail, are as follows : —
State I. This is the view included in the bound two-
volume edition which is generally taken as the standard in
determining the first issue of plates found in different
states (Happer and Baker sales). Two coolies on near shore ;
mountains immediately behind village and castle on further
shore higher than in other states, in each of which their
outline is the same. Fields lying between river-bank and
village dark green. Very high angular mountain, printed
in blue from graded colour-block only, in background ;
yellow sky on horizon, changing to black at top ; also found
with crimson sky, changing to purple at top. This plate is
smaller on its engraved surface than the other three states,
measuring only 13I in, by 8| in., instead of 14 in, by 9 in.,
the usual size of this series. Red Hoyeido seal.
State 2, Owing to the fact that this state is the full
size (14x9) on its engraved surface, and is often better
printed and colours more carefully graded than in the
foregoing, the writer would, other evidence being lacking,
consider this state the original one. Three coolies and two
travellers on near shore ; sixteen figures on further shore
against thirteen in state one. Fields a lighter shade of green,
which is graded off into mist lying over the village, an effect
not always found in the previous state. Deep blue moun
tains in background from colour-block only, with four
300

Notes
sharp peaks ; blue sky on horizon, changing to crimson at
the top. Red Hoyeido seal.
State 3, Practically the same as the foregoing, with
three coolies and two travellers on near shore. Mountains
in background more rounded in outline than in the last
state, and rising rather higher ; sky crimson.
State 4, Two travellers and two coolies on near shore ;
fields green ; yellow and orange mist lying over village ;
smaller round-topped, blue mountain in background, and
another printed in reddish tint in the further distance in
centre of picture ; crimson sky, changing to purple at top,
Hoyeido seal. The most interesting point about this state
is the signature, which is written in a totally different script,
and must be an early one either of Hiroshige II or some
other pupil. This fact appears to have led Mr, Happer to
consider this state (which he calls the second) really the
earliest one of the four, but the full script, Hiroshige gwa
is quite unlike even the earliest form used by Hiroshige
himself, such as appears on his figure studies {vide our
illustration at Plate 8),
Page 124, Plate 12. Mishima.
The first issue of this plate may be distinguished from
later issues by having the clump of trees, huts, etc, in back
ground printed in graded black ; in second and later editions
they are in blue. One of the best plates in the series,
Plate 16, Kambara.
The sky in this plate is sometimes darkest below, graded
to lighter shade above, and in other states blackest at the
top. The former, perhaps, is to be preferred, as the darker
301

Japanese Colour-Prints

sky below throws into stronger relief the whiteness of the
snow-covered roofs and hills.
Page 127. Plate 30. Hamamatsu.
In this plate, and also in Plate 28 {Fukuroi), the smoke
from the fire should be rendered slightly in gauffrage. Also
in Plate 30, in the first state, the grass in the foreground
should be a lightish green, carefully graded to a slight tinge
of brown at the edge on which grows the tree.
Page 127, Plate 33, Shiratsuka.
The orange sky on the horizon in this view is nearly
always found decomposing to black, owing to chemical
change in the pigment, which gives the effect of storm-
clouds arising.
Page 128, Plate 40. Chiryu.
In a later state of this plate a hill is shown in the back
ground. Generally the absence of a hill or other detail
indicates the second state, but in this instance, according to
the bound two-volume edition of the set, it indicates the
earlier issue. Probably the hill was added as an after
thought, in an attempt to retrieve, in some degree, a very
uninteresting and featureless scene.
Plate 43. Kuwana.
Early issues of this plate have the green and blue of the
waves very carefully graded.
Page 129. Plate 45. Ishiya-kushi.
In late issues the blue hill in the background, printed
from graded colour-block, is sometimes omitted.
302

