I I i I I I I I Yale University Library — -* ^^.X.^..,-.-!^-.^!^ 39002013982492 I !f.:-.'J ' Si.cS' I 'ki "A i \fV^ YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATES Gift of CHARLES G. MORRIS THE CONNOISSEUR SERIES. Edited by Gleeson White, JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. THE CONNOISSEUR SERIES. Edited by Gleeson White. PICTURE POSTERS. By C. T. J. Hiatt. A Handbook on the History of the Illustrated Placard. With numerous Reproductions of the most Artistic Examples of all Countries. Demy 8vo. I2s. 6d. net. JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION: being a History of the Arts of 'Wood-cutting and Colour Printing in Japan. By Ed-ward F. Strange, M.J.S. With Eight Coloured and Eighty- eight Black-and-white Illustrations. Demy 8vo. I2s. 6d. net. THE ART OF THE HOUSE. By Rosamond Marriott Watson. With numerous Collotype and other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. *^* These essays on the furnishing and decoration of the home, which appeared in the " Pall Mall Gazette " under the heading of "Wares of Autolycus," have been revised and extended by the author, and are here supplemented by many illustrations from the loan collection at Bethnal Green, the South Kensington Museum, and elsewhere. ENGLISH HISTORICAL PORTRAITS. By H. B. Wheatley. With nearly a hundred Illustrations taken direct from the originals. Demy 8vo. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS. PLATE III. KATSUGA"WA SHUNSHO. ACTOR IN THE PRINCIPAL FEMALE PART OF THE PLAY ".UDAMAKI," From a print in the National Art Library, South Kensington Museum. JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION A HISTORY OF THE ARTS OF WOOD-CUT TING AND COLOUR PRINTING IN JAPAN By EDWARD F. STRANGE, M.J.S. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, MDCCCXCVII COb.E CHISWICK press: — CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO H. E. THE JAPANESE MINISTER, TAKAAKI KATO, PRESIDENT OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY, ETC. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction . . xiii CHAPTER I. Early Illustrated Books . . i CHAPTER II. The Beginning of Colour Printing . . 21 CHAPTER IIL Harunobu, Shunsho, and their Pupils . 29 CHAPTER IV. Utamaro, Toyokuni, and Yeishi . . .40 CHAPTER V. HOKUSAI AND HIS PUPILS 59 CHAPTER VI. Yeisen, Shunsen, and their Contempo raries . . 76 CHAPTER VII. The Osaka School and Later Artists . 94 CHAPTER VIII. Landscape . 107 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. page Technique ... ... .118 CHAPTER X. Some Subjects of Illustration 131 List of Artists' Names with Chinese Characters 143 Index .... ... . . 151 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. COLOURED PLATES. design by subject page I. ToRii KiYONAGA Two Ladies, one Writing a Poem 26 II. Suzuki Harunobu Two Women of the Yoshi- wara . 30 III. Katsuga-wa Shun sho . Actor in the Principal Female Part of the Play " Uda- maki "... . Frontispiece IV. Utamaro . One of the Ten Famous Women Authors . 40 V. Utagawa Toyo kuni . . A Princess's Garden-Party at a " Momiji"- Garden at Kyoto in Autumn . 48 VI. Utaga-wa Kuni- YOSHi ... A Geisha ... ... 52 VII. Hokusai . The Makura Bridge over the Sumida River .... 60 VIII. HiROSHiGE I. . The Gate of the Shinto Temple, Shi-en-sha, Kyoto, in Winter . . . 108 PROCESS BLOCKS. Anonymous Design for a Kimono (Seven teenth Century) . . . 3 Rose, from a: Botanical Book 91 Children at Play (Eighteenth Century) . . 139 Silhouette Portrait . . . 103 ASHIKUNl . . . Actors in Character 96 ASHIYUKI . . An Actor . . . . 98 BUNREI . . . . . Crane . . . 86 Chinnen . A Street Merchant . . . 88 X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. DESIGN BY SUBJECT PAGE Gakutei . . . . Illustration to a Novel . . 74 Landscape with View of Mount Fuji . . . 118 Surimono : Portrait of a Woman . . ... 140 Hakushu . . . Studies of Fish . ... 130 HiROSADAi . . . . BuddhistAngel in the Feather Robe {Higoromo) 132 HiROSHiGE I. . Mother and Child . . 82 Floral Design . . 92 View of Lake Biwa . no HiROSHiGE II View near Yedo ... no HiSHiKAWA MoRONOBU . Scene with the Divinities, Daikoku and Ebisu (c. 1680) 5 HoKKEi . . . . Illustration from the " Occu pations of Women " . . 72 A View of Mount Fuji (Double Plate) . . 126 Ho-iTSU . . . . Design for Lacquer, after Korin ... ... 90 HoKUBA . . . Illustration to "The Honest Clerk " 74 Hokusai . . . A Picnic Party ... 62 The Shop of Hokusai's Pub lisher ... 67 Illustration to a Novel by Bakin . . . . 68 Fish 68 One of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji . . .108 Hokusai (Kako) . . Scene from the Drama of " The Forty-seven Ronin " 64 Hokusui ... . View near Kyoto . . . 116 HoKUYEi .... A Theatrical Scene . . 96 Hosai Mountain Scenery . . . 120 IcHi-0 Shumboku . . Geese 17 Demons Engaged in Culinary Operations 18 Katsugawa Shunsho . . Actors in Character ... 94 Keisai Yeisen . . . Flirting 76 Portrait of a Lady . . 78 River Scene 112 The Drama of "The Forty- seven Ronin." Scene VIII. 136 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XI DESIGN BY SUBJECT PAGE Kikumaro .... Lady at the Tea Ceremony . 44 KiTAO Shigemasa . . Illustration to a Story . . . 24 KlTAO Masayoshi . . Fish . ¦ 88 Kiyomitsu .... Woman at Tea . 24 KORIUSAI Winding a Clock 32 KOCHO Street Scene 88 KUNISADA Theatrical Character Woman in Costume of 50 Daruma . . . 5° A Woman at her Toilet 5° The Processes of Colour Printing represented by Women . . 128 KUNIYASU . . Girl on a Windy Day . 54 KUNIYOSHI . . Portraits of Hokusai and Bakin . ... S3 Portraits of Toyokuni I. Yeisen, and Kuniyoshi 55 NiSHIKAWA SUKENOBU Illustration from the "Occu pations of Women " 15 Okumura Masanobu. . The Three Saki Tasters (c. 171°) ¦ • 9 Ryokuko Women Reading a Roll 84 Sadahide . . View of Lake Biwa (Third Sheet) . . .' 114 Sadahiro Actor in Character of a Noble 98 Sadamasa ... An Actor in Character . . 100 Shigenobu .... . Landscape in the Season of Cherry Blossom . . . 114 ShikO ... . Lady and Attendant 60 Shuncho . Portrait of A5-giya Kwasen 36 Shunki . . . An Actor Dancing . . 34 Shunsen . Portrait of a Lady .... 80 Shuntei Yegara Heida Killing a Fiery Serpent . . . 38 Shunzan . The Gate, of the Temple of Asakusa 80 Soraku Woman with Small Drum . 84 Tachibana Morikuni . Roko (1714) . ¦ • 10 Two Ladies (1740) II Monkey ... 13 Takehara, Shunchosai . Landscape ... 142 TORII KlYOMINE . . . Portrait of a Girl .... 28 TORII KiYONAGA A Samurai and Two Girls . 28 TORII KlYONOBU Two Lovers . 22 Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. DESIGN BY TORII KlYOTSUNE . TOYOHIRO .... Toyokuni I. Toyokuni (GosStei) TSUKIOKA SeTTEI . TSUKIOKA TaNGE . Utamaro . . . Yeishi . . . . Yeitaku Sensai Yeizan . . Yoshitora SUBJECT Two Girls in Snow-Time . A Windy Day . . . An Actor .... . . Portrait of a Woman . . . Surimono Hotei . . . . . Horseman and Boy (1762) . Portrait of Utamaro at Work Portrait of a Lady .... Yodo Castle on the Yodo River .... . . Street Performers on New Year's Day A Promenade . . . . A Writing Lesson Portrait of a Lady . . . The Death of Nitta Yoshisada 26 4648 48 124 85 19 42 42 134 56 123 S8 104 INTRODUCTION. During the last twenty years such Euro peans as are interested in art have gradually become alive to the fadt that there has existed in Japan, for upwards of two cen turies, a school of woodcut illustration on somewhat different lines to that of their own part of the world, but often its superior in both technical and artistic results. The growth of this knowledge is interest ing, and a short sketch thereof may serve as a fitting introdudtion to a study of the art itself. In 1812, died at Paris M. Isaac Titsingh, who for fourteen years served the Dutch East India Company as chief of their settle ment at Nagasaki. During this time he had been at some pains to acquire all possible information as to the arts, sciences and industries of the Japanese ; and, moreover, to illustrate his knowledge by many docu ments. A catalogue of the latter will be found at the end of the posthumous com pilation of his essays and translations, pub lished in French by M. Nepveu, and in XIV INTRODUCTION. English by Ackermann (1822), wherein, among sundry maps, books, and paintings, are noted, together with several other items of a similar nature : " Nine engravings printed in colours, on the same number of separate sheets, 10 inches wide and i foot 2 inches 9 lines in height, representing Japanese ladies in various dresses." Now this interesting record probably en titles M. Titsingh to the honour of having been the earliest European colledlor of Japanese colour-prints, and their nature may be suggested by another estray of evi dence which comes to us from a Japanese source, to the effedt that the produdtions of Utamaro were especially prized by Dutch men. With the exception of the reprodudtion of four colour-prints ' in Oliphant's ' ' Account of the Mission of Lord Elgin to China and Japan " (1859), and the reprodudtion of some of Hokusai's woodcuts in one of the early volumes of " Once a Week," no further attention seems to have been paid to the subjedt until the International Exhibition of 1862, in which the Japanese colledtion made by Sir Rutherford Alcock excited much wonder and admiration among those interested in the arts. Mr. John Leighton, in aledlureat the Royal Institution, delivered ' Two by Toyokuni II. (Kunisada), and one each by Hiroshire I. and II. i INTRODUCTION. XV on the ist of May, 1863, pointed out the marvellous skill shown in wood-engraving and colour printing ; and the rare pamphlet in which he afterwards embodied his views, is illustrated by a coarsely-printed sheet from the set of the Forty-seven Ronin by Kunisada. His criticisms seem to show that he was quite unacquainted with the best work now known to us ; and it is probable that the exhibits displayed on this occasion, as well as those at the Paris Exhi bition of 1867, were for the most part of the debased and deteriorated kind then current at Yedo and Osaka. But the revolution of 1868 attradted a number of highly educated Europeans to Japan. It was impossible that many of them should not be impressed by the beauty and novelty of the better class of prints ; and as they have gradually re turned to this country, bringing with them fine specimens of the earlier and better classes of work, a new cult of colledtors has arisen, the objedls of whose reverence charm as much by their intrinsic worth as by their half-hidden mystery and romance. Of late years the exhibition ofthe Burling ton Fine Arts Club (1888), and those at other galleries have advanced the knowledge of this craft another step, while the great success which has followed the establish ment of the Japan Society is a sufficient indication of the keenness with which a large public is now prepared to interest XVI INTRODUCTION. itself in almost any of the delightful arts of that country. It is a little difficult to state in precise language the causes of the charm these prints have for such as have learnt the ele ments of their language. As mere arrange ments of decorative colour they are gener ally superb : as exercises in composition they are, in the aggregate, unsurpassed. But they at first strike an outsider with something of a shock. They are so different — so rebellious. Since the Gothic period. Western Art has lost its taste for — even its understanding of — convention. The Renais sance was a struggle in the diredtion of realism ; carried on at first by men of great manipulative skill. It failed because its artists knew not the limits of their power. And the failure was so magnificent that it bound and blinded European Art with its traditions, even unto this day. Now the Japanese artist is not concerned with unnecessary accuracy. When he chooses, he can — as in the drawings of birds and flowers — attain a realism far beyond that ever achieved by his Western brethren. But when he has a tale to tell, whether it be of the passions or follies of men, of the quaint inanity of the professional beauty, of the tenderness of evening light, every consideration is sacrificed thereto. He does not call you away from his subjedt at every point to stay and wonder at his drawing. INTRODUCTION. XVll He does not deem it needful to cover every square inch of his panel with a mere padding of colour or the distradtion of unnecessary and irritating detail. Nothing is allowed that can interfere with the intense present ment of one central idea, in sucfi a manner that it shall dominate your thoughts to the exclusion of all else. And yet, not content with the limitations of a most difficult tech nique, he adds thereto conventions of in credible effrontery. He persuades you into unabashed acceptance of postulates which overturn every article in the artistic creed of your forefathers ; and smilingly imposes his fidtions on you by the perfedt truth of the sentiment they convey. It would be unwise to pass over in silence the use that has been, and still is, made of the colour prints. They have been recognized for some years as the source of inspiration of much that is newest and best in land scape art ; but perhaps their most valuable influence is only to-day in the infancy of its development. Every broadsheet with a theatrical subjedt is a potential poster. Steinlen, Ibels, Lautrec, have already dis covered this, and . they have been good enough to pass on the hint to our artists in England, with what results the hoardings already show. There is no adequate reason why Euro peans should not avail themselves of these treasures lying thus ready to their hands. XVlll INTRODUCTION. On the contrary, the layman, welcoming a change from the inevitable, as it seemed, stupidity or vulgarity of the old adver tisement, will rather rejoice that the pro phets of his culture have aptitude — even generosity — to admit influences tending so pleasantly to his gratification ; and it is indubitable that he has to thank the humble artizans of the Land of the Rising Sun for many a quaint conceit of design, and many a happy coincidence of colour, now pleasantly translated to the service of our city walls. A personal note must be added on the circumstances attending the compilation of the present volume. It has been rendered difficult by the failure of anticipated help from Japan ; and, again, easier by the dis covery, nearer home, of much information that was needed. And there now remains only the pleasant duty of publicly confessing the obligations which many kind friends have laid upon me. All lovers of Japanese pidtorial art are under an inestimable debt to Professor Anderson. It has been im possible for me, as it will be for any future writer on the subjedt, to avoid quoting him at almost every turn ; and in acknowledging ¦the use I have made of the priceless stores of information he has accumulated for the benefit of the world, I would add thereto INTRODUCTION. XIX an expression of my thanks for the personal courtesy with which he has placed them at my disposal. To supplement the fadts derived from his works, I have had recourse to the mono graphs on Utamaro and Hokusai by Mons, E. de Goncourt, whose death, full of years and honours, we have only lately to de plore ; to the publications of Mons. Bing in "Artistic Japan" and elsewhere; to informa tion most freely given by my friend Mr. Edgar Wilson, whose colledtion of cplour- prints is one of the best in England ; and to translations made for me from Japanese authorities by Mr. Genjiro Kowaki and Mr. H. O. Tanosuke. From Mr. Charles Holme, Mr. Edgar Wilson, and Mr. Arthur Morrison I have received cordial permission to repro duce examples not otherwise easily attain able, and the authorities of South Kensington Museum have given me the same privilege. I am, moreover, indebted to Mr. L. W- Micheletti, of the National Art Library, for a great deal of valuable assistance in the colledtion and arrangement of my materials. The two blocks on pp. 5 and 9 are re produced by the permission of Professor Anderson and Messrs. Seeley and Co., Ltd., from the "Portfolio^ monograph on Japanese Wood Engravings " by the former. There have, as I have said, been many ' No. 17, May, 1895. XX INTRODUCTION. difficulties to contend with in the prepara tion of this work, and these must excuse the imperfedtions which an increase of general knowledge of the subjedt will in evitably bring to light. The men who made the colour prints which form the main objedt of my essay were but artisans, and no one deemed it necessary to preserve the details of lives so low down in the social scale of Japan. There are few native treatises dealing with the subjedt, and those have been available for me only through the medium of the translator. The one possible method of dealing with the little information at hand has been to test it with the evidence of one's eyes, and set it down for what it is worth, in the hope that it may at least furnish definite grounds for the labours of future writers. But if I have succeeded in in teresting a public in one of the most charm ing and most artistically valuable of the handicrafts, I shall have attained the only ambition I proposed to myself in under taking the task, and so shall rest content. Edward F. Strange. National Art Library, South Kensington Museum, OSiober, 1896. JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. CHAPTER I. EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. For the beginnings of book illustration in Japan, we have to look, as in the case of the other arts of the Land of the Rising ^un, to China. Not diredtly, however, for the Buddhist missionaries, who took with them traditions of the Grseco-Buddhistic arts of India into every country whither they pene trated, came to Japan by way of Korea, and so added another influence to an already somewhat conglomerate legend. Block-printing seems to have existed in China in the fourth century ^ a.d. ; but the earliest specimens of the art attributable to Japan are ascribed to the period a.d. 764- 770, when the Empress Shiyau-toku " in pursuance of a vow, ordered a million small wooden toy pagodas to be made for distri bution among the Buddhist temples and monasteries of the whole country, each of ' " Hiang-liang, styled Kiu-to, first printed books about A.D. 330 at Tcheng-tu."— Terrien DE Lacou- FERIE, "Origin of Chinese Civilization," 1894, p. 345. B 2 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. which was to contain a dhdrant out of the Buddhist Scripture, entitled 'Vimala nirb- hasa Stltra.' " ' These texts, many specimens of which are said to be still extant, were printed on paper eighteen inches in length by two in width, either from wood or metal plates ; and although a number of these examples are forgeries, it seems certain that enough are genuine to establish the authenticity of the statement. We may shortly summarize the history of Japanese printing so far as it relates to our subjedt. In a.d. 987, the term suri-hon, "printed book," is used. In a.d. 1172 ap peared an edition of the " Seventeen Laws," " which is the earliest Japanese printed book of which any record exists."