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 EXHIBITION 
 FROM JANUARY 25 TO MARCH 3 
 1923 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 47 EAST OOTH STREET 
 NEW YORK 
 
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 No one could write about Japanese Prints without 
 being under direct and constant obligation to Mr. 
 Frederick W. Gookin, who has made a long and 
 special study of the subject—particularly of the actor 
 prints. The compiler of this catalogue has had not 
 only the advantage of Mr. Gookin’s published writ- 
 ings but of years of friendly correspondence and con- 
 versation as well. 
 
 To another friend, Mr. Kihachiro Matsuki of 
 Kamakura, student of prints, lover and preserver 
 of the poetry and legend of his land, almost equal 
 obligation should be acknowledged. During happy 
 hours passed with Mr. Matsuki such insight as an 
 occidental may have into the meaning of prints was 
 gained, with some knowledge of the quaint lore and 
 romantic story that form their obvious background 
 to a Japanese. 
 
PRELIMINARY NOTE 
 
 By the middle of the seventeenth Century, when 
 the ancient feudal wars of Japan had become legends 
 and the country had been long at peace, the prosper- 
 ous middle classes of the capital and, to a certain ex- 
 tent, of the whole Empire had begun to demand self- 
 expression in art. They were comparatively rich, 
 they felt secure, they were light-hearted, bent upon 
 pleasure. Poetry they had, and the minor arts; but 
 painting, sculpture and the theatre were in the ser- 
 vice of the Buddhist church or of the nobles—a: 
 condition not to be tolerated by a nation which, it 
 may be claimed, was more keen in its esthetic 
 appreciation than any other that had been in the 
 world since Athens fell,—when once the great body 
 of the people had become rich enough, settled enough 
 to get what it wanted. From the earlier marionette 
 shows a popular theatre was developed that became — 
 the national passion; a popular school of painting ~ 
 sprang into being, gathering to itself and expanding 
 certain phases of earlier Japanese art; and this school, 
 disregarding the canons of classical painting, un- 
 mindful of the Buddhist spiritualities, or treating 
 them with scant reverence, concerned itself solely 
 with the glamor of daily existence, the joy of life, the 
 beauty of the present world. The chosen medium 
 
 Vil 
 
PRELIMINARY NOTE 
 
 of this school was the color print. Prints were 
 made cheaply and sold by thousands. They served 
 the purpose of our Sunday Supplements. They de- 
 picted the popular actors in favorite réles, the famous 
 courtesans—a class of women who appear to have 
 been often of exquisite cultivation; much hke the 
 Greek heterz. They were used as fashion plates; the 
 country gentlemen who were obliged by law to come 
 up to the capital once a year, the merchants who 
 came in from outlying districts, took them home to 
 show the people in their native villages the styles of 
 the hour, the gay life of the city. They were the 
 “Vogue” and ‘‘Theatre Magazine”’ of their time; 
 but they were as well marvels of line and color, 
 marvels of technical achievement, so filled with a 
 sense of the joy and beauty of life, preserving with 
 such passionate intensity, such sensitive appreciation 
 each ephemeral loveliness, that they have won a 
 place apart in the art of the world and in the affec- 
 tions of those who are familiar with them. 
 
 It is not for a catalogue to discuss the influence of 
 Japanese prints on modern European painting, or to 
 point out wherein they resemble, or differ from, the 
 earlier art of the west. It is necessary, however, to 
 outline briefly, as they are reached, the stages of 
 technical development. The details of the process 
 have been described in many books. 
 
 Whenever a reproduction of the actual print ex- 
 hibited has been published, the reference is given, 
 Whenever other impressions of the prints shown have 
 been reproduced, the effort has been made to refer to 
 the most important or most easily accessible book or 
 
 Vill 
 
PRELIMINARY NOTE 
 
 catalogue in which the subject appears—the series 
 of Vignier-Inada Catalogues, published in Paris, 
 being taken always as the standard. When there is 
 no reference to a reproduction of a print or subject 
 it may be inferred that none has been found. 
 
 Sizes are given in inches. 
 
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CATALOGUE 
 
CATALOGUE 
 INK-PRINTS 
 
 All Japanese prints are from wood blocks and in 
 the earlier ones exhibited, which are known as 
 sumi-ye, or ink prints, one block alone was used— 
 black outlines being printed on white paper to make 
 the picture. Later, in the so-called ‘‘ Brocade Pic- 
 tures” of many colors, a separate block was cut for 
 each, so that the black outline impression from what 
 had come to be known as the key block, sometimes 
 received impressions from more than twenty-five 
 other blocks before the finished print was obtained. 
 
 1 MORONOBU (1625-1695) 
 A samurai and his sweetheart seated. Another 
 woman at the right, at the left a burning candle 
 in a tall stand. On the floor is a writing box 
 with brushes, and beside it is an erotic poem by 
 Narahira, a celebrity of the 9th Century, who is 
 as famous for his intrigues as for his verses. This 
 print is an excellent example of Moronobu’s 
 power, but it does not show the equally charac- 
 teristic archness and humor which are apparent 
 in many of his faces—particularly in those of the 
 Kioto set. It is unsigned, as is usual with 
 
 3 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER’ CLUB 
 
 Moronobu, and undated; but as the pattern of 
 the woman’s obi, or sash, and the style of hair 
 arrangement reappear in the prints by the same 
 artist that are reproduced in the Vignier-Inada 
 Catalogue, Vol. 1, No. 10, and the catalogue of the 
 Field Collection, No. 12, it is likely that the three 
 prints were made in the same year—perhaps 
 about 1680. Fashions changed quickly in Yedo 
 in those gay days and it was de rigeur for the 
 courtesans, actors, and prosperous, pleasure loy- 
 ing people of the middle class, who are shown in 
 _ the prints, to follow them closely. 
 
 Kurth reproduces part of this subject, spoiling 
 the composition, in his “‘Japanische Holzschnitt,” 
 Plate 6. The unidentified mon, or crest, of the 
 lover appears in another print by Moronobu, 
 which is reproduced in the French edition of 
 Von Seidlitz, Plate 5. 
 
 Size 10% X 15%. 
 
 OKUMURA MASANOBU (Ca. 1685-1768) 
 
 An example of Japanese wit, showing with what 
 irreverent levity the public, for whom prints were 
 designed, treated the solemn legends of old China. 
 Incidentally it gives an excellent illustration of 
 how much is lost by those who consider merely 
 the decorative value of Japanese prints—their 
 composition, line and color—without attempting 
 to discover the meaning. It is the over-tones 
 that we miss, just as a Japanese, who was not 
 sufficiently conversant with western thought, 
 might see only line in a Daumier cartoon or a 
 
 4 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Descent from the Cross. The difficulty, however, 
 of finding the ultimate, central meaning or even 
 the connotations of almost any work of Japanese 
 or Chinese art is immense, if not insuperable, for 
 everything is stated indirectly, by implication or 
 through hidden meanings, the artist being able to 
 rely upon the quickness of perception of the spec- 
 tator and his accumulation of traditional learning. 
 Fortunately the allusion in this print is clear. 
 Generations of Japanese children had been nursed 
 on the typically Chinese story of a noble hermit 
 sage whose solitary contemplation had been in- 
 terrupted by a verbal message asking him to 
 come back into the world of men and be Emperor. 
 When the messenger had departed the incorrup- 
 tible one was found by his servant seated beside 
 a waterfall busily washing from his ears the taint 
 of what they had heard; and the tale of worldly 
 temptation so shocked the servant that he led 
 back an ox he had been about to water, refusing 
 to let the beast drink of the polluted stream. 
 It is a Chinese Sunday School story with an 
 irreproachable Roman moral, but what do the 
 Japanese—the Greeks of Asia—do with it? 
 The print shows a gentleman, who is not a hermit, 
 washing his ear, while a somewhat gay lady leads 
 away her pet cat. Behind them, for sufficient 
 caption, is depicted a classical painting of a 
 waterfall drawn in the Chinese manner. 
 
 The print is signed and sealed by Okumura 
 Masanobu, and was published by Kikuya about 
 
 17D5: 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Reproduced, Catalogue of Field Collection, No. 
 
 37- 
 Size 113 x 164. 
 
 HASEGAWA MITSUNOBU (Worked from 
 about 1720 to about 1755) 
 
 Two women in a room opening on a verandah. 
 One, with toilet articles beside her, is arranging 
 her hair before a low mirror, the other stands 
 holding a box of face powder. 
 
 The massiveness of design and the bold brush 
 strokes of Moronobu have yielded to the stately 
 grace of such figures as these. Inthe work of the 
 contemporary Sukenobu the grace has become 
 sweetness and the stateliness is gone. 
 
 Hasegawa Mitsunobu was a painter whose few 
 prints are excessively rare. He appears to have 
 been born in Osaka and to have come later to 
 Yedo. Books are recorded that were illustrated 
 by him and were published from 1724 to 1754. 
 He sometimes signed his work Baioken Eishun, 
 or Shosuiken or Ryusuiken. The print exhibited 
 probably appeared before 1735 and is the seventh 
 sheet of a set of nine, four of which are in New 
 York, the last being signed Ryusuiken Hasegawa 
 Mitsunobu. 
 
 No prints by this artist appear to have been re- 
 produced. . 
 