Notes
Page 130, Plate 54. Otsu.
As copies without the hill in the background bear the
kiwame seal in the margin (usually a sign of the first edition),
the presence of the hill — a very uncommon feature —
probably denotes a very early state of the first issue, in the
same way that the plate for Mariko (No, 21) is found in a
very early and very rare state with the place-name incorrectly
spelt. Chapter XII, page 150,
Station 31, Shio-jiri. The first edition carries the
following seals, omitted in later issues : —
The pubHshers' seals (in red) of Take-uchi and Hoyeido
alongside Yeisen's signature (also omitted in late issues) ;
number of the station (31) in red, alongside the title of the
series ; the monogram Take on horsecloth (afterwards
altered to Ise-Iri), and also in black on the margin with the
kiwame seal above it.
Page 150, Station 32. Sema.
Our illustration of this plate is taken from a fine copy
of the later issue, in which the slight cloud over the face of
the moon is omitted ; the whole effect, also, is somewhat
lighter in colour. This view is considered one of the master
pieces of the series, a worthy companion to the wind-storm
scene (Yokkaichi) in the first Tokaido set.
Chapter XIII, page 161 ,
No, 8 of the " Views of Fuji." There is in existence a
very rare variant of this plate, in which the chief differences 303

Japanese Colour-Prints

are that there are fewer white clouds, and the bottom slopes
of the mountain are strong blue instead of green.
No. 9, There is also a rare second state of this plate in
which trees appear on the lower slopes of the mountain.
Chapter XIV, page 174,
As the view of the Yoshiwara under snow, reproduced
at Plate 19, carries two inspectors' seals, Watanabe and
Kinugasa, its date lies somewhere between the years 1842
and 1854, probably about 1846, Owing to an error in
giving instructions to the blockmaker, the label and seals
in the margins of the two views on this plate have not been
reproduced, as was originally the intention of the author
(in order to show the differences alluded to), who accepts
responsibility for the mistake. Both the Kikakudo and the
Sanoki seal, however, are reproduced in Appendix III,
Page 175,
The plates in the Yamada-ya Yedo series which are
dated ajter the last year of the prohibition period (i.e, 1854)
do not carry inspectors' seals ; this is the case with those
views which have come under observation, and is probably
so throughout, the writer not having seen a complete set.
The others carry either the inspectors' seals or the aratame
(examined) seal.
Page 183, " Hundred Views of Yedo " series.
Another excellent plate in this series which deserves
mention is No, 99, Asakusa, Kiuryusan, showing an avenue
under deep snow leading up to the Asakusa Temple, and
304

Notes
people wending their way thither, viewed through an open
window, in front of which hangs a large circular paper
lantern.
Page 183. " Thirty-sk Views of Toto," by Hiroshige II,
This series may be recognized by having the title of the
series on a narrow, oblong red panel in top corner, and the
sub-title of the plate itself on an adjoining fan-shaped
panel. The date-seal and publisher's seal will be found in
the margin.
The best plate in this series is the view of boats fishing
at night, with flares, off the Island of Tsukuda, and large
junks anchored in the stream. Early impressions should
show the sea well graded from dark green in foreground to
pale green on the horizon, with carefully graded black sky
into which mingles the smoke from the flares, an effect
missing in late issues, while the flares are also graded from
deep red to pink. The effect of the stars should be heightened
by gauffrage in the earliest impressions.
Other excellent plates in this series, which do not suffer
from the garish colours (particularly an offensive aniline
violet-purple) which detract from the majority of the views,
are : (i) Morning Mist at Zojoji Temple (illustrated in the
author's previous volume) ; (ii) Ryogoku Bridge, Yedo,
seen from a balcony overlooking the Sumida River ; (iii)
Makuchi-yama Temple, Imado Bridge, Yedo ; and (iv) the
Yushima Temple, Yedo, with people walking about the
grounds in front of the main entrance, these two last views
being excellent snow scenes. The plates of this series are
variously dated between the years 1859 and 1862 ; publisher,
Aeto of Yedo.
X 305