^ Other re ligious publications appear at rare intervals during the next two centuries, together with some few rude woodcuts ; but mentioning the earliest known Chinese illustrated book, the " Kwanyin Sutra" (a.d. 1331), and the Korean books of the fifteenth century, we may at once pass to a romance, the " Isd Monogatari," which at present appears to be the earliest Japanese book of purely native style and origin. It was published in A.D. 1608. Illustrated books are henceforward found in ever-increasing numbers, but as a rule ' Satow (E.), " On the Early History of Printing in Japan." — Asiatic Soe. of Japan, Trans., Dec, 1881. " Ibid. EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. 3 of mediocre merit. In many cases, also, they are embellished with crude colour. design for a kimono, seventeenth century. applied invariably by hand. But in 1667 there appeared an anonymous colledtion, in several volumes, of designs for kimono 4 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. (the outer garment), which not only shows many of the best charadteristics of Japanese ornament, but often reaches a very fair standard of executive skill. It has, in ad dition, the interest of having been printed in at least four colours, neither super imposed nor in any case used together, but employed in turn for the two designs cut on each block in order to give variety to the general effedt of the book, the first couple being in black, the second in olive- green, the third in red, and so on (p. 3). The importance of this seems to lie in the fadt that, although a knowledge of the use of coloured inks for printing was thus con temporary with the desire for woodcut illustrations in more than one colour, the earliest known book adtually illustrated with chromo-xylographs should not have appeared until a.d. 1748. It seems almost certain, however, that now Japanese art is being more closely and scientifically studied, some intermediate link will be discovered other than that afforded by the broadsheets, to which allusion will presently be made. But the end of the seventeenth century was destined to see the dawn of a new era ; and it is at this point that for all pradtical purposes the history of wood-engraving in Japan really begins. Hishikawa Moronobu (Kichibei), the earliest Japanese artist diredtly connedted with book illustration, is said to have been PPO^;oi2i o a<< ca Q O Z CO & . o "-^ p HH>SMHMH 6 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. a native of Hoda, in Boshiu. He was the son of a celebrated embroiderer, Michishige, and in his youth learned the pradtice of his father's craft, and also to design for it. In early life, however, he left Yasuda, in the province of Awa, where he was then living, to carry on his trade at Yedo ; but, having already developed an aptitude for painting, he gradually devoted himself entirely to the finer art. In this new pursuit, being self- taught, he, perhaps naturally, adopted the style and tenets of the Ukiyo-ye, or Popular School, founded by the painter Iwasa Mata- hei at the end of the sixteenth century; and, devoting himself especially to the illustra tion of books, exercised an enormous in fluence on the future of that art. In his old age he renounced the world, and taking the new name of Yuchiku, shaved his head as was the custom of professed recluses. He died in the period Shotoku (a.d. 1711-15), aged about seventy. "As an artist," says Professor Anderson, in the British Museum Catalogue of Japanese Pidtorial Art, " the vigorous in dividuality manifested in all his designs, his refined sense of colour, and his wide range of motive, signalize him as one of the most striking figures in the history of his school. He moreover led the way for his successors in the Ukiyo-ye, not only as an exponent of contemporary life, but in the interpretation of fidtion, pdbtry, and senti- EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. 7 ment, and his works are free from the vul garity that tainted the produdtions of many of the best representatives of the school in later times." He devoted himself chiefly to illustrations of the amusements of the upper classes, and the fidelity with which he has treated their costume and other accessories gives his work as high a value to the antiquarian, as does the brilliancy of his composition and drawing to the art- lover. Moronobu's style is distinguished by its simplicity and caligraphic excellence of line. For the faces of his women, he makes use of a pleasing if conventional type, rounder and fuller than those in vogue later on, and with a charadteristic treatment of the looped-up hair of the period. His men are generally studies from real types, and display much animation and charadter. Moronobu left two sons of repute. The eldest, Morofusa, abandoned the calling of an artist for that of a dyer ; the second, Moronaga, is said to have especially ex celled in colouring prints, and it is to him, perhaps, that the completion of some of the chromo-xylographs, undoubtedly designed by his father, may be attributed. One of these can now be seen in the colledtion at South Kensington Museum. It was pub lished at Miyako about the middle of the eighteenth century. It is necessary to exercise caution in 8 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. seledting examples of the work of Hishi kawa Moronobu, for his name was used by a later artist, who also worked in his style.^ The next book illustrator to whom re ference should be made is Okumura Ma sanobu, a contemporary and follower of Moronobu, who also " made ^ a speciality of the ' Yehon,' or pidture book pure and simple, albums of pidtures without any pre tence of text beyond a short marginal script." He worked in the same style as Moronobu during the period 1690- 1720. Other names used by him were Bunkaku, Hogetsudo, Tancho, and O Genroku. Confining our attention in the present chapter to those artists only who devoted themselves mainly to book illustration in black and white, we may now pass to Tachibana Morikuni, who was born in 1670, and died at the age of seventy-eight in 1748. Our illustration (p. 10) is from the "Yehon Kojidan," published at Osaka in 1 7 14, and is therefore a specimen of Morikuni's earliest style. It represents Roko, one of the Buddhist Sennin or Rishi — beings who, by the exercise of re ligious virtues, have attained immortality ; and for a slight design has a wonderful effect of atmosphere and motion. Morikuni was trained in the style of the Kano school, ' Anderson (W.), Portfolio Monograph, "Japanese Wood Engravings." ' Ibid. THE THREE SAKI TASTERS. BY OKUMURA MASANOBU (c. 1710). lO JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. but abandoned it for that of the Ukiyo-ye. He published a large number of illustrated books of design, plant form, and illustra tions to poems, legends, etc., and left a son named Hokoku, or Yasukuni. We give (p. 1 1) an example of his treatment of the ROKO. by TACHIBANA MORIKUNI (17 14). figure from a book of drawing lessons, "Yehon Oshukubai," published at Naniwa (Osaka) in 1740, which also contains some fine studies of birds and illustrations of heroes of Japanese history, drawn with singular force and dramatic power ; while on p. 13 is a superb example from the "Yehon Shahotai" of the art of juggling with the simple line,' which has ever since EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. T I been so charadteristic of Japanese draughts men. TWO LADIES. BY TACHIBANA MORIKUNI (1740). Of the numerous artists whose works belong to this period, we have space only 12 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. for a detailed account of one, Nishikawa Ukiyo Sukenobu, who was born at Kyoto in 1 67 1. He was trained as a figure painter by Kano Yeino ; but, like Morikuni, aban doning the traditions of the school of his master, adopted the new art of designing for woodcuts, fixing his residence in Osaka. A large number of books illustrated by him were published both during his life and after his death ; which latter occurred in 1 75 1, in his eighty-first year. His wood cuts do not seem to have ever been printed in colour. Sukenobu must be considered as one of the leading book illustrators of Japan. His range is narrow, but within its limits he attains a very high order of excellence. The peculiar grace with which he invests his female figures is quite his own ; and the latter, as Professor Anderson says, "were devoid, both of the exaggerations of traits seen in the works ofthe later Popular School and of the shapelessness and inanity which appears to have represented the older artists' ideal of beauty ; but, unfortunately, these charming little specimens of Japanese girl hood were almost all alike, and hardly dis played more individuality than the ladies in a Paris fashion-plate.'" Sukenobu wrote a volume of illustrated legends, the " Yehon Yamato Hiji" (1716), the rest of the books containing his designs being generally col- ^ Anderson, British Museum Catalogue, p. 340. EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. 13 ledtions of poems, amusements of women, social treatises, etc. His composition is always masterly, his lines delicate and ex pressive, and the spotting of solid black BY TACHIBANA MORIKUNI. placed with rare reticence and judgment. Such foliage or plant form as he needs is treated with care and accuracy, as also is the drapery of his figures. These latter, indeed, must be compared with similar sub- jedts by Suzuki Harunobu (Chap. III.) ; the 14 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. resemblance is so strong that one is bound to consider it, although there seems to be no historical link of evidence to diredtly connedt the two men. Sukenobu is quoted by Japanese connoisseurs of art as a rare instance of refinement in the Popular School. He occasionally signed his work Bunkwado and Jitokusai ; and among the engravers who collaborated with him may be men tioned Fujimura Zenyeimon, Murakami Genyeimon, and Niwa Shobei. Our illustration (p. 15) is from a book dealing with a subjedt much patronised by Japanese illustrators — the " Occupations of Women," published in 1729 ;' in the original it occupies, in accordance with a custom quite incomprehensible to Europeans, two separate sheets of the volume. On p. 17 is an example of the work of Ichi-o Shumboku, Vv^ho is particularly not able for a series of reprodudtions of famous pidtures by Chinese and Japanese artists, translated into black and white with great daring and freedom. These subjedts are always in great vogue among pradtitioners of the different crafts, especially those of lacquer and pottery ; and the colledtions of Ichi-o have been reprinted even so lately as in 1887. The plate we reproduce is from the " Wakan Meihitsu Yehon Tekagami," first printed at Osaka in 1720. Ichi-o is said to have died at the age of eighty-four ; ' In the colleaion of Mr. R. Phene Spiers, F.R.I.B.A. o o o Ha.ooo o oH<;(2;H ICHI-0 SHUMBOKU Ni v.. \ ¥ EARLY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. 19 as one of his books, "Wakan Meigwayen," was issued by him at the age of sixty-one, BY TSUKIOKA TANGE (1762). in 1749-50, this would place the date of his death at 1773 or thereabouts. Our second example is reproduced from vol. vi. of this work. 20 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. On p. 19 is an example from the " Togoku Meishoshi," one of the popular guide books which are referred to at fuller length in the chapter on landscape. The artist Tsukioka Tange (1717-86) has a reputation for his torical figures, and, as the illustration shows, very considerable skill in delineating move ment. The book from which our example is taken was engraved by Yoshimi Niyeimon, and published in 1762. ! CHAPTER II. THE BEGINNING OF COLOUR- PRINTING. As we have already hinted, colour-printing in Japan is a development of the inclination, quite natural in a society which already possessed an established art of painting, to apply colour by hand to impressions from woodcuts taken in black and white. Ex amples of this process occur in the seven teenth century ; but in the early part of the eighteenth it was used with much skill in the broadsheets, especially by one artist, Torii Kiyonobu, the contemporary and equal of Moronobu. Kiyonobu, whose personal name was Shobei, w^as a resident first of Kyoto, and afterwards of Yedo ; he was born in 1688, and flourished 17 10-1730. An example of his style of drawing will be well seen at p. 22, a woodcut coloured by hand, repre senting a young noble and his lady-love. The strong, simple treatment will readily be noticed, as well as a certain rudeness in the ornamental details of the robes, especially TORII KIYONOBU TWO LOVERS. THE BEGINNING OF COLOUR-PRINTING. 23 extradted from a kind of safifiower." This method of printing persisted until well into the middle of the century. The Louvre includes in the small but choice colledtion exhibited in the Salle Grandidier a fine print by Koriusai in this manner. But at the same time it is to be noted that i\\& printing of the red must by no means be always taken for granted. Often it is laid on by hand. A good example of a printed broad sheet in three colours by Torii Kiyonobu is reproduced by M. Bing in " Artistic Japan," No. 29. Kiyonobu founded a school, the members of which followed a custom usual among Japanese artists, of taking a syllable of his name as part of their own. Thus we have. Kiyomasu, Kiyotsune, Kiyoshige, Kiyo- haru, Kiyonaga, Kiyomitsu, and Kiyomine. Other artists who are also to be dealt with as falling more or less within the influence of the Torii School are Nishimura Shigen- aga and 'Suzuki Harunobu. In no case have we overmuch biographical information available ; but several of these artists dis play either distindtion or development which is worth noting, and as far as possible they will therefore be dealt with in chronological order. Torii Kiyomasu and Kondo Sukegoro Kiyoharu followed Kiyonobu, of whom the former is said to have been a son. Their work is placed in the second quarter of the 24 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. eighteenth century. It consisted chiefly of theatrical prints, and, in the case ofthe latter, some book illustration ; but specimens are rarely met with. Torii Kiyomitsu was the son of Kiyomasu, and worked about 1750. M. Bing has re produced in " Artistic Japan " (No. 3) a portrait of the adtor Tomedjuro Nakamura in the part of the nun Kaishi. We also give an example of a woman at tea ; but this print is certainly of later date, and would lead us to expedt that Kiyomitsu was working certainly in 1780. It has a certain severity of treatment which is not unattradtive, and which seems charadteristic of this artist. Kiyotsune is of about the same period as Kiyomitsu, but our illustration (p. 26) is much earlier in date than that of the latter, and superior to it in grace. The drapery is well managed ; but the extreme attenuation of the hands and feet amounts to a fault The method of dressing the hair is a fair evidence of early date. In the original the colour is very fine, and, in spite of the defedt we have pointed out, the general result quite good. Kiyotsune also executed some book illustrations, notably a set of the Chinese "Twenty-four Examples of Filial Piety," the figures of which are open to the same objedtion as our illustration. The first of the series contains one of those mar vellous elephants that the Japanese have TORII KIYOMITSU WOMAN AT TEA. KITAO SHIGEMASA ILLUSTRATION TO A STORY. THE BEGINNING OF COLOUR-PRINTING. 25 evolved partly from Chinese tradition and partly from their own imaginations. Kitao Shigemasa, called also Kosiusai, has much in common with the last-named artist. His treatment of drapery and com position are perhaps better, but he also fails curiously in the management of the anatomy of his figures. The illustration at p. 26 is one of his earlier works, and should perhaps be dated between 1760 and 1770. In the colledtion at the National Art Library is a fine later example of printing from four blocks, in black, red, green and purple, which has less of what we may call the style of book illustration ; and, by its bold, yet graceful arrangement, foreshadows much of the best work done by the next generation of artists. Shigemasa illustrated a book in three volumes, Yehon Komagadake : " Famous Horses of Japan and China, with their owners." The copy referred to is dated 1802, but it may not be a first edition. He died in 18 19 at the age of eighty. Another artist made use of his name about 1865-75 ! but the difference of treatment and style is of course so obvious as to prevent any possibility of confusion. It is advisable here to go back a little in date, in order to mention a contemporary of Kiyonobu, Nishimura Shigenaga. Of him Professor Anderson says : " Many portraits of adtors and women, printed from four blocks, after his designs, appeared between 26 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. 17 16 and 1748, and under his auspices .some advance was made in the art of chromo- xylography." Shigenaga was the master of Ishikawa Toyonobu, who died in 1789, and also of Suzuki Harunobu, who had a notable share in the further development of the art (Chap. HI.). The two remaining artists of the Torii School, Kiyomine and Kiyonaga, belong in style and period to a later generation. Kiyonaga was a pupil of Kiyomitsu, and worked after 1765. As a boy he was called Shinsuki, his personal name being Seikiuji Ichibei ; he was the son of a publisher, Shirokiya Ichibei. He illustrated several books, from one of which we reproduce a specimen in colours (Plate I.), and he also executed a number of broadsheets of high excellence. From the purely artistic standpoint, Kiyonaga must be looked on as the greatest of his School. His drawing is almost free from the errors of his prede cessors ; his grace and delicacy in no way inferior. He, too, was the first of the Torii to go beyond the theatrical print, and illus trate subjedts from domestic life. The faces of the subjedts depidted by him are full of expression ; and, allowing for technical con ventions, may be truly said to be quite realistic. An important print in the Na tional Art Library is worth referring to here. It is a representation of a gorgeously attired Yoshi wara woman, Segawa, of the PLATE I. TORII KIYONAGA. TWO LADIES, ONE WRITING A POEM. From a look in the collection of Mr. Edgar Wilson. 'ij''^ "^^ ^ TORII KIYOTSUNE TWO GIRLS IN SNOW-TIME. THE BEGINNING OF COLOUR-PRINTING. 