 Size 10% X 15. 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 PRINTS COLORED BY HAND 
 
 Almost from the beginning some impressions of 
 the black and white ink prints had been colored by 
 hand; but as the art of printing developed and prints 
 became popular, hand coloring became the rule 
 rather than the exception, and was done much more 
 carefully, either by the artist himself or under his 
 direction. At first a dull orange, called tan, was 
 the only pigment applied, but soon other colors 
 were added, the total effect frequently being height- 
 ened by the use of gold powder and black lac- 
 quer. 
 
 4 KIYOMASU (?-1764) 
 
 Monaka reading. A Tan-ye or print colored by 
 hand with dull orange. A greenish yellow has 
 been used in other parts of the design. 
 
 Monaka, a famous public beauty of her time, 
 whose name and address are given, stands in her 
 gorgeous robes reading a poem, only the essential 
 part of which is visible to us: 
 
 “Life is full of trouble, but the plum- 
 blossoms by the window... . 
 
 The poem, and indeed the whole print, is signifi- 
 cant of the extent to which the gentle aesthet- 
 icism and delicate appreciation of nature that 
 had come through the influence of Zen Buddhism 
 had influenced even the lower classes. The 
 nobles had paintings done in India ink in which 
 
 7 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 the spiritual significance of the subject—the qual- 
 ity in it that was eternal—was indicated by a 
 few brush-strokes; the people had prints like 
 this. 
 
 The tying of the obi, or sash, in front indicates 
 the station of the wearer, but these women were 
 creatures of exquisite culture, trained in all the 
 amenities of life, and, while marriage with one of 
 them was apt to lead to a double suicide, they 
 were not looked down upon as they have been at 
 other times and in other lands. Comparison 
 with Athens is again inevitable. 
 
 There is a peculiar stateliness about this design, 
 a bigness in a small space, that is somewhat 
 unusual. The print was published by Yamakichi 
 probably about 1715, and is attributed with con- 
 siderable confidence to the young Kiyomasu, 
 though certain critics have tended to consider it 
 the work of Moroshige, or the first Kiyonobu, or 
 some member of the Kwaigetsudo group. It 
 has been reproduced in color as the frontispiece 
 of the 1922 edition of ‘“The Book of Tea.” 
 
 Size 123 x 6. 
 
 KONDO KIYOHARU (worked Ca. 1715-1735) 
 A Buddhist nun, or possibly the actor Sanjo 
 Kantaro in the réle of a Buddhist nun, carrying 
 a box. The large shade hat is sprinkled with 
 gold powder. 
 
 This print was probably issued about 1718. It 
 is unsigned but is attributed to Kondo Kiyoharu 
 because of certain characteristics of drawing 
 
 8 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 which seem to distinguish his work from that of 
 the equally rare artist, Kondo Katsunobu, to 
 whom otherwise the attribution might be made. 
 Formerly in the Jaekel Collection, this print was 
 reproduced in color by Munsterberg, Vol. III, 
 p. 318. 
 
 Size 12i x 53. 
 
 KIYONOBU First (1664-1729) 
 
 The actor, Ichikawa Monosuke the first, in the 
 role of an exhibitor of trained monkeys. 
 
 The names of actors went on from generation to 
 generation, being given to adopted sons when 
 there were no descendants capable of bearing 
 them with sufficient distinction. In some cases 
 the new bearer of a name that had lapsed was 
 chosen by vote of his peers, and actors changed 
 their names and identifying mon, or crests, with 
 bewildering frequency. Sometimes it is only by 
 the surprisingly exact portraiture that came into 
 vogue with the actor prints of a slightly later 
 date that it is possible to tell which generation is 
 depicted. 
 
 This print, which is unusually fine in line and 
 color, as well as in condition, must have appeared 
 between 1719, when the first Monosuke adopted 
 the mon shown, and 1729 when he, as well as the 
 artist, died. There is no dispute as to the attri- 
 bution. 
 
 In this Catalogue the attempt has not always 
 been made to distinguish between different 
 generations of actors of the same name, the Ex- 
 
 9 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 hibition being intended primarily for those who 
 are not specialists in the subject. If these notes 
 help some to understand and appreciate, 
 they will have served their sole purpose. The 
 human background of Japanese prints should 
 be of interest to all, the erudite historical 
 problems connected with them are for specialists 
 alone. 
 
 The subject is reproduced in color as Plate No. 
 16 of the unfinished work by Barboutau (1914) 
 which was interrupted by his death. 
 
 Size 133 x 6. 
 
 KITYONOBU First 
 
 The actor Tatsuoka Hisagiku, as a woman carry- 
 ing on a small stand the conventional decoration 
 for a wedding ceremony, which is made up of the 
 four symbols of longevity—the pine, the peach, 
 the crane, the tortoise. 
 
 On account of various scandals which culminated 
 in a celebrated murder, it became the law that 
 no woman should appear on the stage. In prints, 
 the actors are always men; the illusion, however, 
 is perfect, as, except for the artificial voice, to 
 which one grows quickly accustomed, it is perfect 
 in the Japanese theatre of today. When a boy 
 was born in an actor’s family, his parents decided 
 quickly whether he should play male or female 
 parts, and his training was in accordance with 
 their decision. Everything in women’s rdles is 
 played differently, even to all the gestures; and 
 actors trained from childhood for these parts 
 
 10 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 achieve an astonishing grace of carefully thought 
 out rhythmic motion. 
 
 Signed Torii Kiyonobu and published by Mura- 
 taya, probably about the same date as the pre- 
 ceding number. 
 
 Print reproduced in the Catalogue of the Kinbei 
 Murata Sale of September, 1918. 
 
 Size 12 x 6. 
 
 SHIGENAGA (1697-1756) 
 
 The actor Arashi Wakano, as a woman under an 
 umbrella walking in the snow and turning to look 
 at the blossoms on a gnarled tree. In Japan, 
 blossoms and snow actually are seen together, 
 the rose camelias are bright under the first soft 
 snow of autumn, and the blooms come on the plum 
 trees before winter has begun to turn toward 
 spring. The curious decoration of the outer 
 kimono is formed of miniature portraits of some 
 of the Thirty-six Famous Poets, of whom Narahira 
 (see note on No. 1.) was one. These thirty-six 
 poets were a favorite subject of art, their names 
 and their verses being familiar to all. 
 
 The print is signed by Shigenaga and was pub- 
 lished by Igaya about 1725. Reproduced as No. 
 25 in the Catalogue of the Frederick May Col- 
 lection. 
 
 Size 13}-x 64. 
 
 OKUMURA MASANOBU 
 A man and a woman in a room watching a youth 
 who is about to write. Note the position of the 
 
 I! 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 brush and hand, so different from the Occidental 
 one. Painting, which was closely akin to the 
 equally prized art of calligraphy, was done in the 
 same manner. In the foreground are a writing 
 box with its slab of black India ink, and a smok- 
 ing box with a pipe that would hold the usual 
 three puffs of tobacco which are so dear to the 
 Japanese. Opium smoking never was practised 
 in Japan. Behind the group of people are a sake 
 pot, a cup on a stand and a tray of food with 
 chopsticks. The rear wall is decorated with a 
 lovely snow landscape; and on the left is a poem 
 of the short seventeen-syllable form, written by 
 the artist, which refers to a particularly dainty 
 small plum that is nicknamed, by way of humor, 
 after those gigantic and grotesque guardians of 
 the temple gates—called Nio, and really is a love 
 poem in disguise. The allusions in the print 
 are not wholly clear. ; 
 Signed and sealed by Masanobu. 
 
 Date probably a little later than that of Number 
 2 by the same artist. 
 
 The subject is reproduced in the V. I. thiatéaue, 
 Vol. I. No. 141, but from an impression that 
 lacks the signature and seal. 
 
 Size 92 x 143 
 
 TOSHINOBU (worked Ca. 1725-1742) 
 
 A dandy of more than questionable morals out 
 walking on a cold day. His umbrella, which bears 
 the characters wishing long life, is sprinkled with 
 gold and he is mounted on geta, or pattens, high 
 
 12 
 
I 
 
 — 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 enough to protect him from any depth of mud or 
 slush. The heavy outer coat that he wears 1s dec- 
 orated with the mon of various popular actors. 
 The similarity in the names of many of the print 
 designers is because a pupil was given, as a sort of 
 diploma, when he became proficient enough, the 
 right to adopt a part of his master’s studio name. 
 The man who called himself as an artist, Masan- 
 obu, was the teacher as well as the father of 
 Toshinobu. This rule has many notable ex- 
 ceptions, for there are similarities of sound that 
 have nothing to do with the studio in which an 
 artist received his training. 
 
 Toshinobu appears to have died young; while his 
 father, Masanobu, lived on to a ripe old age, pro- 
 ducing many designs that were printed in two 
 colors, and even surviving to the beginning of the 
 polychrome period. 
 
 This print probably appeared about 1725, and 
 probably is an early Toshinobu showing the in- 
 fluence of his father. It was formerly in the 
 Jaekel Collection and was reproduced in color by 
 Munsterberg, Vol. III, p. 319, who attributed 
 it to Masanobu. 
 
 Size 123 x 6. 
 
 KIYOMASU 
 
 A later print than Number 4, by the same artist. 
 Sanjo Kantaro, as a woman arranging her hair 
 before a lacquer mirror. He is in the réle of 
 Yao-ya O Shichi, a grocer’s daughter, who, when 
 her father’s house burned down, was sent to stay 
 
 13 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 in a temple where she promptly fell in love with 
 one of the novices. On her return home she set 
 fire to the recently completed new house in the 
 hope of being sent back to her lover; but was 
 unfortunate enough to choose a windy day so 
 that half the town burned. There was a prompt 
 investigation and the lady was executed—to be- 
 come thereafter a heroine of romance. 
 