Japanese Colour-Prints

Chapter XV, page 194. " Mountain and Sea compared like
Wrestlers " series.
One of the best plates in this series is, perhaps, that
entitled Echigo, Kamewari Toge, showing travellers wending
their way by a narrow mountain road along the sea-coast,
through precipitous cliffs, dotted with trees ; at a bend in
the road, overlooking a narrow inlet of the sea, is a rest-
house, and a hilly coast line in the distance. Dated Horse 8.
Page 194. " Provinces " series.
At page IOO we alluded to the similar upright series by
Hiroshige II, entitled Shokoku Meisho Hyakkei, " A Hundred
Views of Various Provinces," published by Uwo-yei
(publisher of the " Hundred Yedo Views " series), of which
Mr, Happer states about eighty have come under observation.
The plates in this series are mostly dated for the year 1859,
some for i860. At page 192 we reproduce an exceptionally
fine copy of one of the best plates in the series, showing the
Kiso Gorge under deep snow, together with a view from the
master's " Provinces " series for sake of comparison. The
publisher's seal and date-seal are in the margin (not repro
duced). Probably the best plate is that showing a big wave,
with chidori flying above it, breaking into foam, and framing
the wooded Island of Enoshima in the middle-distance,
while on the horizon rises the cone of Fuji. This view
forms an excellent companion picture to the big wave at
Satta point in Hiroshige's upright " Views of Fuji " series.
Page 196, Rain at Karasaki,
This view is also found in a very rare state, printed in
blue, 306

 Notes 
The plates of this series may be recognized by having
the title on a narrow red label, and on a square one adjoining,
and variously coloured, the poem associated with each
view, 7, Sunset at Seta ; publisher's seal, Hoyeido.
8. Clearing Weather at Awadzu ; seal, Hoyeido.
Page 199. Six Tama Rivers,
The same view from both the oblong and the vertical
series is here reproduced (one in colours) for the sake of
comparison. The writer considers the vertical form the
more appropriate to which this series better lends itself,
while in the narrow panel shape it is especially pleasing.
Chapter XVII, page 226, " Chushingura " series, by
Hokusai.
Of the two sets of this series, one by the publisher
Tsuruya and the other by Senichi, the latter is the more
richly coloured, but it is rare to find copies which have not
lost much of their original brilliance. Act IV is perhaps the
most beautiful one of the series from the point of view of
colour-scheme. The set from which Plates 31 and 32 are
reproduced is in an unusually good state of preservation.
This series is a considerable improvement, both in
design and colour, over the early set {c. 1798), issued through
the publisher Iseya Rihei, and signed Kako. This early set
is notable for the deep perspective employed, and the reduced
size of the figures, while conventional red clouds are intro
duced at the top of the design. The title of this series is
Shimpan Ukiye Chushingura, '* Ukiye " being the term
applied to pictures drawn after the European manner, which
307

Japanese Colour-Prints

accounts for the deep perspective employed in the design of
each act.
Pc^e 247. " Chushingura " sets, by Hiroshige,
Hiroshige issued two principal sets of " Chushingura "
scenes, full size, oblong, one complete in sixteen plates,
through the publisher Senichi, and the other, in twelve
plates, issued by Arita-ya, The former is the earher of
the two, but the latter is the rarer, and is not mentioned in
the Happer catalogue. In the opinion of the writer the
Arita-ya set, on the whole, exhibits the better colour-scheme,
and also contains a very unusual treatment of certain of the
scenes. Both sets have the designs enclosed in the well-
known double tomo-ye crest border.
The Senichi set is made up to sixteen plates by having
five views allotted to Act XI, The best plate in this set is
the view of the ronin crossing the Bridge in deep snow, and
a boat in foreground with two other ronin awaiting them.
Another good scene is Act II, showing the love scene between
Konami and Rikya, with Tonase watching the proceedings
from behind a yellow screen. The colour-scheme of this
plate is unusually good for this set.
In the Arita-ya set Acts IV, V, and X are treated in an
tmusual way. Act IV shows us Yuranosuke leaving the
castle of Kamakura immediately after the death of his lord,
to prepare his plans for vengeance. Act V depicts Sadakura
standing by a huge pine tree in a lonely mountainous country,
and counting his ill-gotten money, while behind him lie on
the ground the umbrella and sandals of the unfortunate
Yoichibei, Act X is a scene outside the house of Gihei, and
a ronin about to attack O-sono, and cut off her hair. This is
308