27 House called Matsubaya, with the two at tendants due to her rank. The impression' is a very fine one, on specially thick paper, and it bears an impressed seal reading Yeijudo of Yedo, which is that of the pub lisher. This seal is also found on a print by Yeishi (p. 56); on the early prints of "Fish" by Hiroshige I.; on Hokusai's "Famous Bridges and Waterfalls " (1826- 30) ; and on a print by Kiyomine (not that herein reproduced). The evidence of seals is one on which too much reliance may be placed ; but it is worth more attention than it has hitherto received. In this case the period covered by the use of the seal in question is too wide for the assertion of any theory, but it furnishes a suggestive scrap of evidence as to the age of the " Fish " of Hiroshige I. Kiyonaga died between 1804 and 1817. Kiyomine (Shonosuke) married the only daughter of Kiyomitsu, and was a pupil of Kiyonaga. He worked in the style of Toyokuni I. during the period Bunkwa (1804-17), and was still alive in Tempo 1830-43, when he for a time used the name of his father-in-law, Kiyomitsu. He equals Kiyonaga in fineness of drawing and design ; but has not, however, the realistic qualities of the former artist, his tendency being rather towards the type — more of an abstradtion — afterwards ' Reference number in Library Catalogue, J4889. 28 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. developed by Utamaro and Yeizan. The original of our illustration ' at p. 28 has the rare quality of having the outlines of the flesh printed in red ; examples of this prac tice are also known among the work of Utamaro. The thickly-cut cypher is the trade-mark of the shop where the print was sold ; the seal underneath it that of the pub lisher. The subjedt of the print is the por trait of a girl of the Yoshiwara kissing a letter containing an invitation to the theatre. The importance of the Torii School must be considered to rest, in its earlier stages at all events, on an archaeological rather than an artistic foundation. Not that the work produced by its chief members was in artistic, or of any other than a high order of excellence. But its merits are quite over shadowed by the historic importance of the gradual progress made from the hand- coloured broadsheets and those in two or three tints only, by Kiyonobu, to the splendid chromo-xylographs of Kiyonaga and Kiyomine, which, if not technically un equalled, are at all events unexcelled. The latter artists had to compete with many contemporaries of equal talent, and pos sessed of the same means for expressing it, but they always hold their own, and form the last link in the chain uniting the be ginning of colour-printing in Japan with the highest point to which it ever attained. ' From the collection of Mr. Arthur Morrison. TORII kiyona(;a A SAMURAI A>JD TWO GIRLS. TORII KIYOMINE PORTRAIT OF A GIRL. CHAPTER III. HARUNOBU, SHUNSHO, AND THEIR PUPILS. Such Japanese writers as have condescended to bestow any attention on the biographies or works of the colour-print designers, have attributed to Suzuki Harunobu the " inven tion " oinishiki-ye. We have seen this to be entirely inaccurate. It is certain, however, that Harunobu made great improvements in the art of printing, and did a great deal to generally popularize the whole craft He was a pupil of Nishimura Shigenaga, and lived at Yedo, in the street Gyogoku Yoniza- wacho. His illustrated books are dated between the years 1763, when he illustrated a seledtion of Chinese poems in either two or three volumes, and 1779.' In the exhibition held by the Burlington Fine Arts Club (1888), Professor Anderson showed a book entitled " Yehon Haru no nishiki," illustrations (in colours) of spring scenery; this was engraved by Endo Mat- ^ Anderson, British Museum Catalogue. 30 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. sugoro, and published at Yedo in 1771. Harunobu's best-known work is especially distinguished for its refinement and delicacy. Early prints are found bearing his sig nature which show a simplicity and even rudeness of execution. Such an one ' is a small-sized print representing Kumagai's challenge to Atsumori.^ The composition is bold and effedtive, but there is no sugges tion of the style the artist was to develop later. Four colours only are used, black, yellow, green and red, and the register is by no means perfedt. It bears a publisher's mark, the signature of the engraver, Kawa- yoshi, and is signed simply Harunobu, without prefix. I should be inclined to consider it some years earlier in date than the Chinese poems above mentioned (1763). Between the dates mentioned, however, Harunobu devoted himself especially to the representation of young men and girls, treating his subjedts with singular grace and refinement ; the lines of the drapery flow easily and softly, and the expression of the faces is always that of a pleasing if slight sentiment. Harunobu never painted adtors. We have now to consider the first of those intricate questions of identity raised by a pradtice of Japanese artists of changing their names or adopting that of another man ^ National Art Library Collection, J 4847. ^ Griffis, " Mikado's Empire," p. 145. PLATE II. SUZUKI HARUNOBU. TWO WOMEN OF THE YOSHIWARA. From a book in the collection of Mr. Edgar Wilson. I n ^? h 1 1. ^ HARUNOBU, SHUNSHO, AND PUPILS. 3 1 already distinguished. During the period covered by the work of the last artist, we meet with prints similar to his in subjedt, in style, in costume, but bearing the sig nature Koriitsai. Now this Koriusai has always been con sidered as a separate artist. Professor Anderson so classes him, giving his names, Isoda Shobei, and his date as about 1760 to 1780. But the Japanese say that there were two Koriusai, one an artist of samurai rank, who, by reason of his poverty, " made bad nishiki-ye for a living."' Paintings, possibly by this man, are found with the signature, Hokkid Koriusai Masakatsu. The other Koriusai is said to be identical with Suzuki Harunobu ; and after a minute comparison of their work I have come to the conclusion that all the evidence goes to prove it. If Plate II. be considered in con- nedtion with the example signed Koriusai, at p. 32, in which a youth is supporting a girl on his shoulders while she adjusts a clock, the general similarity of treatment is at once apparent. The drapery may be well compared with that of a print repro duced by M. Bing in " Artistic Japan " (No. 27), although the representation of the inner garments by three lines, as in the sleeves of the figures of Plate II. will be found also in the folds of the man's dress at p. 32, while the treatment of the girl's sleeves in the latter is absolutely the same 32 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. as in Harunobu's Chinese poem.s already referred to. But it is in the heads that the resemblance is most striking; especially in the curious white lines in the hair, the shading of the latter behind the ears, and the drawing of the eyes and mouth. As to Koriusai, we learn that he was a samurai of the family Tsuchiya, his personal name being Oda Shobei ; that he studied with Harunobu under the same master ; lived in Yedo at Ogawacho, and was also known to his contemporaries as Yedo Yaganbori Yes hi {i.e., the artist who worked at Yaganbori). He made hachirakaki — long panel pictures (prints only) — and had the honorary title of Hokkio. Harunobu died on the fifteenth day of the sixth month, 1770, and the samurai Koriusai in the fol lowing year. Harunobu's pupil, Shiba Gokan, had some fame as a book illustrator. Of him Professor Anderson says : " He introduced copper-plate engraving, which process he learned, together with other elements of European art, from a Dutch resident, and was probably the first Japanese who made use of the elements of linear perspedtive in pidtorial art, but his education in the science was very imperfedt. He died in 18 18, at the age of seventy-one." A son (?) of the same artist, Gakutei Harunobu, was the well-known designer of surimono. He was a pupil of Shunsho, and KORIUSAI WINDING A CLOCK. HARUNOBU, SHUNSHO, AND PUPILS. 33 afterwards of his contemporary Hokusai (Chap. v.). A little later in date flourished an artist, Katsugawa Shunsho, whom, by reason of his own greatness and of that of his pupils, critics have universally placed in the very foremost rank. So important, indeed, is he, that it is worth while to put on record every scrap of information relating to him ; and we thus make no apology for the artistic genealogy, if the term may be used, which follows. The line begins with a contemporary of Moronobu, Miyagawa Choshun, a painter of the Popular School, who was born at the village of Miyagawa, Owari, in 1682. His son, Miyagawa Shunsui, had a dispute with the painter Kano Haruyoshi, and killed four of the Kano " family," for which he was sentenced to death, and Choshun, who was implicated, to exile {c. 1750-51). Miyagawa Shunsui was followed by pupils, Katsugawa Shunsui (c. 1741-43), Katsugawa Shinsui (c. 175 1-7 1), and Jikatsu Miyagawa — afterwards Katsugawa Shunsho — whftse first print, a portrait of the five celebrated adtors called Gonin Oloko, appeared in 1764. Shunsho "commonly used a seal shaped like a jar, and bearing the charadter Hayashi, the name of the merchant with whom he lodged. From this he received the nick name of Tsubo (little jar), and his pupil Shunko was called Ko-tsubo, or the ' Little D 34 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Jar ' " (Anderson). He died on the twelfth day of the eighth month of Kwansei 4 (1792), and was buried in the Saifukuji temple at Asakusa. No other biographical information of Shunsho has yet transpired. He, like most other artists of the school,' devoted his attention to the illustration of books, and produced several which must always rank among the world's masterpieces of book-making. Among these we may in dicate a colledtion of portraits of adtors, Kobi no Tsubo (1770); Seiro Bijin Awase kagami, portraits of fair women (1776), — the best known, and justly most admired of his produdtions of this charadter, — and the Nishiki Hiakunin Isshu, "The Hundred Poets and their Poems " (1775). This latter work, when complete, contains six supple mentary illustrations referring to the Rok- kasen, or six genii-poets. It is signed. Ririn Katsugawa Yusuke Fuji (of F'ujiwaro) Shunsho, Ririn being the name of his studio; the engraver was Inouye Shinshichiro. Shunsho also executed some exquisite surimono ; but his great reputation rests on the broadsheets he produced. These are often much smaller in size than those by later artists — who, indeed, seem to have adopted the proportions used by the pupils of Shunsho, about 14X 10, as a tradition of some rigidity — the original of Plate III. being 12 inches by 6 only. The set from which this is reproduced can only be de- HARUNOBU, SHUNSHO, AND PUPILS. 35 scribed as a series of harmonies in red and yellow — the term may surely be applied to the source of its inspiration, — and included therein are several cuts by Shunsho's fa vourite pupil, Shunko, so similar in style and treatment that without the saving grace of the signatures it would be impossible to distinguish the work of the pupil from that of the master. Another print in this album' is also notable. The subjedt is a Buddhist angel, winged, and playing on a lute ; the feeling and treatment such, that one wonders by what devious lines Shunsho could have acquired the inspiration of the early Italian Renaissance. Of a very different type is the illustration ' in Chap. VII. : two adtors, one in female costume in a scene from a drama. The strength of this pidture seems to lie in the lines of the composition ; in the bold arrangement of solid black — surely an in dication of the origin of a method pursued with so much success by the next generation ; in a certain hardness and severity of treat ment which bore fruit, as we shall see, to the extent of a whole school of followers. The drapery is treated with unusual reti cence, and in the falling of the folds with some convention ; the proportions of the figures are excellent, except that of the man's head, where an exaggeration is so ' National Art Library Colleftion, No. J 5038-59. " From the colleflion of Mr. Arthur Morrison. 36 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. obviously intended as to call for no excuse. Shunsho, we may say, invariably keeps his drapery quiet in tone; moreover, he always represented contemporary fashions, instead of, as did other artists, taking those of a previous age. Shunsho was essentially a master, and we meet with evidences of his influence through out the whole remaining history of the art we are now discussing. Of immediate pupils, Shunko is the most faithful to his traditions : of him no biographical informa tion has been obtained, and good specimens of his work are rare. But of all the artists who owed their first discipline to the instruc tions of Shunsho, Katsugawa Shunro is the one who has conferred most fame on his master, by the very adt of breaking from his traditions. Shunro is rarely seen as a sig nature to a colour-print ; but Hokusai, the name adopted by him after his declaration of independence, has travelled farther into the world than any other in all the art of Japan. Of the other pupils, Gakutei is referred to elsewhere: Shunman designed surimono — a set of studies of flowers by him made for this purpose are of very high merit; Shinyei,' also called Kintokusai, who died in 1819 at the age of fifty-eight; Shunyei Shunjo, Shunkiu, Shunko and Shunki, all ' Bing. "Artistic Japan," No. 9, contains a good example. SHUNCHO PORTRAIT OF .AO-GIYA KWASEN. HARUNOBU, SHUNSHO, AND PUPILS. 37 followed closely in the style of their master. We reproduce at p. 34 a colour-print by the latter, an adtor engaged in one of the charadter-dances occasionally given on the Japanese stage. It is a good composition, but does not rise to a very high dramatic level. In this place we should perhaps mention Katsugawa Shuncho, who, although his school-name would seem to suggest the mastership of Shunsho, should rather be classed with Kiyonaga. His early work consisted of dainty broadsheets, the sub jedts especially outdoor scenes, picnics, pro menades, and the like. Later, he modi fied his style somewhat in the diredtion of the manner of Utamaro, although he never quite adopted the latter's charadteristics. His work can always be recognized by the caligraphic charadter of the outlines. They have all the appearance of having been dashed off with a very instindt of accuracy by a master of the pen. His colours are, in well-preserved specimens, singularly pure and fresh ; in the original of our illustration at p. 36 the combs have a subtle effedt of semi-transparency which is, unhappily, quite lost in the reprodudtion. This print represents Ao-giya Kwasen, a popular beauty of the day ; the mark under the artist's signature is that of the publisher, Tsuru-ya of Yedo. Shuncho worked after about 1780; our 38 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. illustration should perhaps belong to the period 1 790-1 800. He illustrated " Kusa- zoshi" (popular novelettes, small in size, with text and illustration on the same page) be tween 1800 and 1820, and afterwards, says Professor Anderson, "gave up the Ukiyo-yd style, and changed his name to Shunken. He was still living in 1821." The last of the Katsugawas who demands reference is Katsugawa Shuntei, a pupil of Shunyei, also called Shokosai and Katsu- nami Kana-i. He was a great invalid, arid made but few prints, which were issued for the most part by the publisher Murataya. He lived c. 1800-20, and, in addition to book-illustration, produced broadsheets of interest and originality. Among these, the most notable are legendary or historical scenes, executed with considerable dramatic force, and printed generally in a charac teristic colour scheme, of which grays, greens, and yellows are the prevailing tints. The illustration at p. 38 is a portion of a two-sheet print representing Heida Yegara killing a fiery serpent. Shuntei also made portraits of famous wrestlers, whose curious over-development of muscle is treated by him with perhaps less apparent caricature than by any of the later artists. Shuntei must be looked on as, in some sense, the forerunner of the school of historical artists which arose after 1830. His coloiir is more harmonious and reticent, his draw- SHUNTEI YEGARA HEIDA KILLING A FIERY SERPENT. HARUNOBU, SHUNSHO, AND PUPILS. 39 ing finer, and his dramatic power and intensity equals, when he is at his best, even that of Toyokuni. Early impressions by this artist, with the fine old colours, are by no means common ; the later reprints are, from the colledtor's point of view, worth less. CHAPTER IV. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHL In the hands of Kiyonaga and Shunsho the technique of colour-printing had almost reached its zenith. The wood-cutting was equal to the highest demands of the de signers, the palette of the printer contained enough colours for all pradtical purposes, although the tendency for a long while was towards further multiplication of blocks, and, in a sense, the style had already be come crystallized — the limitations imposed by the material agreed upon within certain broad lines. It was now pre-eminently the time for the appearance of great men, and three of such reputed rank were not found wanting, Hokusai, Utamaro, and Toyokuni. To the life and work of Hokusai we devote the next chapter ; for if he was the contemporary of the other two, yet his greatest fame came after theirs had begun to wane, while a great and vigorous age associated him too closely with the work of three generations to permit that he should justly be identified with that of any one. PLATE IV. UTAMARO. ONE OF THE TEN FAMOUS WOMEN AUTHORS. From a print in the collection of Mr. Edgar Wilson. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 4 1 But the case of the other two artists is diff'erent. They were contemporaries in work, as well as in date, and their lives have a definite co-relationship, from which Hokusair is almost altogether excluded. To begin with Utamaro, it is first to be said that he is of the Kitagawa family, his own name Yusuke, his studio-names, first, Nobuyoshi, then Murasaki Ki-ya. He is said to have been born at Yedo, but the authority of M. de Goncourt^ places this event at Kawagoye, in the province of Mu- sashi or Bushiu, and in the year 1754. In early life he came to Yedo, taking up his residence with Tsuta-ya Juzabro, the cele brated publisher, in a house near the main entrance to the Yoshiwara. Tsuta-ya changed his residence to Tori-Abra-cho, Utamaro still accompanying him, and here, in 1797, the well-known publisher is said to have died.'' Utamaro also lived in the streets Kiuyemon-cho, and Bakro-cho, San- chome, finally settling near the Bridge Benkei. Utamaro was at first a student of the Kano School of painting, but afterwards became a pupil of Toriyama Sekiyen. His early work consisted of portraiture, but he devoted himself later in life almost en tirely to the delineation of the scenes and personages of the Yoshiwara ; although, in ' E. de Goncourt. "Outamaro." Paris, 1891. -' E. de Goncourt. But it is doubtful. 