 The original creator of the part made such a 
 success in it that in revivals of the play his mon— 
 a sealed letter—was used by the leading actor 
 with his own and eventually came to be an indi- 
 cation of the réle. 
 
 The decorations on the robe represent wooden 
 clappers strung together to be hung in the wind 
 and frighten birds from the rice-fields; they are 
 the Japanese equivalent of our scare-crows. 
 This print is known to be by Kiyomasu because 
 the impression in the Vever Collection, which is 
 reproduced by Von Seidlitz, French Edition, Plate 
 10, bears his signature. 
 
 Date about 1725. 
 
 Size 122 x 53. 
 
 TOYONOBU (1711-1785) 
 
 The two end sheets of a triptych representing the 
 “Beauties of the Three Cities,” Kioto, Osaka and 
 Yedo (now called Tokio). The color effect is 
 greatly heightened by the use of lacquer and gold 
 powder. 
 
 These prints were published by Maruya and are 
 
 ‘signed Nishimura Magosaburo, a signature which 
 
 14 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 has recently been discovered to be an early one of 
 the great Toyonobu, who also signed in his youth 
 Shigenobu; the two earlier signatures being found 
 on prints that appeared between 1730 and 1743. 
 The triptych of which these are a part must have 
 been printed nearer to the earlier than to the 
 later of the dates given. 
 
 Size of each sheet 123 x 6. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS IN COLOR 
 PRINTING 
 
 Shortly after 1740, it was discovered that by the 
 use of a simple device to insure perfect register, two 
 color blocks could be added to the black-outline key- 
 block, the sheet on which the finished print was to 
 appear being pressed on each of these in turn. These 
 two-color prints are called Beni-ye because beni—a 
 somewhat evanescent rose—always was used, the 
 other color being at first green and afterwards either 
 green or blue. A little later a third block was added, 
 but was not always used; and as experiments in over- 
 printing were made the range of color was greatly 
 increased, before the final development of full poly- 
 chrome printing, about 1765. 
 
 13 TOYONOBU 
 An example of the two-color prints of an artist 
 whose earlier hand-colored work is shown as 
 Number 12. 
 This print was issued for the revival of another 
 
 15 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 famous play, ““The Revenge of the Soga Broth- 
 ers,” a story of vendetta coming down from the 
 period of the 12th Century feudal wars, that 
 holds its place on the stage today. 
 
 Japan is the only important nation in the present 
 world whose legendary and heroic past lives in 
 the hearts of the people, as familiar to them as 
 were the legends of Troy and Thebes to the audi- 
 ences for whom Aéschylus and Sophocles wrote. 
 It is as though the stories of King Arthur, the 
 death of Roland, the Crusades, the Wars of the 
 Roses, were so vital a part of our imaginative 
 outlook that we would pack the theatres, year 
 after year, to see them produced. 
 
 The Soga brothers accomplished their revenge 
 and died tragically, both in early youth. The 
 poem on the print reads: “‘Youthful Brothers, 
 comparable only to young maples in early leaf.”’ 
 For the way to identify the Soga brothers in 
 prints see note under Number 48. 
 
 Signed by Toyonobu and published by Maruko 
 In 1744. 
 
 Sizeti5-x 19h 
 
 TOYONOBU 
 
 Nakamura Kiyozo as a girl called Matsuyama 
 (Pine mountain), and Ishimura Kamezo as an 
 attendant holding her umbrella. At least the 
 lower mon on the right sleeve of KiyozO appears 
 to have been put in by a plug in the block, per- 
 haps to replace that of an actor who died during 
 the run of the play. 
 
 16 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Subject reproduced, Estampes appartenant a un 
 Amateur de l’Etranger. Paris. Hotel Druot. 
 June 14, 1909. No. 20. 
 
 Compare Moslé Catalogue No. 1878. 
 
 Signed and sealed by Toyonobu and published by 
 Urokogataya probably between 1748 and 1750. 
 Size 162 x 12. 
 
 MASANOBU 
 
 Nos. 2 and 9g in this exhibition show earlier 
 work of the long-lived Masanobu, the first in 
 black and white only, and the second hand- 
 colored. Neither one compares in beauty of 
 line with this two-color print, and the soft fading 
 by time of its characteristic rose and green has 
 given it an added charm all its own. 
 
 The print was issued in 1750 for another revival 
 of the play described under Number 11, and 
 shows the fair incendiary strolling with her lover; 
 while music is the food of love. The instrument 
 in her hand is a samisen, or Japanese banjo, and 
 his a kokyu, or three stringed fiddle. Note the 
 sealed letter—a reminder once again of the 
 original creator of the rdle. 
 
 The poem on the print reads: “Here in Sacred 
 Ise, where the cherry is always in bloom, we find 
 our hill of happy meeting.” 
 
 Signed and sealed by Masanobu. 
 
 Size 16 x 114. 
 
 KIYOHIRO (worked Ca. 1745-1758) 
 Segawa Kikunojo I and II were the most famous 
 and most exquisitely depicted of all actors of 
 
 ee 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 women’s rdles. Each was the popular idol of 
 his time, and the head—at least of Kikunojo I, 
 must have been turned by it for here beside his 
 portrait he writes a poem, signed with his per- 
 sonal name—Roko, in which he says: “As a 
 woman he has as many admirers as the flowers”’ 
 —the admiration of flowers being, of course, a 
 universal characteristic of the Japanese. Doubt- 
 less the statement was true; but in our western 
 world of newspapers and press agents, actors can 
 blush with surprise when they hear such things 
 said of them by others. Kikunojo’s mon—the 
 _ fleur de lys—is the chief decoration of his cos- 
 tume; there can be no mistake about who he is. 
 The composition is of extreme grace and one can 
 imagine with what consummate art an actor who 
 wore his clothes so well and had such clothes to 
 wear, would move about the stage managing the 
 undulating line of the draperies. 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 September, 1917, No. 22. 
 Signed and sealed by Kiyohiro and published by 
 Yamamoto, about 1748. 
 Size 15 X 7. 
 
 17 KIYOMITSU (1735-1785) 
 The actor Sanogawa Ichimatsu holding a long 
 pipe and standing beside a bench on which is 
 his smoking box. 
 The actor is in the réle of one of the Soga brothers 
 whose tragic story is outlined in the note on 
 Number 13. The way to recognize the Soga 
 
 18 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 brothers in prints is described under Number 48. 
 This one is Soga no Goro. 
 
 Signed Torii Kiyomitsu. 
 
 Size 12% x 54. 
 
 This and the two following prints by Kiyomitsu 
 may be dated roughly between 1760 and 1770. 
 Prints in two and three colors continued to be 
 made for some years after the invention of 
 polychrome printing. 
 
 KIYOMITSU 
 The actor Adzuma Tozo as a woman under a 
 maple, carrying bird cages. 
 
 _ Signed by Kiyomitsu and published by Nishi- 
 
 20 
 
 mura. 
 Size 127° X 5%. 
 
 KIYOMITSU 
 
 The actor Yamashita Kinsaku as a woman with 
 blossoms in her hair and carrying a blossoming 
 branch, from which is suspended a foot-ball. 
 Foot-ball in Japan was a much more stately 
 game than it is with us and was played in flowing 
 garments of brocade. 
 
 Signed by Kiyomitsu. 
 
 Size 124 x 53. 
 
 KIYOMITSU, KIYOTSUNE (Worked Ca. 
 1756-1775) and HARUNOBU (born about 1730, 
 died 1770) 
 
 “The Beauties of Three Cities,” done by three 
 
 19 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 different artists. (For the subject compare No. 
 12.) Behind the three girls are shown the three 
 flowers that are associated with the cities, and 
 each wears the mon of a favorite actor. Above 
 each is a love poem. 
 
 This triptych must have appeared about the 
 time of the perfecting of polychrome printing by 
 Harunobu, the great name of the period between 
 1764 and the date of his untimely death; but as 
 two of its three sheets are by artists of the pre- 
 ceding period, the last of the “‘Primitives,” it 
 serves very well to mark the transition between 
 ‘the two- and three-color prints and the real 
 “Brocade Pictures,’ besides being in itself a 
 thing of peculiar loveliness. 
 
 Reproduced as No. 83 of the F. W. Hunter 
 Catalogue, with the sheets arranged in the wrong 
 order. 
 
 Signed by the three artists. 
 
 Date about 1765. 
 
 Size 122 x. 16%. 
 
 The period of the ‘‘Primitives” is ended. We pass 
 
 now to the work of artists each of whom will be con- 
 
 sidered by himself. 
 
 HARUNOBU (born about 1730, died 1770) 
 Harunobu, who disputes with two very different 
 artists, Kiyonaga and Sharaku, the claim to first rank 
 among the painters and print designers of the pop- 
 
 20 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 ular school of the 18th Century, unfortunately died 
 young. His work before 1764 is little known and 
 of little distinction, but between that date and his 
 death in 1770 he produced an immense number of 
 designs that are most beautiful in themselves and, 
 because of a peculiar quality that is in them, have 
 endeared him to the heart of the world. He 1s the 
 artist of young girlhood, the poet of youth. His fig- 
 ures, untouched by sorrow, move through an earthly 
 paradise, a fairyland of loveliness, the world that 
 might be rather than the world that is. He has 
 caught and rendered for us the evanescent charm of 
 youth, he has sought to preserve, with the fresh- 
 ness of the morning on it, that fleeting moment be- 
 tween the opening of the bud and the fall of the 
 first petal, in which alone beauty is perfect, unalloyed. 
 Harunobu did not have the stateliness of Kiyonaga, 
 the sardonic power of Sharaku, he turned away 
 from the theatre, was, in the main, unmindful 
 of the demi-monde; what he did have, he had 
 supremely—his vision of the Spring-time of life and 
 love. 
 