Notes
considered the best scene of the series, and is excellent,
both in design and colour. Other exceUent plates are
Acts II, VII, VIII, IX, XI, and XII,
Hiroshige has also left a very rare " Chushingura " set in
panels, three to a block, that is the twelve scenes on four
sheets (complete set. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, June,
1912), pubHsher, Yamaguchi-ya, One sheet, showing Acts
I, II, and III, is illustrated in the catalogue to above sale,
depicting Moronao and Lady Kawoyo ; Honzo and Wakasa ;
Kampei and 0-karu.
Chapter XIX, page 264. " Biography of Yoshitsune," by
Hiroshige,
No. 7. Killing of Yoichi at Keage-toge. The allusion
in this scene is to the combat between Yoichi and the strong
man Matano-no-goro, who overcomes him. On a previous
occasion Matano had tried to kill Yoichi by hurling a great
rock at him, but the latter caught it and threw it back.
Nasu-no-Yoichi was a famous archer in the employ of
Yoshitsune, and his great exploit was to shoot down the
fan fixed on the mast of one of the ships of the Taira fleet
at Yashima, a scene depicted in a triptych by Kuniyoshi.
Some of the plates in this series are numbered (that
reproduced at page 264 being No. 8), but the order given
here, being chronological, is that generally accepted.
Page 266. " Biography of Nichiren," by Kuniyoshi.
I. Preaching to Fishermen. This plate is sometimes
described as " exorcising the ghost of a fisherman." This
hardly gives a correct meaning of the Japanese title, as the
scene has nothing to do with the ghost of a deceased fisher-
309

Japanese Colour-Prints

man which haunted the place and required exorcising or
" laying." A better translation is " converting the spirit
of " a fisherman, that is, to a better appreciation of his
religion, which he was apt to neglect.
Page 280, " The Five Festivals."
Another series of figure-studies which take their theme
from the " five festivals," is a set by Utamaro, entitled
" Five Festivals of Mutual Love in Colours " (Anonymous
sale, January, 191 1, complete set), showing pairs of lovers
in occupations connected with the festivals.

310

APPENDIX III
REPRODUCTIONS OF
ARTISTS' SIGNATURES
PUBLISHERS' SEALS
NUMERALS ZODIACAL SIGNS

ARTISTS' SIGNATURES

NAME

SIGNATURE

NAME

SIGNATURE

Buncho

m

Hiroshige
(early period)
(middle period)
(late period)

/I

X

Choki

4

Harunobu

*

t

t

"Ichiryusai" seal
Hiroshige
Diamond seal
("Hiro")
Hokkei
4.^
313
ARTISTS' SIGNATURES {continued)

NAME

Hokuju

Hokusai

also signed:
I-ITSU

Kako
(e.g. early "Chushingura"
series, i. 1798)

SORI

SIGNATURE

^

j\

•^

^

.T.

NAME

Hokusai {cont)

(as Taito)

Kiyohiro

Kiyomasu

Kiyomine

SIGNATURE

^

)^

314
ARTISTS' SIGNATURES {continued)

NAME

Kiyomitsu

Kiyonaga

Kiyonobu

Koriusai

SIGNATURE

M

"^

NAME

Kunimasa

Kuninaga

Kunisada

also signed
Toyokuni
after 1844

SIGNATURE

JX

I
/
315
ARTISTS' SIGNATURES {continued)

NAME

Kuniyasu

Kuniyoshi

Masanobu (Kitao)

Masanobu ^ '
(Okumura)

316

SIGNATURE

V

4-

if
i

NAME

Moronobu

Sharaku

Shigenobu
(Yanagawa)

Shiko

SIGNATURE

n

j^

ARTISTS' SIGNATURES {continued)