42 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. spite of what has been commonly said, he made a few pidtures both of adtors and of scenes of every-day life {Kinsei nishiki- ye). One of these latter we reproduce in Chap. X. Itrepresents street jugglers outside the house of a daimyo on New Year's Day, and is from a series of five pidtures of enter tainments on that festival, one for each of the classes of society. In the course of his life he certainly paid one visit to Nagasaki, where he is men tioned in connedtion with a local artist, Seicho ; it is also recorded that he sold many colour-prints to the Dutch merchants (see Introdudtion). Utamaro's illustrations of birds, flowers, and fish were made towards the end of his life. Utamaro was an illiterate man — skilful to a degree, but with the entire absence of self-control which is occasionally found to accompany an extreme development of the artistic sense. He gave way to dissipation to such an extent, that his publishers com bined to put moral pressure on him. They feared that so profitable a source of business might be lost to them, and, as has already been said, one of them adtually lodged Uta maro for a number of years, and as far as possible kept him in retirement. During this time he was induced to educate himself to some extent, and the "Yehon Taikoki " (story of Taiko Hideyoshi) brought much custom to his publisher. Utamaro's most prirj. , Tm'm^^ UTAMARO '"V CKv PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 43 famous book is his " Seiro Nenjiu gioji," the Book of the Yoshiwara, published in 1804 by Kasusaya Tusuke (Ju-6) of Yedo, near the Nihon Bashi, engraved by Fuji Katsumuni, and printed by Kwakushodo Toyemon. At p. 42 we give a portrait ' of Utamaro at work painting a large Ho bird, with three young women watching him from the door of the studio. A specimen of his landscape style is also reproduced in the chapter deal ing with that subjedt. Utamaro died of the effedts of dissipation in 1806, on the third day of the fifth month. There has been some doubt as to this date, but M. de Goncourt, who first gave it, is certainly right. In the early years of the period Bunkwa (beginning with 1804), a certain amateur of colour-prints travelled from Uwashiro, in Oshiu province, to Nagasaki, where he saw and much admired Utamaro's work : thence he passed to Yedo, and after visiting Toyokuni has placed upon record his preference for the earlier artist. Utamaro's principal pupils were Kiku maro I. (he was followed by another of the same name), who worked from 1789 to 1829, and is identical with Tsukimaro, Chikamaro, Hidemaro, and Yukimaro ; the last two being students at the time of the master's death. Utamaro owes his inspiration to Shige- ' From the colle6lion of Mr. Arthur Morrison. 44 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. masa and Kiyonaga, especially the latter. He adopts a different type of face, and one might even say, refines somewhat ; but there can be no doubt as to the relationship of their styles. M. de Goncourt mentions a print believed by M. Hayashi to have been executed in the studio of Kiyonaga between 1770 and 1775, and we have those high authorities for the statement that it would be impossible, but for the signature, to de cide that it was not by Kiyonaga himself. There has been some doubt as to the exist ence of an artist who succeeded Utamaro and used his name ; but this fadt may now be accepted without question. Shuncho, whose name may also be read Harumachi, was a fellow-student of Utamaro and Shiko under Toriyama Sekiyen, but he is not to be confused with the great artist of that name (see p. 37), a mistake which has fre quently been made. When Utamaro died Shuncho married his widow, and from the house in Bakro-cho continued to work under the name of his old companion, not only completing his unfinished designs, but issuing new ones with the dead artist's signature. This occurred from about 1808 to 1820. He afterwards took the name of Kitagawa Tetsugoro. This question of prints by other artists bearing the signature of Utamaro will be come a very important one for colledtors. The instance we have just quoted was KIKUMARO LADY AT THE TEA CEREMONY. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 45 already, at least, a matter of suspicion ; it must now be reckoned with as a fadt. And thereto may be added the disquieting in formation from a Japanese source, that at the height of Utamaro's local popularity both Toyokuni I. and Shunsen charitably did their best to satisfy the demands of the public by copying the other artist's subjedts and signature. These prints were published by a fan-maker named Hori-icho, and ap peared about 1807. Almost everyone who has studied Uta maro's work will have noticed the great inequalities in the prints attributed to him, especially in those whose large variety of colours proclaims the lateness of their date. There is very little doubt that these fadts carry the explanation of the difficulty. For the spurious examples display not the con sistent deterioration to which any artist might be liable, but a misunderstanding of the design and carelessness of drawing which positively amount to blunders. The author has recently had an opportunity of inspedting some prints, bearing the sig nature of Utamaro, and with all his obvious mannerisms writ large upon them ; but, to give one instance only, the hands of the central figure formed so casual a portion of the composition that one would not have been surprised at finding three of them instead of two. It must be remembered that Utamaro died at a comparatively early age. 46 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. He scarcely had time — never sufficient appli cation—to trade upon his popularity to any great extent ; and, in view of this, it will probably be safe to rejedt from colledtions of his work any of the broadsheets containing evidences of weakness or want of originality. The period with which we are now dealing saw the rise of what was to be the most prolific school of colour-printers, the Uta- gawas. It was founded by Toyoharu, of whom we know but little, but that he died between 1804 and 181 7, at the age of sixty- nine.^ His work is very rare. Five of Toyoharu's pupils are mentioned. Toyohiro (Ichiryusai) was famous as a book illustrator'' as well as a colour- printer. We show (at p. 46) an example of his broadsheets which has a movement and originality quite unexpedted ; the effedt of wind on the foliage and draperies is finely rendered. Toyohiro died in 1828. We may pass over Hichizemon, a book illus trator ; Toyohisa, who made prints in the style of Yeisan, but with more realism in the expression of the faces, and Toyomaru, of whom nothing is known, in order to consider, without further delay, Toyoharu's fifth and greatest pupil, Utagawa Toyokuni. Toyokuni was the son of Kurabashi Gorobei, who lived in the Shiba quarter of 1 Anderson. ^ Anderson (Briti-sh Museum Catalogue, p. 347,) gives a list of his best works. TOYOHIRO A WINDY DAY. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 47 Yedo near the Shinto temple Shimmei, where he acquired much fame as a maker of Buddhist images in wood, and also those of adtors, one in particular, that of Ichikawa Hakuzo, being especially mentioned as a popular success. Toyokuni's own name was Kumakichi. He was born in 1768, and first studied the styles of Hanabusa Ichio and Giokusan. He was sent by his father to Toyoharu to learn the art of colour-printing, and distin guished himself even as a student by his talent, so much so as to obtain pupils of his own. He died at the age of fifty-seven, in 1825 (Bunsei eight, year of the Cock), on the seventh day of the first month. Toyokuni especially devoted himself to broadsheet portraits of adtors and dramatic scenes, but also illustrated several novels by Kioden, Bakin and others, and exe cuted some landscapes now rarely met with. Perhaps the finest of his produdtions in this form is a small work in two volumes, entitled " Yakusha Kono Teikishiwa," a choice seledtion of famous adtors. It is in two volumes, printed in colours, in the master's best style, and was published by Injiudo at Yedo in 1801. We illustrate at p. 48 a typical print of an adtor, and also a portrait of a. woman ^ in the style of Uta maro. Plate V. is from a magnificently coloured specimen ' of his early work — " Both in the colleftion of Mr. Edgar Wilson. 48 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. perhaps one of the finest examples remain ing. A comparison between two great contemporary artists is not a new device of criticism, but nevertheless will probably continue to be a favourite one, so useful is it to use each in turn as a foil to show up the n^erits or defedts of the other. The case of Utamaro and Toyokuni is one which absolutely demands such a proce dure. The account we have given of the two artists will have hinted that there was a deliberate rivalry between the two men, for when Toyokuni illustrated the story of the two lovers, Ohan and Choyemon, by the portraits of the famous Ichikawa Yawozo and other adtors, Utamaro at once dealt with the same subjedt in a purely romantic style, entirely excluding the dramatic ele ment. And when Toyokuni issued a book devoted to the Yedo ladies of the Yoshiwara, his rival delayed but a little to attempt the same theme in exadtly the same manner, but with his own ideal and entirely less human treatment. In fadt, that is just the difference between them. The creations of Utamaro are pure abstradtions, dainty, perfedt in sentiment, the mere refinement of an ideal vice. Toyo kuni never loses sight of the humanity of his subjedts. The pomp of the stage has never been portrayed with such strength and intensity as by him. If his figures strike one with a sense of exaggeration, it PLATE V. UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI. A princess's GARDEN-PARTY AT A " MOMIJI "-GARDEN AT KYOTO IN AUTUMN. From a print in the collection of Mr, Edgar Wilson. TOYOKUNI I. AN ACTOR. TOYOKUNI I. PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 49 is but a tribute to their realism. The aim of the adtor is to condense the emotions of a lifetime within the space of a few minutes, and Toyokuni alone has succeeded in pic turing them as they should in stage-reality appear. Another element must be taken into con sideration in estimating the relative great ness of these men. While Hokusai and Toyokuni numbered their pupils by the score, and were imitated by every succeeding generation as long as the craft remained, those of Utamaro can be counted on the fingers of one hand. He was a result — pradtically final ; each of the others an inspiration for the ages to come. The pupils of Toyokuni were very many, and may be generally known by the prefix " Kuni-" which they adopted. There is no space in the present work to deal with them seriatim ; indeed, it must be acknowledged that the hand of the master lies heavy on them, and that with few exceptions they display little individuality, although almost invariably a pleasing capability. In the first place we have to deal with one of the worst cases of'confusion arising out of the similarity of Japanese artist- names. Toyokuni's son, Naogiro, was a student under his father. He at first adopted the name of Toyoshige, but later that of his father, occasionally also signing Gosotei Toyokuni. His work is more akin 50 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. to that of Yeisen than that of Toyokuni I. It is strong in line and good in colour. Gosotei Toyokuni's prints have been hitherto ascribed, almost at random, either to his father or to Toyokuni II. (Kunisada). And yet it is easy to separate them by the differ ence in style, and still more so by the sig nature. For that of Gosotei is one of the most invariable in its form of all the colour- print makers, and it need never be confused with the quite different caligraphy of the other two artists who used the signs. Prints by Gosotei are not uncommon ; our illus tration, however, is from a surimono by him ^ — sufficiently rare to be noteworthy. The most prolific, and, by the number of his works, the most widely known of Toyo kuni's ° pupils was the artist who used the signatures Utagawa Kunisada and Toyo kuni the Second, with or without the pre fixes Ichiyosai, Gototei, or Kachoro. His family name was Tsunada Chozo. He was born in Bushiu, and lived at Yedo, in Kami-ido, near the Temman temple. As a pupil he was very clever, and a great favourite with his master, Toyokuni, and at the early age of twenty-three published his first illustrated books (Bunkwa 5=1:1808). At the same age he also gained renown by a broadsheet portrait of the famous adtor, ' From the colleftion of Mr. Edgar Wilson. It will be understood that when not alluding to Toyokuni I., a qualifying word or figure is always used. KUNISADA A WOMAN AT HER TOILET. KUNISADA WOMAN IN COSTUME OF DARUMA. KUNISADA THEATRICAL CHARACTER. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 5 1 Nakamura Utazemon, engraved by a fan- maker Nishimuriya Yohachi — the first wood cutter employed by Kunisada. The latter also studied various styles of designing in company with his friend Hanabusa Ikkei, pupil of Hanabusa Ichio, and so took the name of Kachoro. He died in 1864 or 1865, on the fifteenth day of the twelfth month, at the advanced age of seventy-nine, and was buried at Kame-ido mura in the temple of Komeiji. He had enjoyed life to the full, and, in spite of a reputation for gambling and dissipation, he retained his skill to the end; for our third illustration at p. 50 is inscribed "Toyokuni, made at the request of his friends, in his seventy-eighth year." He only used the name of his master as a signature after 1844. In his younger days he was considered the equal of his master, and many of his prints of this period have fine qualities, although it is hardly possible for us to rank them quite so highly as their models. But it was Kunisada's fate to see the decline of chromo-xylography in Japan. In his work every stage of it can be traced — the excessive facility, the increase in the number of blocks used and consequent complexity of design and pettiness of execution, the gradual introdudtion of European colours in place of those of the old traditions : all these are displayed in a series of prints — enormous in bulk — ranging from proximity 52 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. to the best period nearly to the absolute worst. And at the end of it all, the old man still knew what was good, for the print already referred to falls little short of his best work. Kuniyoshi, also a pupil of Toyokuni, was born at Yedo, and dwelt in that city at Motoganecho Nichiome. He was the son of a printer of dress-material, Kogiya of Kyoto. While he was a student he was associated with a fellow-pupil, Kuninao, who is said to have influenced his landscape work. His prints were not appreciated at first by his contemporaries, and he published several illustrated books between 1804 and 18 1 7. In the following decade he achieved success by means of three-sheet prints issued by Higashiya Daisuke, and also by views of the waterfall of Benten, at Oyama, Soshiii. As an outcome of this, many publishers gave him commissions. He then devoted himself to dramatic scenes and portraits of adtors, which have much merit, although in the great stress of competition he again failed to obtain immediate recognition. In order to develop, if possible, a line of his own, he now gave his attention to portraits of warriors, and military scenes, publishing among others the " Siukoden," or hundred and eight Chinese heroes. He also illus trated many kusazoshi in the style of Shun yei. He died in 1861, on the fourth day of the third month, and was buried at Asakusa. PLATE VI. UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI. A GEISHA. Fro7n a print in the National Art Library, South Kensington Musettm. KUNIYOSHI "1 1 f tkA h^ ¥> t f r ^1 i ^. PORTRAITS OF HOKUSAI AND BAKIN. 54 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Of Kuniyoshi personally nothing is re corded, except that he also lived a life of dissipation, and was " tattooed on his back." Plate VI. is a good example of his work ; an uncommon but charming scheme of colour occasionally used also by Kunisada and Yeisen : apple-green is sometimes em ployed in combination with the blues and red. Utagawa Kuniyoshi also used the sig natures Ichiyusai and Cho-oro, but always in combination with his own name. Of the remaining artists of this school, Kuniyasu (Ipposai Yasugoro) may be men tioned. He w^as born at Yedo, made his first colour-print — a portrait of the adtor Utazemon, in the play "Tadanobu Michi- uki " — about the year 1817. He changed his name to Nishikawa Yasunobu, but after wards abandoned it for the former signa ture. Fie died in the period Tempo (1830- 1843), aged only thirty. His work is never inferior to the best of Kunisada's or of the other pupils of Toyokuni, and has scarcely yet received the appreciation it merits. It will be sufficient to merely mention the names of other followers of Toyokuni. The earliest and best were Kunimasa, Kuni- mitsu, and Kunihisa ; of the others, Kuni- chika, Kunimaro, Kunimaru, Kuniteru, Kunisato, Kunitora, Kunitsuna and Kuni- tomi are the chief. Several of these are referred to at more length in a later chapter. The illustrations at pp. 52 and 54 are from KUNIYASU U -^^^ 'fvv-^Ly-^ ; / „ /'R AV V/?^ /^ GIRL ON A WINDY D.\Y. KUNIYOSHI PORTRAITS OF TOYOKUNI I., YEISEN, AND KUNIYOSHL 56 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. a book by Kuniyoshi, " Nippon Kininden " — famous men of Japan, — and are espe cially interesting in connedtion with this chapter, for they include portraits of several of the artists dealt with herein. In that on p. 53 the old man at work is Hokusai, the other his friend Bakin, the great novelist. On p. 55 are those of Keisai Yeisen, charac teristically employed in drinking, Toyokuni with the fan, and the artist himself, Kuni yoshi, seated modestly with his back to the beholder. An artist of this period, who belongs more properly to the school of Kiyonobu and his followers, may nevertheless, as a matter of convenience, be dealt with here. Yeishi was the nom de pinceau of Fuji wara Tomi- chi, a name which would suggest that he was of samurai lineage. He lived at Hama- cho and Honjo Warishitashi in Yedo. At first he studied under KanoYeisen,^ who was also called Bunryusai, but afterwards allied himself to the Torii School (Chap. II. ), and adopted a name, Chobunsai," which ex pressed both influences. In later life he also came under the spell of Hokusai. Yeishi's prints are rare, and of much beauty. His methods are generally those of Kiyonaga, but the colouring is more vivid, and the treatment generally more elaborate. He ' Not to be confused with Keisai Yeisen, the designer of nishiki-ye. '¦ Cho is another reading of Torii. YEISHI A PROMENADE. UTAMARO, TOYOKUNI, AND YEISHI. 