 All of the fifteen prints by Harunobu in this Exhi- 
 bition can be dated between 1764 and 1770; most 
 of them were done before 1767. They have been se- 
 lected with sorrow and misgiving from about seventy 
 available examples, and, fortunately, it is not neces- 
 sary to discuss in connection with them the vexed, 
 irrelevant questions of scholarship. In the earlier 
 ones the color scheme is more simple, with a delicate 
 yellow predominating, 
 
 21 
 
21 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HARU NOBU 
 
 Young lovers playing a flute. Behind them is 
 a screen decorated with pine branches. The 
 bamboo leaves in the decoration of the girl’s 
 gown are so arranged as to give the numerals of 
 the Japanese year equivalent to our 1765. This 
 year was the nine hundredth anniversary of the 
 entrance of Michizane—a statesman, scholar and 
 artist of old—to the court of the Emperor, and a 
 number of so-called calendar prints were de- 
 signed toward the close of 1764 and issued at the 
 beginning of the New Year as part of the popular 
 celebration of the event. (See No. 117.) 
 
 No other impression of this print appears to 
 have survived. 
 
 The seal is that of a collector. 
 
 Size 10 x 7%. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 A young girl as Moso. This is another calendar 
 print of the same year, the numerals being found 
 among the bamboo leaves. 
 Moso, one of “‘The Twenty-four Paragons of 
 Filial Piety’? of Chinese moralizing, went out 
 barefoot in winter to search for young bamboo 
 shoots, a table delicacy for which his aged mother 
 craved, and was rewarded by having them sprout 
 miraculously through the snow. The story, of 
 course, was thoroughly familiar to the Japanese, 
 but Moso is represented here by a young 
 girl. 
 Subject reproduced, Blanchard Catalogue, No. 7, 
 22 
 
23 
 
 24 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 and, from a much trimmed impression, Hayashi 
 Catalogue, p. 168. 
 Size 11% x 83. 
 
 HARU NOBU 
 
 A young girl seated in a boat under drooping 
 willow branches. She wears a long court hat 
 of the olden time and has beside her a small 
 drum—one of the classical instruments used 
 from of old. The reference is to the pleasure 
 boat wherein a Shogun of a by-gone age had 
 been wont to escape the cares of government 
 in the company of his mistress, the beautiful 
 Asazuma. A Shogun was a prime minister who 
 had usurped the secular power of the Emperor 
 but not the Imperial name. 
 
 Print reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. II, No. 
 72. Some of the too heavy oxidization has been 
 removed. 
 
 Size 11 x 84. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 Two young women walking through a storm of 
 snow and rain on their way to a bath house. 
 One carries a towel and a bath robe. 
 
 Bathing is one of the national passions of the 
 Japanese, and in the late afternoons the streets 
 are filled with people returning from the bathing 
 establishments. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Morrison Catalogue of Ex- 
 hibition held by Fine Art Society of London, 
 1910, No. 68, Crewdson Catalogue, No. 31, and, 
 
 23 
 
25 
 
 2 
 
 => 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 from a slightly trimmed impression, Frederick 
 May Catalogue No. 44. 
 
 Signed Suzuki Harunobu. 
 
 Size 102 x 83. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 A young girl on a verandah stands alone, against 
 the black background of night, lighting with her 
 lantern the white blossoms of a plum tree in early 
 bloom. It has been pointed out already that the 
 Japanese are devoted to flowers. When the 
 different blooms are at their finest, parties go out 
 by day and night to view them and the plum 
 is the earliest blossom of the year—the harbinger 
 of Spring. 
 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 October 1919, No. 41. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue Vol. II. No. 
 66. 
 
 Size 123 x 83. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 A young man and a young woman drying, over 
 braziers with dome-shaped tops, floss silk that 
 has been pressed into sheets. 
 
 The perfection of technique in the cutting of the 
 blocks and in the printing is extraordinary. 
 
 This and the two following numbers are from a 
 set of ‘‘Eight Indoor Views.” In their first state 
 these eight prints bear the signature of Kiosen, 
 who may have been an amateur engraver and 
 
 24 
 
27 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 printer, and almost certainly was a patron for 
 whom prints were designed—the moving spirit 
 in an artist’s club or society that issued them. 
 The so-called “‘second state” of which three 
 examples are shown, has no signature and the 
 characteristic yellow or straw color of early 
 Harunobus has been supplanted by stronger 
 tones. In a third state, that frequently bears 
 the signature of Harunobu, the color scheme is 
 still more complicated. 
 
 The Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Japan 
 Society of New York reproduces in color all three 
 states of one sheet of the set. All eight, in the 
 first state, are reproduced in the Moslé Catalogue, 
 and in the second state—like those shown here 
 —in the Harunobu Memorial Catalogue. 
 
 Size 11% x 83. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 A young woman reading by the light of a portable 
 lamp. From the same set as the last. It has 
 been said that prints in which a good deal of 
 black was used and prints in which the figures 
 were not displayed against a complicated back- 
 ground were apt to be finer than others. This 
 print, which is one of Harunobu’s most charming 
 designs, illustrates the first rule and is a notable 
 exception to the second. The stream, the shore 
 and the maple leaves give exactly what was 
 needed. 
 
 Size 114 x 83. 
 
 25 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 28 HARUNOBU 
 
 29 
 
 A young girl with open fan, followed by her maid. 
 From the same set as Numbers 26 and 27, and of 
 the same state. 
 
 Size 114 x 8. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 Stealing the Blossoms. A young girl has climbed 
 up on the back of her maid to reach a tempting 
 branch of plum-blossoms above a gray wall. 
 
 In the upper classes long sleeves were the preroga- 
 tive of youth, and from childhood to age they grew 
 steadily shorter. Servants wore sort sleeves, as 
 in this print and Number 28. Long ones would 
 have interfered with their work. 
 
 Subject reproduced V. J. Catalogue, Vol. II, No. 
 115. 
 
 Size 102 x 7. 
 
 The nine prints by Harunobu that have been cat- 
 
 alogued thus far can be dated with considerable con- 
 fidence between New-Year’s Day of 1765 and the 
 close of 1767. The six that follow, with the possible 
 exception of No. 32, which may be earlier, should 
 probably be ascribed to the final two and a half years 
 of the artist’s life. 
 
 30 HARUNOBU 
 
 Young lovers beside a green bamboo fence. The 
 youth is stooping over to remove a clog of snow 
 
 26 
 
3 
 
 — 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 from the gefa, or patten, of the girl. Above are 
 some verses: “‘Even today snow makes the road 
 well-nigh impassable, if it should storm again to- 
 morrow who could expect him to come.” 
 Signed Suzuki Harunobu. Probable date 1768. 
 Size 113 x 83. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 A young girl and her maid on a wind-swept beach. 
 The young lady’s companion, perhaps pleading 
 for a rejected lover, points to a rock against 
 which the waves are beating, while above is a 
 well-known classical poem by Minamoto no 
 Shigeyuki, which, with due regard to the implied 
 meaning understood by the Japanese, might be 
 interpreted: 
 
 My heart is like a wave 
 Broken against the rock of her denial. 
 
 There is an inference in this poem that, though 
 each wave is broken, in the end the rock itself is 
 worn away. 
 
 These verses are in the thirty-one-syllable form, 
 for when the Japanese wish to write a long poem 
 and say a great deal they add two lines, of seven 
 syllables each, to the short seventeen- syllable 
 form, referred to under Number 9, the construc- 
 tion being like that of a sonnet with a distinct 
 break and change of thought in a specified place. 
 Subject reproduced, Harunobu Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 90; Frederick May Catalogue, No. 
 
 27 
 
a 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 567 and Sotheby Catalogue of January 1911— 
 An Importer of Japanese Products, No. 60. 
 Signed Suzuki Harunobu. Probable date 1768. 
 Size 113 x 83. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 A young lady who received so many locas 
 that she was obliged to have an ox carry them 
 for her. The background of evanescent blue 
 that was in many of Harunobu’s prints is here 
 only partially decomposed. 
 
 This print is described in the V. I. Catalogue 
 Vol. II], No. 217 and the subject is. reproduced 
 in the Kinbei Murata Catalogue of July, 1913. 
 Probable date 1769. 
 
 Size 10% x 84. 
 
 HARUNOBU 
 
 Young lovers walking under snow-laden willow 
 branches. This is one of Harunobu’s finest 
 designs, an exquisite print in every line from the 
 drooping branches above to the bottom sweep of 
 the moving draperies. The Japanese call it the 
 “Crow and Heron,” probably because the youth 
 is dressed in black, while the girl’s outer kimono 
 is white with patterning in gauffrage. A later— 
 less effective—state shows a black bounding line 
 about the soft snow on top of the umbrella, with 
 changes in the patterns of the textiles. 
 
 The print exhibited was reproduced in color as 
 the frontispiece of the Catalogue of the Exhi- 
 bition given by the Japan Society of New York 
 in 1911; the state with the black bounding line 
 
 28 
 
34 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 and changed patterns may best be compared in 
 the reproduction in the Hayashi Catalogue, p. 
 110, and there is still a third, badly engraved and 
 with other differences. 
 