NAME

SIGNATURE

NAME

SIGNATURE

Shigemasa

Shunko
(Shunbeni)

Shigenaga

Shunman

Shuncho
(Katsukawa)
.4
Shunsen
4
Shunko
Shunsho
317
ARTISTS' SIGNATURES {continued)

NAME

SIGNATURE

NAME

SIGNATURE

Shuntei

f

Toyoharu

1^

Shunyei

A M
^

Toyohiro

S
^ •<* '%

Shunzan

* ^

Toyonobu'^ "'^
(Ishikawa)

3.
It

Sugaku

Toyokuni
(early form)

318

ARTISTS' SIGNATURES {continued)

NAME

Toyokuni {cont)
(middle period)

(late period)

Utamaro
(early form)

(late form)

SIGNATURE

x1&

\2S

f^

-f

NAME

Yeiri (Hosoda)

Yeisen (Keisai)

Yeishi
(two forms)

Yeisho

Yeizan (Kikugawa)

SIGNATURE

^i
^

-A

319
PUBLISHERS' SEALS

NAME

A-ITO (ofYedo)

Arita-ya

Fuji-HiKO

Heisuke

Hoyeido (Takeuchi)

{See Koshimura-ye,)

EXAMPLES OF PRINTS
WHEREON FOUND

' ' Thirty-six Views of
Toto " (Hiroshige II)

Oblong "Yedo Views,"
and a ' ' Chushingura "
series by Hiroshige.

Various panel series by
Hiroshige (e.g. "Six
Tama Rivers ") ; fan
prints ; " Celebrated
Tea-Houses of Yedo "
(Hiroshige).

Early oblong "Tokaido
Views "(1832) by Hiro
shige, and certain
"Kisokaido Views."

Iseya-Rihei
(Ise-Iri)

Idzumiya Ichibei

" Kisokaido " series ;
"Nichiren" series by
Kuniyoshi; early
" Chushingura " set
(c. 1 796) by Hokusai ;
prints by Kunisada.

320

RS' SEALS {continued)

NAME

Jo-shu-ya

Jzutsu-ya

Kawa-sho
(Yeisendo)

KoShimura-ye
(Heisuke)

KO-YEIDO

SEAL

>c

^

"I
JL

ICawa-sho

m

« >'

Yeisenda

EXAMPLES OF PRINTS
WHEREON FOUND

Prints by Yeizan.

Early "Yedo Views" and
oblong "Omi Hakkei"
series by Hiroshige.

"Sixty Odd Provinces"
series ; " Kanazawa
Hakkei " series (Hiro
shige).

"Bird and Flower" prints
by Sugakudo.

321

PUBLISHERS' SEALS {continued)

NAME

Maru-kyu

Marusei

MORI-JI(Jihei)

Omi-ya(of Yedo)

Sanoki
(Kikakudo)

Sen-Ichi
(Idzumi-ya Ichi-bei)

SEAL

K.
X

^

(See page 325,)

Sanoki

Kiiaiudo

EXAMPLES OF PRINTS
WHEREON FOUND

"Six Tama Rivers"
(Hiroshige), upright.

Hokusai's " Imagery of
the Poets " series ;
prints by Utamaro and
pupils.

Prints by Utamaro.

Oblong "Yedo Views"
(Hiroshige) ; prints by
Kunisada.

"Yedo Views" (Hiro
shige); "Chushingura"
series, 2nd issue (Hoku
sai), 1806 ; prints by
Shunsen, Shuntei, Sun-
cho, Toyokuni, Utam
aro, Yeishi.

322

PUBLISHERS' SEALS {continued)

NAME

SOSHU-YA

TsURU-YA

TsUTA-YA(Juzabro)

Uwo-YEI
(Heikichi)

Wakasa-ya

SEAL

^

/^s

Waka-yo

EXAMPLES OF PRINTS
WHEREON FOUND

Prints by Ryokoku.

" Chushingura " set by
Hokusai, ist issue,
1806 ; prints by Kuni
masa, Kuniyoshi, Sun-
cho, Shunsho, Shunyei,
Toyokuni, Utamaro,
Utamaro II.