57 flourished during the years 1781-1800, his best-known pupils being Yeiri, Yeisho, and Yeiji, who was at one time associated with Keisai Yeisen ; they form the group known as the Hosoda School, whose prints have hitherto been but rarely met with in Europe. The exadt reverse of this is, however, the case with the work of the next artist we have to consider; for, in one condition or another, few of the nishiki-ye of this period are so often seen as those of Kikugawa Yeizan. Yeizan was the son of a painter, Kano Yeiji,' his family name being Gioku- sai Mangoro. He lived at Yedo, Ichigaya Noza Kakigaracho, at the house called Omiya, and was first a maker of artificial flowers. Yeizan was a friend of Hokkei's, and at one time they studied together the styles of Utamaro, Hokusai, and others. As Toyokuni, however, became popular, Yeizan imitated also his style. After about 1829 Yeizan turned his attention to authorship, and both wrote and illustrated books. Among Yeizan's numerous works his most successful are undoubtedly in the style of Utamaro, to whom he is occasionally a dangerous rival. His composition is always good, its lines flowing with boldness, grace, and sometimes originality. Those who value Japanese colour-prints for their intrinsic ^ Again we must warn readers against confusion. This artist never made colour-prints. 58 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. merit — apart from such qualities of rareness or eccentricity as appeal to the colledtor — will easily gain much pleasure, at little ex pense, by acquiring specimens of this artist's work. The illustration is from a two-sheet panel pidture in the author's possession. To this school belongs also the great artist Shiko, who equals — almost surpasses — Utamaro in his own methods. We can give no information as to his life, but re produce at p. 60 an example which should show how graceful and tender his work could be. , YEIZAN PORTRAIT OF A LADY. CHAPTER V. HOKUSAI AND HIS PUPILS. Of the artists we have hitherto dealt with there is a singular dearth of biographical information. Singular, that is, from a European point of view. For, admiring the nishiki-ye, as we do, it is extremely difficult for us to realize that their pro ducers were but artisans of no social im portance ; and that it would no more occur to the Japanese littdrateur to store up personal information about them, than it would for us to concern ourselves with the domestic history of competent carpenters or smiths : so that we have to rely on the collation of scraps of evidence gathered from all sorts of casual sources, dated works, dedicatory inscriptions, and the like ; while in just a few instances, mentioned from time to time in this work in their places, a portrait may have been preserved by the care of a brother artisan, or a tradition have been handed along by word of mouth among the people who delighted in work of this kind. 6o JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. In the case of Hokusai, deservedly the best known in Europe of the Japanese artists of the Popular School, much labour has been expended by Messrs. Gonse, Hayashi, Bing, and Anderson, in colledting and arranging materials for his biography ; and finally M. Edmond de Goncourt, as with Utamaro, has produced a most charm ing treatise,' critical and historical, on the great artist and his work, accompanying it with the most complete bibliography of the latter yet made. This represents the sum total of the information at present available and is the general authority for the follow ing account. Hokusai was born at Yedo, in the Honjo quarter, on the 5th March, 1760 — the eighteenth day of the first month of the tenth year of Horeki, according to the Japanese method of chronology. He was the third son of an artist — or more corredtly artisan — of unknown profession, named Kawamura Ichi- royemon, also called Bunsei, and as a child was named Tokitaro. At the age of four, he was adopted by a mirror-maker, Naka- jiwa Issai, said to be of the Tokugawa family, whom earlier biographers have generally styled his father. While still a boy, says M. de Goncourt, he was employed in a book-shop at Yedo, where he did his work with such idleness and scorn, that he was shown the door. ' " Hokousai." Par E. de Goncourt. 8vo. Paris, 1896. M M > S < n 1— I < (—1 C/3 p t4 O H ffi P4 W > o HH 1— 1 o p W s Eh n < <: 1— ( PS PM ID w € Mt ^'¦:i-y'.-i-:- i;«e OSAKA SCHOOL AND LATER ARTISTS. 97 friend of the artist's. Ashiyuki called him self also Kegwado and Kegyokudo. His prints are not very rare. Of the work of pupils of Kunisada we give two examples. The first is a pidture of an adtor in the charadter of a noble. It is finely drawn, but there is no attempt at representing perspedtive, although Sada hiro, the designer, must have been quite contemporary with Hokuyei. The curious cloud-like convention, apparently introduced only to help the composition, is noteworthy. The seal is that of the artist himself. Following this is a finely-planned design by Sadamasa, interesting both as an example of costume, and on account of the vase with a flower arrangement, after one of the stridt classical methods fully described by Mr. Conder in his exhaustive work on the subjedt. Our last illustration (p. 132) of the work of this school is from a broadsheet by Hiro- sada, who must not be confused with the painter of that name. It is perhaps somewhat later in date than either ofthe preceding; the colours are more vivid and less harmonious, but it is not unsuccessfully conceived, and is curious in theme. The harpy-like figure is a Buddhist angel, arrayed in the higoromo, or robe of iridescent feathers, assumed by these beings when they visit the earth. It is to be hoped that additional informa tion may be forthcoming as to this interest ing group. We have only been able in the H 98 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. space at our command to allude to a few representatives of the large number of artists composing it. Colledtors must be warned that among them are to be found followers of several of the more famous nishiki-ye designers, bearing the names of their predecessors ; we may point out, as in stances, the existence of Osaka broadsheets signed Shunsho and Shunko (a pupil of Hokushu), which an unscrupulous dealer might succeed in palming off as late work of the greater men. But, apart from any historical value, the school has produced many prints of average merit, and few which are worthless. If its artists never rose to the dignity of their masters, at least they never sank so low as to bring discredit on them. The later artists, other than those of the Osaka School, are almost all diredt followers either of Kunisada or Kuniyoshi. Of the former, prints by Kunichika are frequently met with. They are principally theatrical scenes, or landscapes with processions, gaudily coloured, confused in composition, aad altogether inferior to the works of the men they obviously imitate. Kunichika worked about 1845-65. His family name was Arakawa Yasohachi. Kunisada II. also imitated the later style of his master, and belongs to about the same period as Kunichika. He used some times the prefix Baichoro, and is the same with Kunimasa. ASHIYUKI e^^^ AN ACTOR. SADAHIRO ACTOR IN CHARACTER OF A NOBLE. OSAKA SCHOOL AND LATER ARTISTS. 99 More important than either of these artists is Utagawa Sadahide. He executed some very fair landscapes with battles, not inharmoniously arranged. His colour is also better than that of the two last-named artists. Sadahide, in collaboration with Kunisada, Kunitsuna, Kuniteru, Kunimasa, Kunitoshi, and Kunitaki illustrated a child's version ofthe story " Hakkenden,"by Bakin, published in a set of more than fifty- four volumes in 1849. He also used the names Gountei and Gyokuransai. Colour- prints by each of the above-named artists are common, but of small importance. The old tradition was now nearly exhausted, and it is only occasionally that we find a battle-piece or legendary scene either well enough executed, or of sufficient interest on account of its subjedt, to merit particular attention. Here and there, however, such do exist, and the print reproduced at p. 100 is illus trative of a story so often met with that we have chosen it as a type of what may be looked on as the best achievement of the later artists. It is by Ichimosai Yoshitora, also called Kinchoro, one of the best pupils of Kuniyoshi. The subjedt is the death of Nitta Yoshisada, one of the heroes of the great internal war between Ashikaga and the Emperor Go-Daigo, in the fourteenth century, to which the name of the " War of the Chrysanthemums" has been given. Nitta lOO JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. had already vainly challenged Ashikaga to decide the quarrel by single combat, and so save the nation from the misery of war. " In 1338,' on the second day of the seventh month, while marching with about fifty followers to assist in investing a fortress in Echizen, he was suddenly attacked in a narrow path in a rice-field near Fukui by about 3,000 of the enemy, and exposed, without shields, to a shower of arrows. Someone begged Nitta, as he was mounted, to escape. ' It is not my desire to survive my companions slain,' was his response. Whipping up his horse, he rode forward to engage with his sword, making himself the target for a hundred archers. His horse, struck when at full speed by an arrow, fell. Nitta, on clearing himself and rising, was hit between the eyes with a white-feathered shaft, and mortally wounded. Drawing his sword, he cut off his own head — a feat which the warriors of that time were trained to perform — so that his enemies might not recognize him. He was thirty-eight years old. The enemy could not recognize Nitta, until they found, beneath a pile of corpses of men who had committed harakiri, a body on which, enclosed in a damask bag, was a letter containing the imperial com mission in Go-Daigo's handwriting, ' I in vest you with all power to subjugate the rebels.' Then they knew the corpse to be 1 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 189. SADAMASA .AN ACTOR IN CHARACTER. OSAKA SCHOOL AND LATER ARTISTS. lOI that of Nitta. His head was carried to Kyoto, then in possession of Ashikaga, and exposed in public on a pillory." A legendary version of the story relates that after Nitta had beheaded himself, his horse carried the body, still seated in the saddle, back to his camp, and so brought the news of the disaster. In the illustration Nitta is fight ing on the left — breaking the arrows of the enemy by his skilful swordsmanship. His horse is already killed, and the last of his faithful band are being cut down by Koya- mado Taro, the leader of the attacking party. To commemorate the hero's death, the Japanese government has recently eredted a magnificent temple on the spot. It is of interest to remark here, that the " Story of the Forty-seven Ronin " is, in the dramas derived from it, dated back to this period, and the identification of Nitta's helmet forms one of the motifs of the play. We may mention, in addition to Yoshitora, two others, Yoshikazu, who designed land scapes and caricatures, and Yoshimori, whose processions and battle-pieces are also worthy of remark. Yoshitoshi, another pupil of Kuniyoshi, has worked up to the seventies, and displays the lowest depth to which the old manner fell, as well as the beginning of that ghost of it now produced. For since about 1870 colour-prints sometimes gracefully drawn, often prettily coloured, have been produced I02 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. in Japan. The dramatic tradition is dead, apparently, for these are chiefly illustrations either of fairy tales or of battle scenes. The colours are European aniline dyes, the cutting of the blocks shallow and without vigour. Still there is, as we said above, a certain attradtive prettiness, and even these feeble imitations have somehow a greater feeling of more solidity of craftsman ship than much European contemporary work of the same kind. During this period of decline, there are yet one or two artists worthy to rank with those who had gone before. Kikuchi Yosai, called also Takiyasu, a painter of the Shijo (or Naturalistic) School published in 1836 his " Zenken Kojitsu," — portraits of Japanese celebrities in the costume of their period. Yosai died in 1878, aged ninety-one. Pro fessor Anderson ' says his " drawings .... are superior in refinement and truth to anything of the kind produced by Hokusai or his school. The portraitures of Yosai were adtually types of the patrician order, while those of the popular artists were either purely imaginary, like the women of Uta maro, or modelled upon stage impersona tions, adjusted to the tastes of an audience from which, unfortunately, all the repre sentatives of culture and gentle birth were excluded by the social law of the age." It ^ Portfolio Monograph, " Japanese Wood-Engravings," p. 58. OSAKA SCHOOL AND LATER ARTISTS. IO3 may be doubted if the abstradtions of Uta maro, and theatrical masks or " make-up," can be quite fairly said to cover all the face- types of the works of artists of the Popular School. The Japanese face varies much more than we are inclined at first to realize with the above exceptions, and allowing for SILHOUETTE PORTRAIT OF AN ARTISAN. 1833. the convention — not of expression, but of technique — there are few human representa tions in the works of the best colour-print artists or book illustrators for which suffi cient authority might not be found. On this subjedt we may refer to the silhouette portrait from a colledtion made privately, and published for a club of artisans at Yedo in 1833.' • From the colleftionof Mr.R. Phene Spiers, F.R.I.B.A. I04 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Sho-fu Kiosai is described by Professor Anderson as " the only genuine successor of the master (Hokusai) in his comic vein, and, although inferior to him in genius and industry, he displays not only a rollicking originality of motive, that perhaps occasion ally smacks of the saki cup, but is gifted with a rapid, forcible, and graceful touch, and a power of realizing adtion that would do no discredit to the best pages of the " Mangwa." He was born in 1831, and died in 1891 or 1892. A fine colledtion of his sketches is preserved in the Musde Guimet at Paris, and in his book, " Pro menades Japonaises," Mons. Guimet gives an account of his interesting personality. His illustrated books are easily obtained, and are worth studying as examples of the effedt of European influence on Japanese training. In 1887 appeared the " Kiosai Gwaden," in four volumes, illustrated by him under the name of Kawanabe Toyoku, two volumes being devoted to an account of the styles of various artists, and two to a history of his own life. It was written by Uriu Masakazuand published at Tokyo. Another remarkable book of our own time is the " Bairei Hyakucho Gwafu," or " Pidtures of the Hundred Birds," by Kono Bairei, published also at Tokyo in 1881 in threevolumes, a supplementary series, alsoin three volumes, following it in 1884. These YOSHITORA THE DEATH OF NITTA YOSHISADA. OSAKA SCHOOL AND LATER ARTISTS. I05 designs are perhaps the best illustrations of bird-life ever cut on wood. They are printed each from six or seven blocks, the shading even of the drawing being to some extent thus provided for, instead of having been left to the skill of the printer. The original drawings were not destroyed, and, with specimens of the wood-blocks, were fortu nately secured by Mr. T. Armstrong for the South Kensington Museum, where they are now exhibited. Bairei issued another book .in similar style, called " Inaka-no- Tsuki " in 1889, and died in 1895. In 1890-91, Watanabe Seitei, an artist still young in years, designed and printed a charming colledtion of flowers and birds in the modern manner, very delicately drawn and coloured. And in 1894 a number of the " Bijutsu Sekai," a Japanese monthly art journal, was devoted to a seledtion from his work, engraved by Goto Tokujiro, and printed by Yoshida Ichimatsu. The books by the two last-named artists are the best produdtions of living men which have so far been seen in this country, although the series of fairy tales, printed and published by the Kobunsha at Yedo, 1885, etc., have been a joy and delight to English children now for several years. One may be permitted a concluding word, in a volume devoted to " illustration," on the rapid development of process work in Japan. The " Kokkwa," an encyclopaedia I06 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. of Japanese art, still in progress, is illus trated with chromo-lithographs at least equal to anything ever done in Europe. Ogawa, of Tokyo, also, is producing collo types which will easily hold their own in any market, and ordinary half-tone blocks are also made which are in every way respedtable. The fadt is that the Japanese have the instindt of handicraft. They have the manual tradition of generations of skilled workers, and being in no wise deficient in intelligence, they are able to adopt our tools, and apply to their use, qualities far higher than those possessed by the aver age European mechanic. It has yet to be admitted that Japan is England's most dangerous rival in commerce. With her magnificent artistic training, she can, if she will, beat us from the field of skilled crafts manship altogether. CHAPTER VIII. LANDSCAPE. The treatment of landscape by Chinese and Japanese artists is a subjedi which demands special consideration ; so different in all details is it from the pradtice of any other school of painting or design in the history of the world's art. To go minutely into a discussion of its qualities and tech nique is beyond the scope of the present volume ; but for a proper understanding of that branch thereof which immediately con cerns us — landscape as interpreted by the designers for woodcuts — some short state ment of the general methods of painters becomes quite advisable. The first point which strikes a European critic is the difference of opinion between Eastern and Western painters as to what constitutes a finished pidture. The former artists, both Chinese and Japanese, never fill the whole of their panel with colour. They are content, whether in the imaginary compositions of the classical schools, or the realistic studies of those academies I08 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. which went to Nature for their motives, to to represent only the more salient points of the scene : a foreground of plants or ani mals, an effedt of broken colour on a river, a line of hills dying away into the distance. The seledtion so made has in detail all the qualities of what we term " impressionism." A largeness of view, boldness of handling, and negledt of all limitations