 Signed Suzuki Harunobu. Probable date 1760. 
 Size 114 x 8}. 
 
 and 35 HARUNOBU 
 
 Pillar prints, representing that pair of star- 
 crossed lovers, Shirai Gompachi and Komurasaki, 
 each in komuso attire, and carrying the basket hat 
 and flute. 
 
 Prints of this shape were made to be hung as 
 decorations on the square wooden pillars of 
 Japanese houses, and having been more fre- 
 quently exposed to the light, are difficult to find 
 in such condition as these. The story of the 
 unfortunate lovers is too long to be retold here, 
 but those who desire to read a digest of it may be 
 referred to Joly’s ‘“‘Legend in Japanese Art” p. 
 98. A few lines, however, must be given to ex- 
 plaining the word komuso. A komuso originally 
 was a person of the warrior class who for some 
 reason had fallen into disgrace and taken sanctu- 
 ary in a monastery. When he wandered abroad 
 the deep basket hat prevented recognition and 
 the flute furnished a means of subsistence; be- 
 sides which the civil authorities hesitated to inter- 
 fere with an unidentified person who could be 
 seen at a glance to have put himself under the pro- 
 tection of the Church. The costume, however, 
 became a convenient one—particularly the hat— 
 
 29 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 for people who wished to escape justice or to go 
 about incognito, and apparently it was used 
 often by those who had much less reason than 
 Gompachi for wishing to conceal their identity. 
 Even today the komuso sometimes is seen, and 
 no one would think of being rude enough to dis- 
 cover by force the identity of a person who wished 
 to remain unknown. Sometimes, in prints, a girl 
 upon whom a komuso is calling will hold out a 
 mirror or bowl of water to catch a reflection of 
 the hidden face; but that was a woman’s trick, 
 which doubtless was pardoned. 
 
 Both prints are signed. The probable date of 
 their publication is the early part of 1770, a few 
 weeks before the artist’s death. 
 
 That of Gompachi measures 28% x 5 and was re- 
 produced in the Catalogue of the first Metzgar 
 Sale, 1916, No. 276. It is a famous impression of 
 a famous print. 
 
 The Komurasaki measures 273 x 5. The subject 
 is reproduced in the Van Caneghem Catalogue 
 No. 204. 
 
 HARUSHIGE 
 
 Little is known of this artist save that he made 
 good pictures; but much is conjectured. He may 
 have been a son or pupil of Harunobu, his may be 
 an early signature of Koriusai’s; and, for the con- 
 fusion of critics, a talented reprobate named Shiba 
 Kokan, who was a few years younger than Harunobu 
 and lived much longer, left memoirs to be published 
 after his death, in which he states not only that he 
 
 30 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 was Harushige but calls particular attention to the 
 fact—if fact it be—that many of the best known 
 prints attributed to and even signed Harunobu had 
 been made by himself, the master’s signature having 
 been forged to fool the public or to make the prints 
 sell. Shiba Kokan appears to have been perfectly 
 capable of playing a posthumous joke on posterity 
 for his own glory and our confusion; on the other 
 hand he proved himself to have been an artist of 
 very genuine talent whether he was working in the 
 Japanese way or experimenting in European per- 
 spective and copper-plate engraving after the man- 
 ner of prints brought by Dutch traders to the open 
 port of Nagasaki. Those who think they can tell 
 Shiba Kokan Harunobus from real Harunobus claim 
 that the figures in the former have longer, thinner 
 necks. There are, however, prints signed Harushige 
 in which the necks are more short and round than 
 those in the one exhibited. 
 
 36 HARUSHIGE 
 A scene in a restaurant beside a river, two girls 
 in front; through the partially open shoj1 (sliding 
 paper partitions) are seen the shadows of the 
 guests, one of whom has broken a hole through 
 the shoji to look at the girls. The name of the 
 tea-house is given at the end of the poem above, 
 which relates that the girls, touched by the 
 melancholy of autumn, are disinclined to help 
 entertain the guests. 
 Signed Harushige. 
 Size 1134 x 8H. 
 
 31 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 BUNCHO (worked Ca. 1768-1775) 
 
 Buncho, an artist of delicate line and a great color- 
 ist, stands a little apart from the men of his time; 
 unrelated, individual. Mr. Ficke has developed an 
 interesting romantic theory about his sensitive per- 
 sonality, which may have little basis in fact but 
 makes excellent reading. (Chats on Japanese 
 Prints pp. 186-193.) Buncho was of. somewhat 
 higher rank than most of the artists of the popular 
 school, the great body of whom were distinctly of 
 the lower classes for whom they worked. The red 
 seal on his prints bears his family name, Mori. His 
 color schemes are as different as his line from those of 
 others. 
 
 37 BUNCHO 
 The comedian Arashi Otohachi wearing a farm- 
 er’s hat and holding two fish by a cord. 
 Portraits of comedians are somewhat rare, the 
 public apparently preferring for its souvenirs, 
 pictures of the tragic actors in their moments of 
 tense dramatic passion. 
 Subject reproduced, Sotheby Catalogue of June 
 23, 1913, No. 32. 
 Signed and sealed by Buncho. 
 Size 112 x 53. 
 
 38 BUNCHO 
 The actor Matsumoto Koshiro III who in 1770 
 became Danjuro V. A decoration of iris on his 
 white under robe. 
 Signed and sealed by Buncho. 
 Size 124°x% 354, 
 
 32 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 39 BUNCHO 
 
 Iwai Hanshiro IV as Okaru in the seventh act of 
 Chushingura. Note the characteristic richness 
 of color and the equally characteristic distortion 
 of the curiously poised, slim figure with its sweep- 
 ing curve. 
 
 This is the first of the prints exhibited that has 
 to do with the most famous and popular of all 
 Japanese plays, the Chushingura, or Tale of the 
 47 Ronin, an excellent translation of which by 
 Jukichi Inouye was published in Tokio in tort. 
 Mr. Masefield has paraphrased—not very satis- 
 factorily—a part of it in “‘The Faithful.”’ (See 
 notes, under Numbers 60, 67, 68, 71). The play 
 is so popular that it has to be revived every year 
 and the difficulty of getting a place is extreme. 
 The best places are near the “‘Flower Walk” 
 or path raised above the pit by which the actors 
 pass between the rear of the theatre and the stage 
 —an arrangement made familiar to us by Rhein- 
 ardt’s production of ‘“‘Sumurun.” The actors 
 frequently stop for posturing in the middle of the 
 Flower Walk and he whose place is near them is 
 a fortunate person. The floor of a Japanese 
 theatre is divided into what look like cucumber 
 frames six feet square (two mats each), separated 
 by two-inch railings. Into each of these frames 
 four spectators get, the Japanese having an in- 
 herited ability to fold themselves like pen- 
 knives and remain shut for hours. Some per- 
 formances of Chushingura begin at ten in the 
 morning and continue until five in the afternoon, 
 
 ae 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 when they stop abruptly with the play unfinished, 
 to make room for the evening performance of 
 some other piece. The compiler has seen three 
 productions of parts of this play, but never yet 
 has he been fortunate enough to be in at the 
 death of the villain—and Moronao is the kind 
 of a villain that one particularly likes to see die. 
 When the company is a good one the acting is 
 impressive and moving in the extreme, and 
 the costumes are most effective with their 
 beautiful stiff brocades in luminous folds of 
 color. 
 
 Print reproduced, Frederick May Catalogue, No. 
 1125. 
 
 Signed and sealed by Buncho. 
 
 Size 123 X 53. 
 
 40 BUNCHO 
 
 as 
 
 Chosan, a tea-house beauty, walking through a 
 snow-storm with her attendants. In the upper 
 corner is a letter addressed to the girl, “‘from one 
 she knows.” 
 
 Print reproduced by Ficke, Plate 22. 
 
 Signed and sealed by Buncho. 
 
 Size 122 x 6. 
 
 BUNCHO 
 
 Nakamura Kiyozo as a woman on a snowy night, 
 outside a closed gate. Black background. 
 
 An impression of the same subject, but appa- 
 rently with a gray instead of a black sky, is 
 
 34 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 reproduced, V. |. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 
 148. 
 
 Signed and sealed by Buncho. 
 
 Published by Nishimura. 
 
 Size 12} x 5%. 
 
 SHUNSHO (1726-1793) 
 
 Katsukawa Shunsho, one of the most powerful 
 and dramatic artists of the popular school, is un- 
 questionably the greatest designer of actor prints— 
 Sharaku, with his limited production, standing some- 
 what apart. He was enormously productive; the 
 Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, for example, has 
 over seven hundred prints by him; but like all artists 
 who did a great deal of work, his quality is variable. 
 Very few prints by Shunsho are poor, most are good 
 to very good, all are interesting and many are so ex- 
 traordinarily fine in their dramatic power as to make 
 him without a peer in his special field. Shunsho 
 has a secondary importance as the teacher of Shun- 
 ko and Shunyei, some of whose prints are exhibited, 
 and of several other notable designers—among them 
 Hokusai, whose signature on graduation from his 
 master’s studio was Shunro. (See note on pupils’ 
 names under No. 10.) 
 
 42 SHUNSHO 
 The actor, Bando Matataro, dressed in leather 
 armor. Above him is an inscription in white 
 giving a line from the play, which is of little 
 interest to us but probably was spoken at the 
 dramatic moment depicted. 
 
 35 
 
4 
 
 WwW 
 
 44 
 
 45 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB. 
 