Upright "Tokaido,"
"Thirty-six Views of
Fuji," and oblong
"Tama River" series
by Hiroshige ; prints
by Choki (Shiko),
Kuniyasu, Kuniyoshi,
Sharaku, Shunyei,
Utamaro, Toyokuni.

"Hundred Views of
Yedo " (Hiroshige) ;
prints by Kunisada.

Prints by Kunisada,
Shunman, Shunyei,
Toyokuni, Utamaro,
Yeisen, Yeizan.

323

PUBLISHERS' SEALS {continued)

NAME

Yamada-ya

Yamaguchi-ya (Tobei)

Yamamoto- Heikichi
(Yama-kiu or
Yama-hei)

Yebisu-ya

Yeisendo

SEAL

I

To

^

{See Kawa-sho.)

EXAMPLES OF PRINTS
WHEREON FOUND

Large figure "Yedo
Views " (Hiroshige),
1854-8; prints by
Toyohiro, Toyokuni,
Utamaro.

Prints by Utamaro, Toyo
kuni, Yeisho, Kunisada.

Landscape prints by Hok
kei ; prints by Kiyohiro,
Kiyomitsu, Kuniyasu.

324

PUBLISHERS' SEALS {continued)

NAME

SEAL

Yeijudo (of Yedo)

Yeza-kiya

^

^®^

Marusei

EXAMPLES OF PRINTS
WHEREON FOUND

Prints by Kiyonaga,
Kiyomine, Koriusai,
Kuninao, Hokusai,
Shikimaro, Shuncho,
Shunyei, Shunzan,
Toyoharu, Yeishi,
Yeisho.

Prints by Shunyei,
Yeizan.

"Tokaido" series (1842)
and " Yedo Views " by
Hiroshige.

325

NUMERALS

NUMBER

8

10

12
(10+2)

20
(2 X 10)

SHORT FORM

xso

^ >

yV

ya

i-

COMMON FORM

JAPANESE

±

Ichi

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326

ZODIACAL SIGNS

ENGLISH

Tiger

Hare

Dragon

Snake

JAPANESE SYMBOL

Tora

Usagi

Tatsu

Mi

Horse

Sheep, Goat,
or Ram

Uma

@|

@(i)

@®

Hitsuji

ENGLISH

Monkey

Cock

Dog

Boar

Rat

JAPANESE

Saru

Tori

Inu

SYMBOL

®@

®)i

Nezumi

Ox or
Cow

Ushi

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m

327

APPENDIX IV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX IV
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AuDSLEY, George A. — Gems oj Japanese Art. London,
1913-
Anderson, Y^.— Japanese Wood Engravings {Portjolio).
London, 1895.
Binyon, Laurence, — Catalogue oj Japanese and Chinese
Woodcuts in the British Museum. London, 19 16,
Ficke, A, Davison, — Chats on Japanese Prints. London,
1915-
Joly, H. L, — Legend in Japanese Art. London, 1908,
Mitford, A, B, (Lord Redesdale). — Tales oj Old Japan.
London, 2nd ed,, 1874,
Seidlitz, W, von, — A History oj Japanese ColourrPrints.
London, 19 10,
Stewart, B, — On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints. London,
1917.
Strange, E, F.— Japanese Illustration. London, 2nd ed.,
1904,
Strange, E. ¥ .—Japanese Colour-Prints. London, 4th ed,,
1913-

331

INDEX

(To facilitate reference, artists' names are printed in Capitals irrespective of their
importance ; titles of series and of books in italics.)