which might interfere with the realization of the painter's aim, are almost invariably met with. The composition can generally be described only as an arrangement of balanced colour. The perspedtive is quite arbitrary and subor dinate to other purposes. The colour itself is harmonious and subtle in the extreme ; and the general effedt often entirely con vincing, in spite of the obvious devices of its construdtion. But when we come to consider engraved landscape, we find that the tyranny of a new technique produces some unexpedted developments. Using the language of the designer, one may say that the " spotting," so noticeable in the paintings almost dis appears ; and in its place is found a finer sense of composition, more nearly akin to our own comprehension of that quality. The necessities of the woodcut also called for an even greater simplicity in the drawing of detail ; while the limitations of the printer forced the artist to rely for his tones on boldly contrasted masses of colour PLATE VIII. HIROSHIGE I. THE GATE OF THE SHINTO TEMPLE, SHI-EN-SHA', KYOTO, IN WINTER. From a print in the collection of Mr. Edgar Wilson. HOKUSAI ONE OF THE THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJK LANDSCAPE. IO9 rather than on subtle and exquisite handling. The treatment of the sky is, as one of the best of our modern critics' of painting puts it, " usually a pure formula. . . . The pro fundity of night no more than a fine agree ment of dark colours ; the imperceptible vanishings and the infinite vistas of em bowered landscape, a calculated play be tween two or three tones." Nothing else indeed is possible with the tools employed ; and the writer above quoted is compelled to grant to these landscapes — most charmingly against his will — credit for " a very piquant shorthand rendering of natural effedt. " This is absolutely true, however unsympathetic- ally worded. For, with his simple masses of colour, his arbitrary seledtion of line, his naive formula for light and shade, the colour-print artist is yet able to convince you irresistibly of the poetic truth of his thought. You see the wind rolling in waves over a paddy-field — the tenderness of even ing light fading behind a line of distant hills — the great cone of Fuji rising like a strong prayer above the busy town — the river at night with its dim boats and the twinkle of innumerable lanterns on the bridge. You see all these things — juggled if you will — openly before your eyes — and then may well ask if our landscape painters, with their laborious technique and infinite ' Mr. R. A. M. Stevenson, in the " Pall Mall Gazette " ofthe 24th January, 1896. I lO JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. knowledge, can give you half the truth and poetry of these simple woodcuts, wrought by artisans who only understood their own powers and did not try to go beyond them. Of the colour-print artists who pradtised landscape, four are especially pre-eminent. Shunsen made dainty impressionist sketches in rose-pink, green, brown and purple. Hokusai also, whose views of Yedo, views of Mount Fuji and of famous bridges and waterfalls of Japan — masterly in composi tion, original in colour scheme — stand quite apart from all other work of their kind, and merit a detailed and exclusive examination on their own account ; and lastly, two artists named Hiroshige, who are perhaps the most charadteristic of all. There has been much confusion in deal ing with the produdtions of these latter artists. Professor Anderson — the highest authority in this kingdom on Japanese painting — refers a mass of work to one man only, and mentions a later disciple, whom he calls Hiroshige II. I am inclined to think that this man is certainly the third of the name. At all events he is so entirely inferior and imitative that he may be dis missed from the case. Professor Anderson states that Hiroshige died in 1858 at the age of sixty-one ; that he only became a colour-print artist late in life, and that previously he was a fireman. The Japanese current tradition is that this was HIROSHIGE I. VIEW ON LAKE BIWA. HIROSHIGE II VIEW NEAR YEDO. LANDSCAPE. 1 1 I really the second Hiroshige. It is certain that it was he who made the upright pic ture illustrated at p. no, which is from a series only published in 1853 ; and it will, I think, be seen that there is a dif ference, as compared with preceding ex ample, in treatment and signature hardly explainable by old age. It is said also that the first Hiroshige — to whom these hori zontal compositions are attributed — gained his living in early life by juggling — so to speak — with coloured sand, making pidtures therewith on an adhesive ground for the amusement of passers-by. One Hiroshige was certainly a pupil of Toyohiro who died in 1828, too early perhaps for it to have been the later artist. On the whole, I am inclined to follow the Japanese version, and make a division of the work on the lines indicated, most of the horizontal plates going to the earlier, and all the vertical to the later artist. The signatures also are of two invariable types — a point of importance when a uni form method of treatment is always found to accompany each signature, and this proves almost conclusively, I think, the existence of two individuals. (See also Chapter VI.) Hiroshige I. designed a few figure pieces — adtors, fair women, and the like ; but in such he is surpassed by many contempo raries. His genius was for landscapes; and, on his own ground, he has no superior. His subjedts are all seledted from the neigh- 112 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. bourhood of Yedo ; views of that city, of the Tokaido (the famous road therefrom to Kyoto), of Mount Fuji. These he has illustrated over and over again, with ever varying seledtion of the point of view, and of incident. His methods have all the sim plicity of a master, and every fault known to European canons of criticism. His results are absolutely truthful, though each step in the process leading to them is a self-evident fidtion. Hiroshige the first has been allotted the doubtful credit of having made " attempts to carry out the rudimentary laws of linear perspedtive." The fadt seems to be that both the Hiroshige knew all the perspedtive necessary for their purpose. They also knew, as a rule, when to ignore it. I have an early print by the second of the name, which gives a view of a street in Yedo ; leading, in defiance of most rules of aca demic composition, from the foreground, quite symmetrically away to the distance at right angles to the plane of the pidture. It is evening, and lights glow from the quaint two-storied houses on either side, while the street traffic has dwindled away to a few scattered groups. All this in the half light, but above the bank of cloud which shrouds the town in shadow, the great cone of Mount Fuji, snow-clad, and still gleaming in the bright light, stands white against the crimson of the setting sun. KEISAI YEISEN RIVER SCENF. LANDSCAPE. II3 It is one of the most poetical designs I have ever seen, and I refer to it now because, given a point of view at an altitude well above the house-tops, the perspedtive is pradtically perfedt. But although overshadowed by the land scape work of Hokusai and the Hiroshige, there are many fine prints of this class of subjedt by artists whose fame rests on widely different lines. At p. 1 12 is the re produdtion of a view of Yodo castle on the Yodo river, with a peasant's boat in the foreground, which proves that Utamaro also could deal wisely with other subjedts than fair women. Toyokuni I. also pro duced a set of landscapes which, though rare, is not of high merit ; but Keisai Yeisen in his "Bridge over the River "(p. 112), shows great power and much modernity of feeling, if one may justly use the expression ; and in the view of Mount Fuji which forms a background of a scene from the drama of the Forty-seven Ronin, he also displays a fine sense of effedtive simplicity. This series of twelve plates is one rarely seen ; but should perhaps rank as one of Yeisen's greatest achievements. Yeisen also made a good set of views of waterfalls, in imitation of his master Hokusai. At p. 1 14 is a reprodudtion of the left-hand portion of a three-sheet print by Sadahide, one of the eight famous views of Lake Biwa — a subjedt dealt with also by Hiroshige I. I 114 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. in one of his most successful moods as well as by other artists. This print is in teresting as showing a deliberate attempt at European perspedtive in the temple behind the hill ; in colour it is sombre, red, brown, and dark blue predominating, but it is a strong and effedtive pidture as a whole. Before leaving the subjedt of Lake Biwa, it is worth while to allude to the Japanese tradition, that as Mount Fuji rose in one night, so also the ground sank in the pro vince of Omi in the same space of time, and the lake, so-called from its fancied resem blance in form to the musical instrument of the name, was formed. A view near Yedo follows, designed by Shigenobu, the son-in-law of Hokusai (see Chapter V.). It is a pleasantly com posed pidture of promenaders in the season of cherry-blossom, imitative, as might be expedted, of Hiroshige I. to some extent. Of another pupil of Hokusai, Hokusui, we reproduce a strong impressionistic pidture (p. 1 1 6), in which the strife of rain-storm and cloud, and the rush of a river in flood are rendered with telling effedt. The scene is one of a set of a hundred views of Kyoto and the neighbourhood, and is by no means common. Of Hokusui himself no biogra phical details are as yet known. In this place we may note a curious instance of unscrupulous " pot boiling." Kunisada published, about 1840, a set of .SADAHIDE lEW ON LAKE BIWA (THIRD SHEET) SHIGENOBU THE SEASON OF CHERRY BLOSSOM. LANDSCAPE. I 1 5 views of the Tokaido, each with a female figure in different costume. These views are coarsely copied from the best-known set of the Tokaido by Hiroshige I., and the fadt furnishes another evidence of their popularity. Kuniyoshi, however, was more than a mere copyist of landscape. Although few prints of this kind by him are met with, those we have show a rather high order of merit. He worked in the style of the Hiroshige to some extent. His set of views of Yedo is remarkable in many respedts ; a view of two temples, the projedting eave of one cleverly foreshortened from the imme diate foreground on the left, being particu larly noteworthy for its fineness of drawing. His effedts of water are also good. To the other broadsheet artists who pro duced landscapes we can here devote only space for bare mention. They worked in the style of the second Hiroshige, obtaining with crude colours a certain brilliancy of effedt which is sometimes happy. The chief of them were perhaps Chikamaro and a few of the pupils of Kuniyoshi, especially Yoshitora, Yoshitoshi, and Yoshitsuya. In the produdtion of illustrated books of landscape, Hokusai was, of course, superior to all other artists of Japan ; but it has been found more convenient to treat of this class of his work in the chapter specially devoted to him. His pupil, Gakutei, also II 6 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. attained considerable distindtion in this diredtion, and we reproduce a view of Mount Fuji from the " Sansui Gwajo," published by him at Nagoya in the early part of this century. A notable series of landscapes owes its origin to what one may fairly call the Impressionist School of Japan, among the artists of which Kocho is pre-eminent. In these the curious conventional bars of pink used by Hokusai and others (possibly to represent mist, or perhaps only to secure a corredt aerial perspedtive) are ignored ; the principal objedt is dashed in with a few lines and faintly tinted, while a minimum of accessories of any sort is intro duced. The result is often charming, and the first edition of the " Kocho Gwafu," published in 1817, is a book to be prized by the colledtor for its own sake. We give an example of the school (p. 120) by Hosai. The last group of works dealing with landscape to which we have space for refer ence is that of the " Meisho Ztiye," or illustrated guide books. These made their appearance about 1680 (Anderson), but attained their highest excellence in the fol lowing century. " The ' Meisho Zuye,' " says Dr. Anderson,' " indicates all the spots famous for landscape beauties, colledts learned records of the historical and legend ary lore of the localities described, enu- ' Portfolio monograph, " Japanese Wood Engraving," 1895, p. 43. HOKUSUI VIEW NEAR KYOTO. LANDSCAPE. II 7 merates the various objedts of curiosity or archaeological importance preserved in the neighbourhood, contributes scientific notes upon the flora and fauna of the distridt, and opens a fund of pradtical information as to industries, commerce, and a hundred other matters of interest both to visitors and resi dents." These little books, often published in series of as many as twenty volumes, are illustrated by clever woodcuts. At p. 142 is a typical example from the " Miyako Meisho Zuye," compiled by Akisato Soseki, and illustrated by Takehara Shunchosai, one of the best artists who devoted himself to this class of art. It was published at Kyoto in 1780. In the nineteenth century Hasegawa Settan {c. 1837) and Hanzan Yasunobu {c. 1859) also distinguished themselves in illus trations of landscape. CHAPTER IX. TECHNIQUE. The technique of wood-cutting for book illustration and colour-printing in Japan forms an important study, and a proper un derstanding of it is essential to any adequate criticism of its results — more so indeed, for reasons which will appear, than in the case of other arts. The following account is based mainly on the authoritative report prepared by Mons. T. Tokuno (Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the Ministry of Finance, Tokyo), to illustrate a set of tools and materials deposited in the U. S. National Museum at Washington.' The first point of importance is the choice of wood. That most generally used is a species of cherry — the "sakura" — which gives a grain of peculiar fineness and hard ness. F>om this, planks are cut and planed to a smooth surface in the ordinary manner; Japanese wood-cutters invariably using a surface parallel with the grain, as did Diirer and the early European engravers, ' Smithsonian Report, U.S. National Museum, 1892, p. 221. GAKUTEI y-7 \-^ X '/. i "'^ ^LSL^ \ / / \ ^ ^ s -- \ ¦ ,/¦ \ r.ANDSCAPE WITH VIEW OF MOUNT FUJL TECHNIQUE. II9 instead of following our modern pradtice of cutting across it. The design is drawn with a brush on thin semi-transparent paper [nunogami or gam- pishi), and pasted, face downwards, on the block, in order to avoid the difficulty of reversal. If it is not now clearly visible, the paper is either oiled or carefully scraped away until every line is distindt and unmis takable. The outline is then cut completely with a knife, held in the right hand and guided with the left ; when this operation is finished, the superfluous wood is removed by means of a series of straight- and curved- edged chisels not differing essentially from those used by European carpenters. Inci dentally it may be remarked, that this method results necessarily in the destrudtion of the design ; a fadt which should cause colledtors to look with care and suspicion on the so-called "originals" of well-known prints, occasionally offered to the confiding and enthusiastic amateur ; who must also be cautioned against the alleged " proof" — a state which simply does not exist. Where an impression in black and white only is desired, the block is now ready for use. If, however, a print in more than one colour is to be made, further steps are necessary. Speaking generally — the excep tions are very questionable and too few to be of importance — a separate block has to be made for each printing proposed. For I20 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. this purpose the designer will have prepared additional " pulls," indicating on each the extent of the single colour to be printed therefrom ; and the engraver — almost always, be it noted, another individual — executes a series of blocks accordingly : sometimes carrying out two or three on the same plank ; and even, for the sake of economy, on opposite sides of it. M. Tokuno states that the chief difference between the ancient and modern styles of wood-cutting lies in the comparative shal lowness of the latter, and the fact that it is no longer the custom to begin by deeply incising the outlines. This may certainly account for much of the sacrifice of vigour to mere prettiness noticeable in the work of the present day. There now remains for consideration the method of printing,^ an operation always performed by a third individual. The block — whether one or more colours is to be used matters not at all, since each involves a separate operation — the block is prepared by loading it with the dry pigment, over which a little rice paste is sprinkled. This colour is then mixed and adjusted, on the block, with a brush similar in shape to those used by whitewashers (p. 122), also well loaded with rice paste ; the use of the latter ' A useful account is given in " Japan in Art and Industry," by F. Regamey English translation by M. F., and E. L. Sheldon. London : Saxon and Co., 1893. nosAi 0. y-P^y,. . '% -' \ i ^ \ •^^x'^';' -s-l ¦^ "^ ^-;v: : ^^ \ V X MOUNTAIN SCENERY. TECHNIQUE. I 2 I being not only to fix the colours, but also to give them additional brilliancy. The paper — tough mulberry-bark paper of wonderful quality — is damped, with a flat brush, to a degree fixed by the skill of the craftsman, neither more nor less, and laid over the upper surface of the block, when the im pression is rubbed off with a movement (alternating upwards from right to left) of the baren, an instrument consisting of a disc of twisted cord, fitted into a socket of paper and cloth, and inclosed in a sheath of bamboo leaf, the ends of which are tightly drawn and twisted together at the back to form a handle. Our illustration ' at p. 122 shows the whole process of making colour- prints, the places of the craftsmen being taken by women. There are certain obvious difficulties in printing by this process which should not be ignored, although they cannot be ex plained away. Artists in England who, with the clearest and fullest information, have tried to obtain similar effedts, find an obstacle in the tendency of the colours to run. The only cure for the evil lies in the hands of the skilled craftsman, who intuitively knows the exadt amount of moisture his paper should carry, and the precise proportion of rice paste to mix with his colour. Again, there is the difficulty of register. And again all that can be said is " From a print in the collection of Mr. Arthur Morrison. 