 Signed with Shunsho’s jar seal which appears in 
 this form chiefly on prints of his early period. 
 Date about 1768. 
 
 Size 11% X 53. 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 
 The hero Gompachi, Harunobu’s representation 
 of whom is shown as Number 34, is here repre- 
 sented by the actor Ichikawa Monnosuke. Gom- 
 pachi’s komuso disguise is described in the note 
 on the print referred to above. 
 
 The subject, if not the identical print, is repro- 
 duced in the Tokyo volume of ‘Selected Actor 
 Prints” No. 146. 
 
 Signed Shunsho. Date 1772. 
 
 Size 12 x 52. 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 
 Black background. The actor Nakamura Na- 
 kazo as a Buddhist pilgrim. He carries the 
 pilgrim’s staff, and on his back is a portable 
 shrine. 
 
 Signed Shunsho. Date about 1780. 
 
 Size 12} X 5%. 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 Black background. The actor Danzo as a 
 samurai holding a lantern whose flaring rays 
 illuminate the dark sky. A samurai was a feudal 
 retainer of the warrior class who was privileged 
 to wear two swords. 
 Signed Shunsho. Date uncertain. 
 Size 123 x 52. 
 
 30 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 46 SHUNSHO 
 “The Red Danjuro.” The 5th Ichikawa Dan- 
 juro in a shibaraku, or “wait a moment,” role. 
 Between the acts, or at the close of a performance 
 when the company was assembled on the stage, 
 the leading actor was accustomed to run down, 
 the “flower walk,” described under Number 39, 
 call out “wait a moment” and perform a brief 
 act of his own, to the particular delectation of 
 those who had been fortunate enough to secure 
 places in that part of the house. These inter- 
 ludes were played with a sort of voluminous 
 ‘dressing-gown thrown over the costume. In 
 this print the mon, or crest, on the curtains behind 
 the actor is that of the Nakamura Theatre. 
 The large white mon of concentric squares, so 
 prominent on the costume, is that of Danjuro 
 himself. 
 The blue background that so often decomposes 
 to dull yellow (see note on Number 32) here is 
 perfectly preserved. 
 Subject reproduced Selected Actor Prints No. 
 104. 
 Signed Shunsho. Date 1770. 
 Size 122 x 53. 
 
 47 SHUNSHO 
 “The Black Danjuro.” The 5th Danjuro in 
 another shibaraku role like that of Number 46; 
 but this time he is wrapped in voluminous black 
 on which is a great white ideograph indicating 
 Kintoki, that fabulous young Hercules who grew 
 
 af 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 up with his wild, mountain mother and performed 
 such amazing feats of strength. 
 The make-up of the face with red lines was an 
 hereditary privilege of the Danjuros or of the 
 Ichikawa actor-family to which they belonged. 
 The Danjuros were the greatest of all Japanese 
 tragic actors, and the 4th, 5th and oth were the 
 greatest of the Danjuros. In fact since the 
 death of the 9th Danjuro, about twenty years 
 ago, no one has been found who was universally 
 considered worthy to take the name, and the vari- 
 ous aspirants continue to sigh in vain. The 4th 
 - Danjuro gave the name to the 5th, who happened 
 to be his son, in 1770. In this print the mon 
 nowhere appears but the face is unmistakable. 
 Both the 4th and 5th Danjuros had very long 
 noses but the face of the 5th was a little more full, 
 a little less thin, than that of his great predeces- 
 sor. 
 Print reproduced, ‘Selected Actor Prints,’ No. 
 170. Signed Shunsho. Date 1781. 
 51ze 123. x52: 
 
 48 SHUNSHO 
 The actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Shosho, the 
 Mistress of one of the Soga brothers whose story 
 is referred to in the note on Number 13. He holds 
 aloft a jar of incense. The costumes of the 
 Soga play are apt to be easy to identify by the » 
 butterflies of one brother and the fat little chi- 
 dori birds of the other; as in the print referred to 
 above, where both are seen. Compare Number 17. 
 
 38 
 
49 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Subject reproduced, ‘‘ Selected Actor Prints,’”’ No. 
 163. 
 
 Signed Shunsho. Date 1776. 
 
 Size 13 x 6. 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 
 The 4th Hanshiro as a woman in pink and white 
 holding a round fan. 
 
 Signed Shunsho. Date about 1780. 
 
 Size 113 x 54. 
 
 The dating of actor prints is one of the erudite 
 subjects left undiscussed here; it may, however, 
 be said briefly that the sources of knowledge are 
 threefold: 
 
 (1) With the help of the chronicles of the 
 Yedo stage and after long independent researches 
 Mr. Frederick W. Gookin, and Major J. J. 
 O’Brien Sexton of London have succeeded in dis- 
 covering the actual dates of many performances 
 the actors in which are represented in prints. 
 
 (2) In 1919 there was published in Tokyo a 
 volume of “Selected Actor Prints”’ giving repro- 
 ductions of 300 prints which could be dated, at 
 least approximately, either through the theatri- 
 cal records preserved in the actors’ families or by 
 means of contemporary inscriptions. 
 
 (3) Shortly afterwards the Ukio-ye Magazine 
 of the same city reproduced over fifty variations 
 of Shunsho’s signature and seals, arranged in 
 approximately chronological order and taken 
 from prints the dates of which were known. 
 
 Bie 
 
50 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 With these three authorities it should be easy to 
 date any print by Shunsho; but what is to be 
 done when the authorities disagree? 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 
 The same actor as the last. A brilliant print in 
 a perfect state of preservation. 
 
 Print reproduced, Blanchard Catalogue, No. 11 B. 
 Signed Shunsho. Date about 1774. 
 
 Size 122 x 6. 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 
 The actor Yamashita Kinsaku as a woman. 
 This is a rather unusual actor, the mon being one 
 that is not often seen; but then actors changed 
 their names and, by consequence, their crests, 
 with an even more bewildering frequency than 
 did the painters who depicted them. 
 
 Signed Shunsho. Date about 1780. 
 SIZGADPRIFE, 
 
 SHUNSHO 
 
 The same actor, Yamashita Kinsaku, holding a 
 lute and standing on a river bank against the 
 black background of night. , 
 
 Print reproduced Frederick May Catalogue No. 
 333. 
 
 Signed Shunsho. Date 1778. 
 
 Size 123% x 53. 
 
 It is rather odd that although Shunsho is thought 
 to be at his best in his earlier maturity, almost 
 
 40 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 all the nine prints selected, after careful com- 
 parison, for this exhibition should date from a 
 later period. 
 
 SHUNKO (worked Ca. 1770-1790) 
 
 Except for Hokusai, who early in his career broke 
 away from the manner and traditions of his master, 
 the most important of Shunsho’s many pupils were 
 Shunko and Shunyei. The date of Shunko’s birth 
 is not known, but about 1790 he was incapacitated by 
 paralysis and the remaining twenty-two years of his 
 life are a blank of which one does not like to think. 
 
 53 SHUNKO 
 The 5th Danjuro, other portraits of whom are 
 shown as Numbers 46 and 47. Shunsho’s print 
 of this actor in the same performance is repro- 
 duced in the H.E. Field Catalogue, No. 278. In 
 some cases the former pupil surpassed the master, 
 but Shunko is apt to have less dramatic power, 
 more suavity. | 
 Signed Katsukawa Shunko. Date about 1780. 
 Size 12% X 53. 
 
 54 SHUNKO 
 The actor Nakamura Tomijuro as an old man. 
 This is very different in line and feeling from any 
 print by Shunko’s master, Shunsho, with which 
 the compiler happens to be familiar, and shows 
 how original the finest work of Shunko was. 
 Signed Shunko. Date about 1780. 
 Size 11¢ X 5¢- 
 
 41 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 55 SHUNKO 
 Another portrait of the actor Iwai Hanshiro 
 (compare Numbers 49 and 50). Here he is 
 dressed in black with purple obi and stands be- 
 neath a snow-laden willow. 
 Signed Shunko. 
 Size 12 X 54. 
 
 SHUNYEI (1768-1819) 
 
 Shunyei, an artist of marked originality, is ranked 
 by many as almost the equal of Shunsho, with whom 
 he certainly compares favorably in power of charac- 
 terization and individuality of treatment; though he 
 seldom, if ever, shows the tragic intensity of his 
 master. It would be difficult to make a mistake in 
 the attribution of an unsigned Shunye; the work of 
 the other men when it lacks a signature, is harder to 
 place with assurance. Shunyei is closer to Sharaku. 
 No attempt has been made to date separately the 
 four prints by Shunyei that have been chosen for 
 exhibition; it is likely, however, that all were issued 
 between 1789 and the close of the century. 
 
 56 SHUNYEI 
 
 A portrait of the 5th Danjuro (compare Num- 
 bers 46, 47, 53) on one of the rare occasions when 
 he appeared as a woman—and an angry one at 
 that; the actors who specialized in men’s or 
 women’s réles very seldom attempting the other. 
 The branch drooping into the top of the print is a 
 device frequently employed by this artist. 
 
 42 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Signed Shunyei and published by Tsura Kieimon. 
 Size 123 x 58. 
 
 57 SHUNYEI 
 Portrait of the actor Sawamura Sojuro in a pleas- 
 ure boat. 
 Print reproduced, Haviland Catalogue, Part 1, 
 No. 174. 
 Signed Shunyei. 
 Size 122 x 52. ° 
 
 58 SHUNYEI 
 The same actor as the last. This time he is in 
 simple white set off by an obi of purple and 
 stands, without accessories, against a gray sky 
 with white blossoms above. 
 Signed Shunyei and published by Tsuruya. 
 ize 22 xX 54. 
 