A
Actors, 205-212
Advertisements, pictorial, influence of
Japanese art on, 8
Artists' signatures, reproductions of,
313-319 B
Baiko (the actor) and Hokusai, 206
" Bird and Flower " {Kwa-cho) prints,
84, 282
Bridges of Various Provinces (Hokusai),
189
Buncho (Ippitsusai), 61

Characteristics of Japanese drawing,
105-110
Choki, 36, 69
Chushingura (drama), 223-245
— (Hiroshige), 247, 308
— (Hokusai), 226-241, 307
— (Kunisada), 246
— (Kuniyoshi), 245
— (Utamaro), 246
Collection, care of a, 39
— cataloguing of, 41
Courtesans, 251
Crepe prints, 51 D
Date-seals on prints, 34, 290

Famous Resorts of Yedo (Hiroshige),
175-176
Festivals, 280 281, 310
Fifty-three Stations on the Tokaido
(Hiroshige), 119-130, 299-303
 (upright series), 30, 134
 (half block series by Kuni
sada), 80, 136-138
Forgeries, 46, 59
French collectors, 6
Fuji, Thirty-six Views of (Hiroshige),
34. 167-170
 (Hokusai), 90, 159-166

Gakutei (Yashima), 92, 190
Gekko (Ogata), 18
Geisha, 254
Genji Monogatari (romance), 278
Gods (The Seven) of Good Fortune,
274-276
Gogaku. {See Gakutei.)
Gokyo, 76
Gompachi and Komura-saki, 279
Go-sekku (Five Festivals), 280, 281
H
Hak'kei series (Hiroshige), 195-198
Harbours of Japan (Hiroshige), 193
Harunobu (Suzuki), 16, 58 333

Japanese Colour-Prints

Harushige, 59
Hiroshige, 29-31, 93-95, 247, 263, 282
Hiroshige H, 30, 99-101, 175, 183
Hisanobu, 299
Hokkei (Totoya), 91, 191
Hokuju (Shotei), 92, 191
Hokusai (Katsushika), 89-91, 226, 267
Hokushiu (Shunkosai), 92
Honcho Meisho (Hiroshige), 193
Himdred and Eight Chinese Heroes
(Kuniyoshi), 267
Hundred Poets (Hokusai), 267-273
Hundred Provinces (Hiroshige II), 100,
306
Hundred Views of Yedo (Hiroshige), 30,
176-183, 304 I
Imagery of the Poets (Hokusai), 90

Japanese Fragments (by Capt. Osbom),
4,119 K
Kano school, 14
Keisu (Kikko), 79
Kikumaro, 68
Kintaro (or Kintoki), 266
Kiosai (Shojo), 77, 84
Kisokaido series (Yeisen and Hiroshige),
78, 143-156, 303
Kiyofusa, 57
Kiyomasu (Torii), 56
Kiyomine, 57, 79
Kiyomitsu, 57
Kiyonaga, 61, 214, 267
Kiyonobu, 56, 212
Kokan (Shiba), 59
Komachi, poetess, 273-274
Koriusai, 60
Koso go Ichidai Rya-ku-zu (Kuni
yoshi), 264-266

Kunimasa (Utagawa), 82, 217-218
Kunimaro, 82
Kuninaga, 82
Kuninao, 82
Kunisada, 48, 51, 79
Kuniyasu, 83
Kuniyoshi, 81, 245, 264, 277, 278
Kyoto Meisho (Hiroshige), 192
L
Loyal League (drama), 223-245
M
Masanobu (Okumura), 58
Matabei (Iwasa), 14
Meisho Hak'kei (Gosotei Toyokuni), 198
Modern colour-prints, 17
Moronobu (Hishigawa), 15
Mutsu Tamagawa series, 199-201
Mythical creatures, representations of,
283 N
Naniwa Meisho (Hiroshige), 193
Nichiren (priest), 264-266, 309
No (The), drama, 210
Numerals, reproductions of, 326
O
Ogura Magai Hyak'unin Isshu (Kuni
yoshi), 277
Omi Hak'kei (Hiroshige), 195-197, 306
Ono-no-Komachi (poetess), 273, 274
Osaka school, 17

Poets, The Hundred, 267-273
— Six Famous, 273
Prices of prints, 26, 28, 62, 69, 74, 79,
159. 258
Prints, care of, 32, 39
— engraving of, n
— first appearance in Europe, 3