122 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. that the Japanese eye and hand require no more formidable device than a cross at one corner of the block, and a boundary line at the other. It is a little disappointing perhaps to our pride to find that we are so hope lessly inferior in mere manual dexterity ; but the loss of whatever we once had is the price Nature has exadted for the insult of our machines and " labour-saving " appliances. With regard to materials there is little more to be said. The paper, as already indicated, is — or was — a domestic manufac ture from the inner bark of a species of mulberry, cultivated for the purpose, and cut in the "withy" state.' Its extreme toughness and evenness of texture fits it peculiarly for the process of printing to which it is submitted ; while a high absorb ent power is no mean fadtor in the pradtic- ability of that process ; and is very largely answerable for the exquisite tone and quality of tint produced. The colours are for the most part the mineral or vegetable substances well-known to ourselves ; but one or two quaint customs in connedtion with them may be indicated. Thus, the rare and beautiful blue found on old prints was ob tained by recovering the colour from rags dyed with indigo ; and also a pink [shojen-ji), thought to be cochineal, was imported from China in " the form of cotton felt dyed ' An excellent and easily accessible account of the pro cess will be found in the " Consular Reports," Japan, 1871. TECHNIQUE. 123 red " (Tokuno). The colour again had to be extradted. M. Tokuno also tells us that the Japanese printers pride themselves on YEITAKU SENSAI. A WRITING LESSON, l8»0-a2. the difficulty of properly preparing their colours, and on the skill requisite for success. It will have been seen that the colours are thus sufficiently identical with our water- 124 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. colours — rice paste or a little glue solution taking the place of the gum or sugar used by European manufadturers; and the adtual mixing being an integral part of the final process of use, instead of a preparatory operation. In some of the colour-prints, and most of the surimo7io, a method of gauffrage, or dry printing, is very effedtively used. For this purpose a block must be engraved with the special design to be embossed, which is rubbed off, or sometimes, perhaps, impressed in its proper sequence. This embossing is so thoroughly done that it is not uncommon to find prints which still retain a consider able amount of relief, even after an interval of a century. The technique of the surimono, indeed, is in all the earlier examples of surpassing ex cellence. On these little prints — commemo rative of a feast, the New Year, or an incident in the life ofthe artist or his patron, such as a change of name or the adoption of a son — every care possible was ungrudgingly taken. They are, as a rule, small in size, rarely exceeding six inches in their greatest dimen sion ; and in treatment they seem to have developed a quite different style, due doubt less to superior delicacy in the processes used. As a rule the effedis are obtained by a greater precision and fineness of line than in the broadsheets, by a brilliancy of colour, and by a lavish use of metallic lustres. TOVOKUNI (GOSOTEI) / ; . K J'] %^ y \ 4 : K- 4V- '^L •.J- -?" jt-'' 0 ~^. ^:;.:~ .. .^f*- ^i?" ahV. -' y^jt/f^ '^ • --^ fe ' '^ ,/ T kJ SMp, --^ ^ \'i'' \'«^\ .^''ia^jW -f.A» SURi:\IONO. TECHNIQUE. 1 25 gold, silver, and bronze, which lead one to compare them in some degree with the work of the old European miniaturists ; an analogy, however, which must clearly be understood as applying only in the case of certain resemblances of technique, and by no means in the matter of treatment or choice of subjedt. As to this latter, we may shortly say here that it covers ground widely different from the broadsheets ; it is treated of at greater length in Chapter X., which deals with the general question. The school of artists who worked at Osaka from the early part of the nineteenth century made use of a technique resembling that of the surimono, so far as the brilliancy of colour and liberal use of metals is con cerned. Much of their work is of high excellence as printing, and, as such, has scarcely yet received the attention it un doubtedly deserves at the hands of European colledtors. A short notice may be fitly inserted in this place of the manufadture of that crape- paper which adds so much to the appearance of otherwise often inferior prints, and has been used with excellent effedt in the com pilations of fairy tales lately common in England. The process is fully described by Rein,' and can be summarized as follows : ' Rein, J. J. "The Industries of Japan," 1889, p. 408. 126 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. The already printed sheets are damped, and tied round a fixed cylinder, on which a movable collar is worked by a lever in such a manner as to compress the edges. After each such operation the sheets are untied, and re-arranged in positions relatively to each other, which differ systematically, the whole process being repeated until the paper has been thus treated at pradtically every possible angle. The result is, in the case of a colour-print, a curiously accurate re- dudtion, the extent of which can be easily estimated by the simple experiment of soaking the print in water and then apply ing a squegee. If the paper is good it will be restored very nearly to its original dimensions. The making-up of a Japanese book differs so widely from the European pradtice as to merit a short notice. So far as the illustra tions are concerned, the technique is prac tically the same as that of the broadsheets ; but a curious custom exists of cutting the two halves of a double-page illustration on the halves of separate blocks; each sheet being thus printed with portions of two designs. The sheets are folded in the middle, and stitched at the edges, instead of, as with us, at the folds ; so that the divided design comes naturally into its place on either side of the middle of the open book. An advantage is thus gained which may afford a reason for the procedure, each leaf HOKKEI A VIEW OF HOKKEI '.K ^ ',^ T i- i «'*'^ MOUNT FUJI. TECHNIQUE. 1 27 being doubled, and fraying and dog's-earing to a great degree prevented. The process also allows of a custom in use in Japan, and much to be recommended to European colledtors, of inserting a slip of paper in each fold, with much gain of strength and increase of brilliancy in effedt. The colours used in the old books are, as a rule, fewer, and applied with greater sim plicity, than is the case with the broadsheets ; although some of the finer examples by Shunsho, Masayoshi, Utamaro, and Toyo kuni I. leave nothing to be desired in this respedt. A favourite combination at the beginning of this century was of pale blue and a peculiarly brilliant red, which is quite charadteristic of the period. Unfortunately, the latter has a tendency to discoloration, and few specimens remain at the present day which do not show traces of deterioration. A full consideration of the technique of Japanese woodcuts is of such enormous importance in arriving at a critical estimate of their value, that it may, perhaps, be con venient in this place to offer some sugges tions as to their peculiar artistic qualities. And, as everything that can be said for or against the book illustrations must, speak ing generally, be covered by the case for the colour-prints, it will also be convenient to discuss the latter alone. The greatest difficulty the art critic or amateur of Western training finds in these 128 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. produdtions is that of accepting their con ventions. He has only occasionally — and that as a matter of fashion — succeeded in taking the technical qualities of an art into account in his reasonings. As a rule he demands from the sculptor, the painter, the engraver, the wood-cutter, just that unintel ligent, pseudo-realism which the decadence of the Renaissance invented to please his forefathers. And it really is worth while asking whether a person who demands light and shade, modelling, or minutiae of form, from a craft only capable of strong line and flat mass of colour, is on a very much higher artistic level than the Indian potentate, who was sad because his full-face portrait did not do justice to the magnificence of the robes on his back. Now the Japanese as a nation seem to have a very finely developed appreciation of beauty in the abstradt. They have attained to a higher level altogether than that of the average European, who demands in his art the easily recognizable incidents and objedts of his every-day life, or a more or less common-place presentment of such histo rical, classical or legendary scenes, as the artist judiciously seledts to flatter the little learning of his clientele. There is nothing in English life, unless it be the annual pilgrimage of the cockney to Bushey Park on Horse-Chestnut Sunday — to compare with the flower festivals of Japan — with the KUNISADA THE PROCESSES OF COLOUR-PRINTING REPRESENTED 1!V WCMLX. TECHNIQUE. 1 29 keen appreciation of the beauty of snow — with the love, so quaintly expressed in many a folk-tale, of bird and beast — with the consistent reverence for all the charms of Nature. Bearing this in mind it becomes more easy to understand the perfedtion and thorough ness which decorative art has attained in Japan. The nation has gone beyond first principles ; and without losing its taste for realism has developed one for convention. Or perhaps it would be more corredt to say that, with that magnificent common-sense which sometimes strikes us so quaintly and unexpedtedly in things Japanese, it has realized the limitations of its arts, and chosen that its craftsmen should not over strain their strength. For the fapanese artist rarely fails : he kiiows his limits too well. It is, however, a little difficult to account for the pleasure these colour-prints give, especially to literary men ; but perhaps a solution may be found in this very com pleteness of their limitations. They appeal solely to the physical sense of beauty. No moral is inculcated, rarely is found even an attempt at the telling of a tale ; but the eye is gratified with the perfedtion of harmoni ous lines ; with an unexpedted but convinc ing scheme of pleasant colour. A European pidture too often invites criticism — it dis turbs with a moral or overwhelms with a K 130 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. sermon. It oppresses with a sense of mastery, or irritates with the evidence of failure. The artist's personality is either too prominent for unphilosophic nature to willingly admit ; or too flagrantly absent for even charitable excuse. The aim, in short, is always either too high or too low, and the weapon rarely understood, or managed with care and restraint. But in the best of the nishiki-ye we find none of these distradtions. No attempt is made to represent anything incapable of expression in clean-cut lines and flat masses of colour, — the only language of which the technique of colour-printing with wood cuts is perfedtly capable. The result is an abstradtion — unreal, but charming as a fairy-tale ; and, like that, outside all rational criticism. One can look at it and rest ; without exciting either for good or evil the emotions in any way whatsoever. And in these days of mental introspedtion and unending emotional torture, that is a bless ing too great to be lightly esteemed, or accounted as a thing of little worth. HAKUSHU U yi i.^' Ur^iy.S' ^'4i',y}fl.)i^^ !#'¦ f.y}^'' •^^ Ss; ft- ^H" "%•* y ^ V k , 'T- ''. 4 >i'^ — y^p -^ ' 'i, y.\^. '.]// STUDIES OF FISH. CHAPTER X. SOME SUBJECTS OF ILLUSTRATION. The first point of interest which strikes the colledtor of Japanese colour-prints is gener ally the preponderance of dramatic subjedts. The artists seemed never to tire of these ; portraits of adtors, theatrical charadters in costume, scenes of famous plays, occur in such profusion as to show with unmistak able force the universality of the love for the drama among the lower orders of Japan. So long ago as in 1695 it is recorded that portraits of the famous adtor Ichikawa Danjiuro were sold in the streets of Yedo, and although during the first half of the eighteenth century the number of prints of this nature was not excessive, Shunsho, and especially his follower Toyokuni I., revived the taste, and by their skill gave to it a lasting impetus. This is not the place in which to enter on a prolonged consideration of the Japanese drama ; but a few of its charadteristics may 132 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. be indicated as having a diredt bearing on our subjedt. The dramatists generally chose for their plays the historical or legendary romances with which the literature of Japan abounds. They treated them at great length ; but in the matter of accessories they were limited by many conventions. Thus, for the famous plays, certain costumes and scenery were traditional, and could on no account be seriously varied, while the " make-up " of the adtors was prescribed by no less rigid rules. This will account for much of the apparent lack of individuality in the portraiture of stage heroes ; that it is due to no want of skill on the part of the artist is shown by two well-known views ' of a theatre interior by Toyokuni I., in which the varying expressions of the audience are rendered in masterly fashion. Another noteworthy fadt is that all female parts were formerly played by men ; and that the so-called representations of " adtresses " are really, therefore, of male adtors only. In the early prints of theatrical subjedts, the display of stage accessories is very slight, a deficiency compensated for by the fine dramatic force with which the passions of the charadters are generally depidted. But in the more elaborate broadsheets of the nineteenth century the scenery is given 1 In the Golleftion at the National Art Library. HIROSADA BUDDHIST ANGEL IN THE FEATHER ROBE (hIGOROMO). SOME SUBJECTS OF ILLUSTRATION. 1 33 in detail, and often includes very charming bits of landscape. It was sometimes the case, indeed, that famous theatrical scenes or charadters were in this way arbitrarily associated with well-known views ; for ex ample, a set of dramatic charadters, each with one of the fifty-three " Views of the Tokaido," by Kunisada, may be re ferred to. Although the drama was so popular in Japan, it is curious to note that every one connedted with it lay under a certain social stigma. An adtor might be — often was — the idol of the population, who went to extravagant lengths in their adulation of him. But this was only on the stage ; as a citizen he ranked lower far than the artisans who patronised him ; and the meanness of his social position extended even to the artists who devoted themselves to illustra tions of the stage. A noteworthy incident arising from this cause has already been set out in the account of the rivalry of Utamaro and Toyokuni. A story of similar import is related of Hokusai. Onoye Baiko, a great adtor of the period, was desirous of obtaining a design from the already famous pen of the artist, whom he invited to call on him for the purpose. This Hokusai steadily refrained from doing. The adtor then proceeded to visit the artist. He discovered him at work in a room, the floor of which was so dirty that the visitor 134 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. found it necessary to sit on his own cloak in order to make the customary salutations. These Hokusai absolutely ignored, con tinuing his work impassively until his visitor retired in confusion. Ultimately the adtor was compelled to humble himself even more, and only by continued and abjedt apologies succeeded at last in obtaining what he wanted. Of the historical scenes the most popular are, perhaps, illustrations of incidents in the great social war between the two leading clans of Japan, the Taira and Minamoto, which culminated in the battle of Dan-no- ura, A.D. 1 185. At the fight the army of the former was pradtically annihilated, and to this day the bay is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the defeated Taira. In this battle the Minamoto were commanded by Yoshitsune, the favourite hero of Japanese historical romance ; and he also forms the central figure in many of the colour- prints. The early history of Yoshitsune ' is bound up with that of the two great contending families, who entangled the whole empire in their struggle for supremacy during the twelfth century, furnishing a curious analogy with our own Wars of the Roses even to the colours of the badges ; for that of the Taira was red, while the Minamoto, ultimately ' A full account of the history of this period is in Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 124, etc. o SOME SUBJECTS OF ILLUSTRATION. 1 35 vidtorious, fought under a white banner. We can but afford space for a bare mention of the incidents of Yoshitsune's life ; the flight of his mother, Tokiwa, in snow-time, to escape the vengeance of Kiyomori, the great Taira leader, and then pradtically ruler of the land ; Tokiwa's pleadings with Kiyo mori to save the lives of her sons, and her self-sacrifice; Yoshitsune's exploits as a boy; his legendary education in military exercises by the Tengu, half bird, half human ; the vidtorious uprising led by his brother Yori- tomo and himself ; the subsequent quarrel between the brothers, and escape of Yoshi tsune : all these are figured over and over again by Japanese artists. Then we have a fresh sequence : — the fight on Gojo Bridge between Yoshitsune and the giant Benkei, whom he overcame by his skill in fencing, thereby gaining the faithful retainer from whom he was henceforth inseparable ; their wonderful adventures ;' the death of Benkei, and betrayal of Yoshitsune. Earlier and more fantastic are the legends which have grown around the history of Minamoto-no Yorimitsu (Raiko), a noble of the tenth or eleventh century. These also are frequently met with in the colour-prints, especially the " Story of the Giant Spider" — surely the most terrible creation of the imagination of any people — and the slaying \ See Anderson, Brit. Museum Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings, p. 117, etc. 136 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. of Shiuten-Doji, the "drunkard boy" and his horde of demons.