 59 SHUNYEI 
 
 This portrait of the sti Danjuro may be com- 
 pared with those by Shunsho and Shunko which 
 are exhibited as Numbers 46, 47, 53, 56, and that 
 by Sharaku, Number 71. All are notable works, 
 and this, with the next print by Shunyei to be 
 exhibited, is counted among the finest things he 
 did. 
 
 Danjuro stands, with drawn sword and swirling 
 garments decorated with sea-weed, in water that 
 swirls and breaks against the closed gate of a 
 dam. His long hair, marvelously engraved and 
 printed, has the rhythm of the draperies. His 
 legs and arms are cased in mottled frog skin, 
 
 43 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 for he is in the part of Tenjiku Tokubei—a tra- 
 veler of the 17th Century whose exploits had be- 
 come legendary, and who was supposed to have 
 lived among frogs and to have been able to trans- 
 form himself into a gigantic one by some special 
 form of magic. Tokubei, who is reported to have 
 started on his first journey to India and Siam 
 in 1633, is said to have been a mighty highway- 
 man in his youth, but finally to have reformed and 
 entered the priesthood, where it is likely that his 
 parishioners—if he had any—took good care not 
 to thwart him. In the print he is shown before 
 
 ~ his reformation. 
 
 60 
 
 Signed Shunyel. 
 Size-13 x 6, 
 
 SHUNYEI 
 The actor Ichikawa Komazo as a hunter in a 
 straw rain coat and carrying a gun. Heis in the 
 role of the unfortunate Kanpei in Chushingura. 
 (For the play see Number 39). Kanpei’s hunt- 
 ing was not very successful, for his only kill that 
 night was an unrecognized man, and when he got 
 home in the morning to find that the body of his 
 father-in-law had just been brought in, the deduc- 
 tions from circumstantial evidence gave him a 
 bad hour or two. This print may be Shunyei’s 
 masterpiece. 
 Subject reproduced, No. 176 Shojiro Nomura 
 Catalogue (Sale Anderson Galleries) March 16, 
 1915. 
 Size 13 X 54. 
 
 44 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Date of birth uncertain, died 1804. He appears 
 to have designed prints only inthe years 1794 and 
 1795. 
 
 Much has been written about Sharaku, most 
 notably—in spite of his poetic exaggeration—by 
 Mr. Ficke in his “Chats on Japanese Prints,” pp. 
 300-319; much could be written, and the temptation 
 is great. For the present, however, it must suffice 
 to make clear, if possible, the human background 
 and let the art speak for itself. The popular theatre 
 was scorned—as prints were scorned—by all save 
 the middle and lower classes; the aristocrats, in the 
 seclusion of their palaces, had the No dramas of ex- 
 ceedingly abstruse meaning and lofty moral tone that 
 were danced and chanted before hushed audiences 
 of scholars. Sharaku was a professional No dancer 
 in the service of one of the great nobles, and he ap- 
 pears in his maturity to have come suddenly and 
 for the first time into contact with the theatre of the 
 people. It is as though some cloistered Fellow of 
 Oxford, who had given his life to playing AEschylus 
 and Sophocles there, should have witnessed a series 
 of amateur nights in vaudeville. He saw the com- 
 monness of common men, their bestiality, their small 
 conceit, their stupidity; he saw the animal charac- 
 teristics in them so clearly that he would have been 
 an excellent illustrator of AEsop or of Gulliver’s 
 Travels—the comparison with Swift is rather apt; 
 and, in spite of rays of somewhat ironic humor that 
 
 45 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 gleam occasionally from his portraits, he drew them 
 in the main with savage scorn, with that blind bit- 
 terness which is the child of disillusion. He reveals 
 the plebeian actors as Goya revealed the Spanish 
 Bourbons—but there is this vast difference: Sharaku 
 was able to let himself go, Goya was not. Portraits 
 of popular idols drawn in this vein are not likely to 
 prove popular; and after two years of the uninter- 
 rupted production of masterpieces Sharaku ceased 
 to make prints. The rest is silence. There are ru- 
 mors and conjectures as to his later years but noth- 
 ing very definite is known; nor is it known just how 
 -many prints he designed during those two years of 
 bitter activity. Herr Kurth wrote a book in Ger- 
 man on Sharaku’s prints and was able to record 
 about seventy and reproduce most of them, after 
 which the French collectors hung 105, all of which are 
 reproduced as part of one of those exhibitions at 
 the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, of which the V. I. 
 Catalogues are the monumental record. Of the 
 eleven selected for exhibition here, all of which are 
 signed Toshusai Sharaku and were published by 
 Tsutaya, one is unrecorded either by Kurth or the 
 Paris Catalogue. The references to Kurth are to 
 the edition of 1910. 
 
 61 SHARAKU 
 Yellow ground. The actor Segawa Tomisaburo 
 as a woman defending a child. 
 The subject is recorded by Kurth, No. 19 (O). 
 The V. I. Catalogue does not contain it. It is 
 reproduced, however, as No. 14, in the advertise- 
 
 46 
 
62 
 
 63 
 
 64 
 
 6 
 
 ww 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 ment of Rex & Company at the end of Kurth’s 
 volume. 
 Size 13 x 6. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Yellow ground. Yamashima Tomijuro as a 
 samurai holding a painted fan. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Kurth, Plate 31. Not in 
 V. I. Catalogue. 
 
 Size 123 x 6. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Yellow ground. Ichikawa Yaozo as a samurai 
 in a black robe decorated with the so-called 
 “thunder pattern.” 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, 
 No. 315. 
 
 Size 122 x 54. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Mica ground. The same actor as the last in the 
 role of Kanpei in “Chushingura.” The play is 
 referred to in the note on No. 39 and the rdle 
 under No. 60. 
 
 Print reproduced, H. E. Field Catalogue, No. 577. 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 
 277, and Kurth, Plate 42. 
 
 Size 15% X 10. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Mica ground. Matsumoto Koshiro in the part 
 of a “chivalrous defender of the down-trodden.” 
 He holds a short tobacco pipe in his hand. 
 
 47 
 
66 
 
 67 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. II], No. 
 270, and Kurth, Plate 44. 
 Size 15 X 10§. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Mica ground. Arashi Ryuzo. 
 
 Print reproduced, Rouart Catalogue No. 308. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, 
 No. 271, and Kurth, Plate 35. 
 
 Size 145 X OF. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 Mica ground. Iwai Hanshiro as Oishi, wife of 
 Yuranosuke, hero of ‘“‘Chushingura.”’ For other 
 portraits of this actor see Numbers 40, 50, 55. 
 The play is referred to under Numbers 39, 60, 
 and elsewhere. Yuranosuke is really the hero of 
 the piece, for the action concerns itself chiefly 
 with the efforts of forty-seven loyal retainers, 
 seconded by their wives, to avenge the death of 
 their lord on the villain, Moronao; and Yurano- 
 suke, besides being the chief retainer, is the brain 
 of the devoted band. The graves of these forty- 
 seven men are visited annually by thousands, 
 for they really lived, and in their deaths as in 
 their lives left to posterity an example of that 
 unswerving, utterly self-sacrificing loyalty which 
 of all virtues is that most honored by the Jap- 
 anese. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 
 269, and Kurth, Plate 51. 
 Size 143 x of. 
 
 48 
 
68 
 
 69 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Mica ground. Kosagawa Tsuneyo as the wife of 
 one of the Ronin in “‘Chushingura”’ (see notes on 
 Nos. 39, 67, etc., for this play). A ronin is a 
 masterless samurai or fighting man. The re- 
 tainers in this play became ronin through the 
 death of their lord and the confiscation of his 
 property. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 
 282, and Kurth, Plate 52. 
 
 Size 15 X 103. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Mica ground. Bust portrait of an unidentified 
 round faced actor with no visible mon, or crest. 
 He is leaning forward with outstretched right hand 
 and is “‘made up” in red around his eyes and 
 nose. The horizontal stripes of his kimono are 
 red and white on his right side and green and 
 white on his left. He faces toward the left. 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 October, 1913, No. 106. 
 
 No other impression of this subject has been re- 
 produced or recorded and the print exhibited may 
 be the only one that has survived. An interest- 
 ing comparison may be made with the print by 
 Shunyei which is reproduced in color as plate 78 
 of the unfinished work by Barboutau (1914). 
 Size 154 X 10. 
 
 49 
 
CATALOGUE. THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 70 SHARAKU 
 
 7 
 
 Mica ground. Ichikawa Komazo. 
 
 Print reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue (Delmonico- 
 Walpole Sale of January, 1921.) No. 35. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 
 
 _ 274, and Kurth, Plate 30. 
 
 — 
 
 Size 143 Xx Of. 
 
 SHARAKU 
 
 Mica ground. In this subject, which is con- 
 sidered by many the finest work by Sharaku and 
 the most powerful of Japanese prints, the 5th 
 Danjuro is again depicted (compare numbers 
 46, 47, 53, 56 and 59), this time as Moronao, the 
 crafty, cowardly and lecherous villain of the play 
 described in the note on Number 39, and else- 
 where. An inscription on the face of the print 
 gives the date of the performance, October, 1794. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, 
 No. 264, and Kurth, Plate 38. 
 
 Size 144 X 10. 
 