334

Index

Prints, how printed, 12
Provinces, Hundred Views in Various
(Hiroshige II), 100, 306
— Views of the Sixty Odd (Hiroshige),
34, 194
Publishers' seals, reproductions of, 320-
325 R
Reprints and reproductions, 46, 49, 76
Reproductions of artists' signatures,
313-319
 publishers' seals, 320-325
Riukiu Hak'kei, 188
Rok'kasen (Six Famous Poets), 273
Ronin, The ForDy-seven (drama) , 223-245
Ryokoku, 69

Sadahide (Utagawa), 83
Sadamasu, 83
Sadanobu (Hasegawa), 83
Sankai Mitate Sumo (Hiroshige), 193-
194, 306
Settsu Gekka, 188
Sharaku, 26, 210
Shigenobu (Ichiryusai). {See Hiro
shige II.)
— (Yanagawa), 114
Shikimaro, 68
Shiko. {See Choki,)
Shiko II, 70
Shinsai, 114
Shokoku Meisho (Hokkei), 191
Shokoku Meisho Hyakkei (Hiroshige II),
100, 306
Shokoku Meisho Kir an (Hokusai), 189
Shuncho (Katsukawa), 63
Shunko (or Shunbeni), 63
— (Katsukawa), 64
Shunman, 63
Shunsen, 64

Shunsho, 60, 214
Shuntei, 64
Shunyei, 64, 214
Shunzan, 63
Six Tama Rivers series, 199-201
Sixty Odd Provinces (Hiroshige), 34, 194
Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido
(Yeisen and Hiroshige), 143-156,
303
Sugakudo, 84, 282
Surimono, 38, 113-114

Taito, Katsushika, 89, 282
Tempozan Shokei Ichiran (Gakutei), 190
Theatre in, Japan (The), 207-212
Thirty-six Views of Fuji (Hiroshige),
34, 167-170
 (Hokusai), 159-166
Tokaido series (Hiroshige), 1 19-130, 133
299-303
 (upright). 30, 134
 (Hokusai : quarter-plate), 138
 (Kunisada), 136-138
 (Kuniyoshi), 135
 (Kuniyoshi and Hiroshige), 276
Tosa school, 14
Toto Meisho series (Hiroshige), 173
Toto San-ju Rok'kei series (Hiroshige
II), 99, 183, 305
Toyoharu, 64, 183
Toyohiro, 74
Toyokuni (Gosotei), 48, 198
— (Utagawa), 48, 73, 215-217
Toyomasa, 58
Toyonobu (Ishikawa), 58
— (Utagawa), 58
Toyoshige. {See Toyokuni, Gosotei.)
Tsukimaro, 68
Twenty-four Examples of Filial Piety
(Kuniyoshi), 278 335

Japanese Colour-Prints

u
Ukiyoye school, 13-21
Utamaro (Kitagawa), 65, 246, 255-260,
283
Utamaro II, 67

Views of Fuji (Hiroshige), 34, 167-
170
 (Hokusai), 159-166
Views on the Tokaido (Kunisada), 136-
138
 (Kuniyoshi), 135
 (Hiroshige), 1 19-130
 (upright), 30, 34, 134
W
" Waterfalls " series (Hokusai), 189
 (Yeisen), 190
Wrestlers, 214, 218

Yedo, Hundred Vims in (Hiroshige),
30, 176-183, 304
Yedo Meisho series (Hiroshige), I73-I75
Yeiri (Hosoda), 76
— (Rekisentei), 76
Yeisen (Keisai), 78, 199
Yeishi (Hosoda), 75
Yeishin, 36, 76
Yeisho, 76
Yeisui, 76
Yeizan, 77, 279
Yoshitora (Ichimosai), 84
Yoshitoshi, 18, 84, 298
Yoshitsune, 263-264
Yoshitsune Ichi dai Zu-ye (Hiroshige),
263, 309
Yoshiwara, The, 253 Z
Zodiacal signs, reproductions of, 327

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YALE UNIVERSITY

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