^ Other subjedts, or classes of subjedts, dealt with are very few. Popular adtors — in both male and female parts — famous beau ties of the Yoshiwara, and singing girls — scenes from successful plays. These cover all the ground of the earlier and best periods. Then comes the epoch of land scape and of battle-scene ; the illustration of the " Adventures of Prince Gengi," a romance of the tenth century, and of that great epic of the samurai, the " Devo tion of the Forty-seven Ronin." This famous story, although too long to be given here, calls for a few words of comment, so frequently does it occur in the pidtorial art of the common folk of Japan. The tale has been charmingly told by Mr. Mitford,'' and also by Mr. F. V. Dickins; ^ but each of these writers has drawn from the romances — the first from a story-book, the second from a drama. Now the whole incident is a matter of historical fadt which occurred in 1 70 1 -2, and it rests on unimpeachable evi dence and existing documents. These have been thoroughly sifted by Mr. Shigeno, Professor of History in the Imperial Univer sity of Japan, and a convenient summary ^ See Anderson, Brit. Museum Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings, p. 109, etc. ^ MiTFORD, "Tales of Old Japan." ' Dickins, " Chiushingura." SOME SUBJECTS OF ILLUSTRATION. 1 37 has been published by Mr. James Murdoch.* At the same time it is to be distindtly understood that most of the scenes are not those of the story, but of one or other of the many dramas founded thereon, in which the names are altered and the adtion carried back to the fourteenth century. A con venient English translation of the second and most popular of the dramas was pub lished at Tokyo by the Hakubunkwan in 1894. This play has (in the original) twelve scenes, and the broadsheets dealing with the subjedt are, as a rule, of that number ; the famous incidents being represented with little variation. In addition to the scenes — which, by the way, are frequently burlesqued in the most grotesque manner — sets of portraits of the Ronin are often met with. Prints dealing with these subjedts will generally be easily recognized by the uniform of the charadters, their robes having long indenta tions, generally of black, but sometimes of red or brown, and white. Other favourite subjedts of the broad sheets are series of representations of the amusements or occupations of women at different seasons of the year, and included in this category are themes which give rise to some of the most beautiful effedts ob tained by the later artists. The unaffedted ' Murdoch, " Scenes from the Chiushingura." Tokyo, 1892. 138 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. love of the Japanese for the beauties of nature is among their most striking charac teristics ; and one of the forms of its ex* pression consists in the holding of annual holidays for the express purpose of admiring the blossom of cherry or plum-tree, or other seasonable attradtion. These excursions have furnished occasion for almost countless compositions by Yeisen, Kunisada, Kuni yoshi, and other artists of their time. Representations of children are not met with so often as might be expedted. The three artists above mentioned have, how ever, each made some charming sets of games of the young folk, and among Kiyo- naga's most successful work is a set of delightful designs of a similar nature. The landscapes have already been dealt with in the chapter devoted to that subjedt. Compositions of animal or plant form are rarely met with but in book form, note worthy exceptions being a set of birds by Utamaro, and of fishes by Hiroshige I., each engraved and published quite in the manner of the broadsheets. Some of the later artists devoted them selves to battle-scenes and military proces sions ; the specific subjedts being generally taken from the expedition of the Empress Jingo to the Korea in the third century ; that of Kato Kiyomasa and Konishi to the same country under Hideyoshi in the sixteenth century, and the wars of the Taira and SOME SUBJECTS OF ILLUSTRATION. 1 39 Minamoto to which allusion has already been made. These scenes, which often run to five or "^ 57 i 75^ ^^'fli^^HTil\ i{ ifi CHILDREN AT PLAY (eARLV EIGHTEENTH CEXTURY). even seven sheets in one design, are quaintly but effedtively put together. The detail is crude, and, as a rule, of little merit, but the colours are often judiciously used, and the 140 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. general lines of the composition arranged with telling result. Before leaving the subjedt of the broad sheets finally, it will be well to point out the circumstances which have so restridted the subjedts dealt with. It will have been noticed that these centre almost entirely round Yedo, the de fa6lo capital of Japan under the Shogunate. The adtors, women, scenes, are nearly all those of the military metropolis and of its neighbourhood, so that representations of them were even known as Yedo-ye (Yedo pidtures). The fashion was set by the lower samurai and other vassals of the high nobles who made their periodical visits to the court of the Shogun. For their especial benefit many of the broadsheets were produced, and were purchased by visitors to the great city for the decoration of their provincial homes, and the gratification of friends and relations afar off. The surimono demand a passing note. In the first place, it is necessary to corredt the widespread mistake that these dainty works of art were invariably produced as New Year's cards. On the contrary, it must be clearly understood that they were issued on any occasion which seemed to call for some special distindtion in the form of announcement or congratulation. An in stance of a concert ticket has already been given. Other examples may be quoted, G.\RUTEI SURIMONO : PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. SOME SUBJECTS OF ILLUSTRATION. 14I for instance, Niho made a surimono for a man, to announce the latter's recovery from a temporary blindness ; Giokuyen designed one for an adtor who wished to inform his patrons that he had adopted a son and given him his name; while the common and, to the colledtor, most irritating pradtice of assuming pseudonyms has its sole re deeming feature in the number of surimono which it has called into existence. The subjedts of design of the latter are, as a rule, more fanciful, more allusive, than those of the broadsheets. Scenes from folk tales, birds and flowers of good omen, the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, and their ship, even a few domestic implements, or instruments of music, serve to make a com position, completed by a most judiciously placed inscription, and generally accom panied by a poem. M. de Goncourt has made a catalogue raisonnd oi the surimono of Hokusai. They demand, as a whole, a special study, both on account of their intrinsic merit and for the reason that their copious inscriptions doubtless hide many biographical fadts of importance. As our sources of information increase, no doubt this branch of Japanese art will also be opened to us with much gain to our knowledge. LANDSCAPE. BY TAKEHARA SHUNCHOSAI, 1780. ARTISTS' NAMES WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS. An-do ^ m Fuji- mura ^ U Ashi-hiro p ^ Fusa-nobu ^ ^ Ashi-kiyo ^ -Jf^ Fusa-tane ^ @ Ashi-kuni ^ @ Ashi-maro ^ ^' Gaku-tei ^ ^ Ashi-yu-ki ^ ?§ ^ Gen-shi-ro ^ UD IP Gen-ye-i-mon ¦^, ;g ^ Bai-cho-ro :^ IB tS Ges-sho ^ ^W. Bai-koku (or Ume kuni) Gioku-ran-sai H ^ S ^ P Gioku-riu-tei ^ f5|] i^ Bai-rei ^ -^ Gioku-yen ^ III Boku-sen ^ j]]] Gioku-zan 3£ jlj Bum-po ;^ E Go-cho-tei £ !!i ¥ Bun-cho (Ippitsusai) ^ |)3 Go-fu-tei S. M,¥ Bun-cho (Tani) "X M, G6-kan Ji ^ Bun-rei ^JC •^ Go-ki-tei 5. ffl. ^ Go-raku-sai 5, i^ ^ Chika-maro ^ )§ Go-s6-tei 5, ^ 9 Chika-nobu )g JE Go-to-tei 3i ^ ¥ Ch5-bun-sai ,1^ ^SC # Go-un-tei 5 S ^ Cho-ka-ro }|g # ;g Gum-ba-tei Jfj ,|| ^ Cho-ki ^ 5 Gwa-cho-ken ® ^ ff Cho-shun -^ § Gwa-jiu-ken S ^ |f Cho-wo-ro ^ SJ: ^ Gvi^a-ko-ken S ft^ ff 144 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Gyoku-ran-sai ^ M ^ Gyoku-ran-tei 3E ^ ^ Hachi-ye-i-mon A -& ^i PI Haku-shu ^ -^tl Hana-gawa-tei ~^ )\\ ^ Han-zan ^ |lj Haru-kawa ^ ]\\ Haru-nobu § fg" Haru-ye ^ ^ Ha-se-gawa -^ ^ J]] Hide-kuni ^ g Hide-maro ^ jg Hide-teru f| |f Hiko-kuni 7$ g Hiro-kage ^ ^ Hiro-kuni ^ |^ Hiro-nobu ^ ff Hiro-sada ^ ^ Hiro-shige ^ g Hishi-gawa ^ JlJ H6-getsu-do ^ ^ ^ Ho-itsu ^ ¦ — Hok-kei ^t M Hoku-ba ^fc .H Hoku-cho :|t :§ Hoku-ga ^t S Hoku-jiu 4t; ft Hoku-mei ;ft; BJ Hoku-myo ;It ^ Hoku-sai :|t ^ Hokusei ;[[; j^ Hoku-shiu :|t #1] Hoku-to ;lt ^li Hoku-tsui :It; ^ Hoku-un :Jt ^ Hoku-yei ;}[: ^ Ho-nen (or Yoshi - toshi) ^' ^ Hoso-i JB ^ Ichi-mo-sai — ^ ^ Ichi-6-sai — fS ^ Ichi-riu-sai — jL "M Ichi-yei-sai — . ^ ^ Ichi - yu - sai (Kuni- yoshi| -mm Ichi - yu - sai (Kuni -teruj -Mm Ik-kei-sai — ^, 3^ Ik-ko-sai ^ %m I-no-uye 5)^: Jl Ip-pitsu-sai — ^ ^ Ip-po-sai — a 5i I-sai ;i ^ Ishi-da ;5 EH Ishi-kawa ^ /I| Ishi-wrara .5^ ^ It-cho — ^ ' Ji-he-i ^ :£ ^ ARTISTS SIGNATURES. 145 Ka-cho-ro ^ ^ iB Kage-toshi ^ ^ Ka-ko m. S Kana-maro pf ^ Ka-no ^ If Katsu-gawa ^ JI| Katsu-shika -^ f^ Kawa-nabe J^ ^ Kei-gaku ^ -g- Kei-sai (Masayoshi) H Kei-sai (Yeisen) -^ % Kiku-chi ^ J^fe Kiku-gawa 0 J|| Kin-ch6-r5 1,^ UJ ;g Kio-den :^ fl| Kio-sai g| ^ Kita-gawa ^fc Jlj Kita-w^o iit ,1 Kiyo-haru J^ § Kiyo-hiro -JH ^ Kiyo-masu -JH ¦(§ Kiyo-mine f^ ;^ Kiyo-mitsu '^ J^ Kiyo-naga •;f| ^^ Kiyo-nobu ^ ^ Kiyo-sada ^ J^ Kiyo-shige j^ ;g Kiyo-tani '^ ^ Kiyo-tsune ^ J^ Ko-cho ^ ^ Ko-cho-ro @ j|3 ;^ K6-rin ^ ^ Ko-riu-sai jj^g K6-sai ^I i^ Ko-sui-sai jfeT KunKunKun KunKun KunKun Kun KunKun Kun Kun Kun Kun KunKun Kun Kun Kun Kun Kun KunKunKunKunKunKunKun Kun .w. m ¦aki m m •chika S JD ¦haru ^ § ¦hiko g g -hiro ^ ^ ¦hisa g ;J: ¦kage g kai^ ^ kazu P kiyo g -maro ^ ^ -maru ^ 7^^ -masa g i|j; -masu p 51" -mitsu p ?g -mori g ^ -mune g ^ •naga |3 ^ •nawo g ]![ -nori g JU -sada ^ ^ •sato g ^lli ¦shige m S: •taka P ^ •teru a iJl •tomi P ^ ¦tome g 75 ¦tora g J^ ¦tsuna g ^ 146 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Kuni-yasu g ^ Kuni-yoshi g ^ Kuni-yuki M ^ M Kwan-getsu ^ M ' fAAyjl ~~o Masa-nobu (Kita-viro) \$. j^ Masa-nobu (Okumura) I^St ft Masa- yoshi ^ ^ Ma-tora ^ % Matsu-go-ro ^ ^^ Matsu-kawra j^ ]\\ Matsu-shima % % Mitsu-nobu % ff Miya-gavsra ^ JH Mori g| Mori-kuni ^ g Mori-nobu ^ ^ Mori-yoshi ^ H Moro-fusa % '^ Moro-naga gjS ^ Moro-nobu 6ig ^ Mune-hiro ^ ^ Mura-kami ^ Jl Nan-gaku ^ M, Nichi-ren H 'M Niho - ^ Nishi-gawa "Ef Jl| Nishi-mura lg[ #$ Nishi-yama H |1] Nobu-haru ^ § Nobu-hiro ff ^ Nobu-shige ff g Nori-fusa % M 0-ishi ;^ ^5 O-kio |g ^ 0-sai ^i # Oku-mura ^ #f Ritsu-sen-sai A HI ^ Riyo-un ]!g ^ Roku - zaye - i - mon :?; ^ Roren ^ ^ Ryu-koku ^ ® Ryu-ko-sai 31 iilJ ^ Ryu-sai fjp ^ Ryu-sen :S ^ Sada-fusa ^ j^ Sada-hide ^ ^ Sada-hiro ^ ^ Sada-kage J[ ;^ Sada-katsu j^ ^ Sada-masa ^ jgi Sada-masu _g ^ Sada-nobu j|i ^ Sada-oka ^ B3 ARTISTS SIGNATURES. 147 Sada-shige j^ g Sada-tora ^ j^ Sada-yoshi ^ ^ Sada-yuki _g g Sai-to |g =J. Sei-tei ig ^ Sei-z6 ^ ^ Seki-yen "^ ^ Sek-kio ^ ^ Sen-cho ^ ^ Sen-kwa-do f[Ij 1^ Sen-sai jgp ^ Sess-shiu-sai @ ^, ^ Set-tan ^ ^ Set-tei ^ J^ Sha-raku ^ || Shiba-kuni ^ g Shige-haru ;g ^ Shige-masa J j^ Shige- mitsu g j^ Shige-naga g :g Shige - nobu ^ (Yanagawa) : lU Shige-yama Shiko ^ H Shin-sai ffl ^ Sho-kwa-do :^ ^ ^ Shun-boku § |> Shun-cho ^ ^ Shun-cho-sai § j^ 1 Shun-do § ^ Shun-gyoku ^ 3g Shun-j6 Mt Shun-kei Mm Shun-ki M ^ Shun-kio -sai § 1^ !i Shun-ko M » Shun-ko- sai § a ^ Shun-man (see Toshi- mitsu) Shun-ro M n Shun-sei s^ Shun-sen mm Shun-shi § ^ Shun-sho M% Shun-sho -sai § g ^ Shun-tei S ^ Shun-to-sai ^ fl) ^ Shun-yei »^ Shun-yo * ti Shun-zan S HI So-gaku a I& So-ri ^ ffl. Sugi-ta^^ Suke-nobu Jg ft -V ;;fe' c:,„„_t; «A -*• 1 ^ Suzu-ki |§ Tf; Tada- chika j£, 5^ Take-hara fj- ^ Tame-kadzu ^ — Tami-kuni ^ g Tan-ge ^ f Tan-i g= ^ Tan-yu g? i( 148 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. y X fe^ Tei-sai j| g Teru-yuki (or Yeishi) ^ ;^ Toki-ta-ro B# :fc ^ Tome-kichi -^ "^ Tomi-kawa ^ Jl| Tomi-nobu § flf Tori-i ,% ^ Tori-yama ,^ jlj Toshi-kuni flj g Toshi-mitsu (or Shun-man) To-shiia-sai ^ ^f| ^ To-un ^ g To-yei -^ ^ Toyo-fusa ^ ^ Toyo-haru ^ ^ Toyo-hide ^ .fl Toyo-hiro ^ ^ Toyo-hisa ^ ;2: Toyo-kawa ^ )]\ Toyo-kiyo ^ -^f Toyo-kuni ^ g Toyo-masa ^ J§ Toyo-nobu ^ g" Toyo -shige ^ g- T6-yu il 115 ^ To-zabu-ro jjp H 55 Tsuki-maro ^ ^ Tsuki-oka ^ IJg Ume - kuni (or Bai - koku) / / TVl'tt-M, 3 7 i-yftirtd Oa;i'-'< Um-po H il^ Un-gwa g m Uta-gawa ^ j\] Uta-maro ^ ^ Uta-yama |^ [Ij Uye-mura Jl ^ Watana-be Yama-guchi [Ij p Yama-moto [Ij 7|5 Yama-naka [J^ Ff» Yana-gawa ^J J]\ Yanagi-ya flj ;§ Ya-shima ^ |||,| Yasu-go-ro ¦$ 5 ^ Yasu-kuni ffc g Yasu-nobu ^ fg Yei-haku ^ fj^ Yei-sai ^ ^ Yei-sen ^ ;^ Yei-shi ^ ;^ Yei-shin ^ ff Yei-sh5 ^ ;^ Yei-shun 3^ ^ Yei-taku 7J\; y|| Yei-zan 5^ |Ij Ye-kawa ^ /Ff Yen-cho ^ ;g Yen-ki jt § ^t artists' SIGNATURES. 149 Y6-sai ^ m Yoshi-chika ^ Wt Yoshi-fuji ^ M Yoshi-fusa p| ^ Yoshi-haru -^ § Yoshi-hisa p^ ^ Yoshi-kado ^ ^ Yoshi-kazu ^ ^ Yoshi-ki ^ H Yoshi-kuni p M Yoshi-maru ^ It Yoshi-mori 5^ ^ Yoshi-mune ^ ^ Yoshi-nobu ^ ^ Yoshi-shige ^ H Yoshi-tada p^ JE Yoshi-taki ^ i(g Yoshi-tora ^ ]5| Yoshi-toshi (or Honen) Yoshi-toyo ^ ^ Yoshi-tsuna 5^ M Yoshi-tsuru ^ M Yoshi-tsuya ^ |S Y6-shiu ^i ^ Yoshi-yuki ^ ^ Zen-ye-i-mon # la % INDEX. Akisato Soseki, 117. Ao-giya Kwasen, 37. Ashikaga, 99. Ashikuni, 95. Ashiyuki, 96. Atsumori, 30. Baiko, Onoye, 133. Bairei, Kono, 104. Bakin, 47, 56, 6Q, 99. Benkei, 135. Bokusen, Hokutei, 69. Bunkaku, 8. Bunkwado, 14. Bunrei, 87. Bunryiisai, 56. Bunsei, 60. Chikamaro, 43, 115. Chinnen, 89. Chobunsai, 56. Choshun, Miyagawa, 33. Choyemon, 48. Chozo, Tsunada, 50. Daisuke, Higashiya, 52. Danjiuro, Ichikawa, 22, 131- Gakutei, Harunobu, 32, 36, 74, IIS- Gengi, Prince, 136. Genroku, O, 8. Giokusan, 47. Gokan, Shiba, 32, 87. Gonshiro, Idzumiya, 22. Gorobei, Kurabashi, 46. Gorohati, Arisaka, 73. Gountei, 99, 1 1 3. Gyokuransai, 99, 113. Hakuzo, Ichikawa, 47. Hanzan Yasunobu, 117. Harumachi, 44. Harunobu, Gakutei, 32, 36, 74. lis- Harunobu, Suzuki, 13, 23, 29, 81. Harunobu II. 5 70, 73, 96. Hokoku, 10. Hokuba, Teisai (Shushun sai), 73, 79- 152 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Hokucho, Shunshosai, 96. Hokumei (Togetsu), 96. Hokumyo (Sekkotei), Shunkosai, 96. Hokusai, 27, 36, 40, 49, 56, 59,95,96, 133- Hokusei (Hokkai), Shun shisai, 96. Hokushu, Shunkosai, 96. Hokusui, 114. Hokutei, 69, 73. Hoku-un, 69, 73. Hokuyei, Shunkosai, 96. Hokuyu, Shunshosai, 96. Hori-icho, 45. Hosoda, 57. Ichibei, Izumiya, 79. Ichibei, Seikiuji, 26. Ichibei, Shirokiya, 26. Ichio, Hanabusa, 47, 51. Ichi-o, Shumboku, 14. Ichiroyemon, Kawamura, 60. I-itsu, 63. Ikkei, Hanabusa, 51. Injiudo, 47. Issai, Nakajiwa, 60. Jikatsu, Miyagawa, 33. Jingo, Empress, 138. Jitokusai, 14. Jiuzemon, 83. Kaishi, 24. Kako, Tokitaro. See Ho kusai. Kasusaya Tusuke (Ju-6), 43- Katsunami Kana-i, 38, 82. Katsushika Taito, 63, 75. Kawayoshi, 30. Kegwad5, 97. Kegyokudo, 97. Keisai. See Yeisen and Masayoshi. KichisaburS, Arashi, 96. Kikumaro, 43. Kinchoro, 99. Kintokusai, 36. Kioden, 47. Kiosai, Sho-fu, 104. Kisaburo, Kameya, 75. Kitagawa, 41. Ki-ya, Murasaki, 41. Kiyoharu, Kondo Suke goro, Torii, 23. Kiyomasa, Kato, 138. Kiyomasu, Torii, 22. Kiyomine (Shonosuke), Torii, 23, 27. Kiyomitsu, Torii, 23. Kiyomori, 135. Kiyonaga, Torii, 23, 37, 40, 44, 56. Kiyonobu, Torii, 21, 56. Kiyoshige, Torii, 23. Kiyotsune, Torii, 23. Kocho, 89, 116. Kogiya, 52. Kokan, Shiba, 66. Konishi, 138. Korin, 89. Koriusai, 23, 31, 81. Kosuisai. See Shigemasa. Kumagai, 30. Kumakichi, 47. Kunichika, 54, 98. Kunihisa, 54- Kunimaro, 54. Kunimaru, 54- Kunimasa, 54, 98, 99. Kunimitsu, 54. •Kuninao, 89. INDEX. 153 Kunisada, Utagawa, Ichi yosai, Gototei, KachSro, (Toyokuni II.), 50, 95, 97,99,114. Kunisada II., Baichoro, 98. Kunisato, 54. Kunitaki, 99. Kuniteru, 54, 99. Kunitomi, 54. Kunitora, 54. Kunitoshi, 99. Kunitsuna, 54, 99. Kuniyasu (Ipposai Yasu goro), 54. Kuniyoshi, Utagawa, Ichi yusai, Cho-oro, 52, 89, 95. 115- Manji, 63. MangorS, Giokusai, 57. Masakatsu, Hokkio Koriu sai, 31. Masakazu, Uriu, 104. Masanobu, Kitao, 86. Masanobu, Okumura, 8. Masayoshi, Kitao Keisai, 87. Matahei, Iwasa, 6. Matora, Oishi, 89. Michishige, 6. Minko, Tachibana, 8y. Morikuni, Tachibana, 8, 12. Morofusa, 7. Moronaga, 7. Moronobu, Hishikawa (Ki chibei), 4, 21, 33. Mozitayu, Tokiwazu, 63. Mugura, 62. Munisada, 83. Murakami, Genyeimon, 23. Murataya, 82. Nakamura, Tomedjuro, 24. Naogiro, 49. Niho, 141. Nizeyeimon, Kataoka, 96. Nobuyoshi, 41. Nojiro Ryuko, Shumpildo, 89. Ogawa, 106. Ohan, 48. Omiyo, 72. Rikan, Arashi, 96. Roko, 8. Rokubei, Ikariya, yy. Ryokoku, 84. Sadahide, Utagawa Goun tei, Gyokuransai, 99, 113. Sadahiro, gy. Sadamasa, 97. Saijiro, 80. Sakakibara, 22. Sanchiro, Yamadeiya, 80. Sancho, 61. Segawa, 26. Seibei, Honya, 96. Seicho, 42. Sekiyen, Toriyama, Toyo fusa, 41, 44, 86. Sekkwaro, g6. Sencho, Teisai (Soget suyen), 79. Settan, Hasegawa, 117. Shigemasa, Kitao (Kosui sai), 25, 44, 86. Shigenaga, Nishimura, 23, 25, 29. Shigenobu, Yanagawa, 72, 75, 1 14- Shigeyoshi, Genjiro, y6. Shiko, 44, 62, 81. Shimabara, 93. Shinsai, 63, 75. 154 JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Shinshichiro, Inouye, 34. Shinsui, Katsugawa, 33. Shinsuki, 26. Shinyei (Kintokusei), 36. Shio-cho, 96. Shiuten-Doji, 136. Shiyau-toku, Empress, i. Shobei, 21. Shobei, Oda, 32. Shokosai, 38, 82. Shumbaisai, 96. Shumbaitei, 96. Shuncho, Katsugawa, 37. Shuncho (Harumachi), 44. Shunchosai, Takehara, 117. Shunjo, 36. Shunken, 38. Shunki, 36. Shunkiu, 36. Shunko (Ko-tsubo), 33, 35, 36, 2,0, 95. Shunkosai, 96. Shunman, 36. Shunrin, 80. Shunr5, Katsugawa (Ho kusai), 36, 61. Shunro, Mugura (Hoku sai), 63. Shunsen, Katsugawa, 45, 80, no. Shunsho, Ririn Katsugawa Yusuke Fuji {of Fuji- war o), 32, 40, 61, 74, 81, 95- Shunshunsai, 73, 79. Shunsui, Miyagawa, 33. Shuntei, Katsugawa, 38, 82. Shunyei, 36, 52, 80, 81, 95. Shunzan, Katsugawa, 81. Soraku, 84. Sori, Hishikawa, 62. Sukenobu, Nishikawa Uki yo, 12. Takiyasu, 102. Tame-ichi, 6^. Tamekazu, 63. Tancho, 8. Tanekiyo, 'j'^,. Tange, Tsukioka, 20. Tanjiro, Nakajima, 92. Tar5, Koyamado, loi. Teisai, 73. Tetsugoro, Kitagawa, 44. Tetsuzo, 61. Tokitaro, 60. Tokitaro, Ando, 83. Tokiwa, 135. Tokubei, 83. Tomichi, Fujiwara, 56. Tominobu, Kwasentei, 80. Torin, 80. Toyemon, Kwakushod6,43. Toyofusa, Toriyama Seki yen, 86. Toyoharu, Utagawa, 46. Toyohiro, Ichiryusai, 46, 83, III. Toyohisa, 46. Toyoku, Kawanabe, 104. Toyokuni I., 27, 39, 40, 44, 46, 95, 1 13- Toyokuni II. See Kuni sada. Toyokuni, Gosotei, 49. Toyomaru, 46. Toyonobu, Ishikawa, 26. Toyoshige, 49. Tsuchiya, 32. Tsukimaro, 43. Tsukioka Settei (Hokyo), 86. Tsukioka Tange, 20. Tsuru-ya, 37. INDEX. 155 Tsuta-ya Juzabro, 41, 65, 79- Utamaro, 28, 37, 40, 47, 65, 81, 113. Utazemon, Nakamura, 51, 54,96. Watanabe Seitei, 105. Yasohachi, Arakawa, 98. Yasukuni, 10. Yasunobu, Nishikawa, 54. Yawozo, Ichikawa, 48. Yeiji, 57, y6. Yeiji, Kano, 57. Yeijudo, 27, 82. Yeino, Kano, 12. Yeiri, 57. Yeisen, Keisai, 50, 56, 76, 89, 113. Yeisen, Kano, 56. Yeishi, 27, 56, ']6. Yeisho, 57. Yeizan, Kikugawa, 28, 46, 57- Yeshi, Yedo Yaganbori, 32. Yohachi, Nishimuriya, 51. Yorimitsu, Minamoto no (Raiko), 135. Yosai, Kikuchi, 102. Yoshida, Ichimatsu, 105. Yoshikazu, loi. Yoshikiyo, Ikeda, ^6. Yoshimori, loi. Yoshinobu, Ikeda, 93. Yoshisada, Nitta, 99. Yoshitora, Ichimosai, 99, IIS- Yoshitoshi, loi, 115. Yoshitsune, 134. Yoshitsuya, 115. Yoshizo, 79. Yuchiku, 6. Yukimaro, 43. Yusuke, 41. CHISWICK press: — CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 01398 2492 I