 KORIUSAI (worked Ca. 1768-1786) 
 
 Koriusai’s finest work, except for a few very dis- 
 
 tinguished “pillar” prints, is in his birds and flowers. 
 Occasionally, as in the print now exhibited, he did a 
 really fine thing in the ordinary 15 x 10 inch form, but 
 most of the work of his maturity is rather coarse and 
 garish. His early prints are strongly under the in- 
 fluence of Harunobu, and most of them are of the 
 small size made popular by that master, but much 
 
 50 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 less used in the period upon which we are now about 
 toenter. He is important enough to deserve a place 
 in any exhibition, but in the limited space available 
 it seemed best to show only one carefully chosen ex- 
 ample. 
 
 72 KORIUSAI 
 The Courtesan Nishikigi followed by her atten- 
 dants. From a series of fashion plates for the 
 dem1-monde. 
 Signed by Koriusai and published by Eijudo. 
 Seal Koshodo. Date about 1776. 
 Size 15% X 10%. 
 
 SHIGEMASA (1739-1820) 
 
 Kitao Shigemasa, a pupil of the “Primitive” Shi- 
 genaga, was an accomplished artist of thirty-one 
 when Harunobu died; but he survived until within 
 five years of the death of Toyokuni, the final great 
 artist of the figure prints, and when he himself 
 looked for the last time on the world he had de- 
 picted, Hokusai had been drawing that world for 
 more than twenty years and Hiroshige was finishing 
 his student work. Shigemasa’s early prints were 
 done in the three-color period, later he was influ- 
 enced strongly by Harunobu and other masters of 
 polychrome, and worked in many styles, bringing, 
 however, to each his own peculiar distinction of treat- 
 ment. Early prints by Shigemasa are signed, but 
 toward the middle of his career he is said to have re- 
 marked that, as no one else could draw as well as he, 
 
 51 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 there was no necessity of affixing his signature. The 
 work of his maturity is exceedingly rare, either be- 
 cause he did little of it, or because his prints were pub- 
 lished in unusually small editions. 
 
 73 SHIGEMASA 
 A geisha going to a party followed by her maid 
 who carries a samisen (Japanese banjo) in a box. 
 This style of Shigemasa’s is peculiarly character- 
 istic. It has a plastic quality of modeling, par- 
 ticularly in some of the folds of the drapery, that 
 suggests sculpture in wood or clay. 
 Subject reproduced, British Museum Catalogue 
 (Binyon) Page 68. 
 Probable date about 1780. 
 Size 155 X 105. 
 
 74 SHIGEMASA 
 Two young women in thin summer kimono; one 
 is seated beside a lantern on a bamboo bench, 
 the other stands holding a fan. 
 A lovely print by Shigemasa ina style that makes 
 it difficult to distinguish from the finest work of 
 his pupil, Kitao Masanobu. 
 Date about 1790. 
 Size 14% x o#. 
 
 KIYONAGA (1752-1814) 
 
 Kiyonaga is considered by many the greatest of 
 the artists who designed the Japanese figure prints. 
 In power of composition, power of line, he is superb, 
 and his people are stately, large-limbed, nobly-pro- 
 
 52 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 portioned, gracious. Compare any print by him 
 with a print by Harunobu and notice the gain and 
 loss. It is a grown-up world that is depicted here, 
 more real, perhaps, than the other; less charming 
 and more impressive. Of the impressiveness of 
 Kiyonaga there can be no question; he was a mas- 
 ter of his art. One admires him more than Har- 
 unobu—and loves him less. 
 
 All of the prints by Kiyonaga that have been select- 
 ed for exhibition are signed by him, and all that 
 have publishers’ marks were published by Eijudo. 
 They were issued—in all probability—between 1780 
 and 1790; but there is no way of dating them as 
 accurately as actor prints, when the records of par- 
 ticular performances have survived. Kiyonaga also 
 did an important series of scenes from the theatre— 
 large sheets, frequently with six figures each. 
 
 75 KIYONAGA 
 The actor Ichikawa YaozO in his bedroom. Heis 
 listening to the words of a companion who has 
 not been identified with certainty, but may have 
 been his wife. Is it the duty of a cataloguer to 
 find out? 
 This print is from a series, as fine as it 1s rare, of 
 actors off the stage. 
 Size 112 Xx 54. 
 
 76 KIYONAGA 
 The Iris Garden. This is the left-hand sheet of 
 a diptych afterwards re-engraved. 
 Print reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue, No. 62. 
 
 53 
 
77 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 An impression of the second state, with the de- 
 sign re-drawn, is reproduced in color as Plate 12 
 of Fenollosa’s “An Outline of the History of 
 Ukio-ye.”’ 
 
 Size 144 X Q3. 
 
 KIYONAGA 
 
 The left hand sheet of a diptych. A tall woman 
 in black and rose standing - beside a barred 
 window, through which a snow landscape is seen. 
 In the foreground are a man about to write and a 
 child fanning a brazier. Another child behind. 
 
 ‘Size 152 x 10. 
 
 78 KIYONAGA 
 
 The Serenade. This is the left-hand, and by far 
 the finest, sheet of a triptych representing a scene 
 from one of the mediaeval romances that are to 
 the Japanese what the ‘“‘ Morte d’Arthur”’ is, or 
 might be, to us. In Japan everyone recognizes 
 an episode from these stories as quickly as the 
 ancient Greeks would have recognized an episode 
 out of Homer; they are the common property of 
 all. A comparison between the Japanese ro- 
 mances and let us say, the “‘ Morte d’Arthur”’ or 
 ‘““Amadis of Gaul”’ is interesting. There is just. 
 as much fighting in the one as in the other, the 
 heroes perform deeds of equally amazing prow- 
 ess; but in the Japanese stories the women are 
 more heroic, more capable; they are not, as the 
 adoration of the Virgin Mary made them with 
 us, white and aloof, to be protected and died for. 
 
 54 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 In Japan, as in Greece, the bonds of chivalry 
 were between men; and the women take, when 
 necessity arises, a very active part in affairs, are 
 helpmates in the fullest meaning of the word. 
 
 In those eras of Japanese history when the influ- 
 ence of China was not dominant the position of 
 women, especially in the court circles, was exalted, 
 and their education was quite equal to that of 
 the men. The first and greatest of Japanese 
 novelists, for example, was a woman, and one of 
 the most moving episodes in all romance is the 
 dance of Shizuka before Yoritomo—the beautiful 
 young girl, captive and broken-hearted, before 
 the cruel brother of the man she loved. 
 
 In the print exhibited Yoritomo’s young brother, 
 Prince Yoshitsune, the most popular among the 
 noble heroes of Japan, is seen in an earlier part 
 of his career, playing a serenade outside a palace, 
 the mistress of which has sent her maid to iden- 
 tify the musician. It was an evening of “peril- 
 ous moonlight” and the end of the story that 
 is scarcely more than an episode in the life of 
 Yoshitsune, was, for the beautiful young inmate 
 of the palace, death. 
 
 This print, the garden background of which is in 
 green as it should be, not yellow, is reproduced as 
 No. 291 in the Catalogue of the Shotaro Sato 
 Sale, New York, 1916. Impressions of the whole 
 triptych in the first state are reproduced in the 
 Hayashi Catalogue, p. 216; and elsewhere. A 
 reissue of the print was made from recut blocks 
 with the moon left out, and other changes, and 
 
 55 
 
79 
 
 80 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 this second state of the sheet exhibited may best 
 be compared with the first in the reproduction of 
 the V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 109. 
 
 Size 152 X 10%. 
 
 KIYONAGA 
 
 Two ladies out for a walk accompanied by a maid 
 servant and a young samurai. It is pleasant to 
 find that some of Kiyonaga’s statuesque beauties 
 are of what might be called good society. Ladies 
 dressed, of course, in a much less ostentatious 
 manner than the courtesans; the obis are not 
 tied in front and the showy hair pins are not 
 worn. From a series, perhaps of fashion plates, 
 called: ‘‘Brocades of the Eastern Capital.” 
 The Eastern Capital was Yedo, now Tokio, as 
 distinguished from Kioto. The Shoguns who 
 had usurped the power—like the Mayors of the 
 Palace of early France—kept their state in Yedo; 
 the Emperors had their quieter court at Kioto. 
 Print reproduced in color: Arthur Morrison, 
 Catalogue of Exhibition of The Fine Art Soci- 
 ety, London 1910, No. 104. 
 
 Size 154 X 10%. 
 
 KIYONAGA 
 
 The courtesan Wakakusa of Chojiya followed by 
 her attendants. 
 
 A marvel of printing, perfectly preserved. This 
 is a sheet from a set illustrating spring fashions 
 of the demi-monde, in which Kiyonaga and Kori- 
 usal appear to have collaborated. See No. 72. 
 
 56 
 
8 
 
 — 
 
 82 
 
 33 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Subject reproduced, No. 205, Sotheby Catalogue 
 of May 31, 1921: The First Portion of the Col- 
 lection of T. Thacher Clarke. 
 
 Size 15 X 10%. 
 
 KIYONAGA 
 
 A young man with two geisha; the one at the left 
 stands holding a round fan, the one at the right 
 is seated with a samisen, or Japanese banjo, 
 across her lap. 
 
 Notice the perfect placing of the black pouch in 
 the foreground, without which the print would 
 lose half its beauty. It is from a Series showing 
 the ‘Real Beauties of the Gay Quarters.” 
 Subject reproduced, Van Caneghem Catalogue, 
 No. 63, and Sotheby Catalogue of November 27, 
 1913: The Collection of an American Artist 
 Residing in Europe, No. 78. 
 
 Size 143 x 103. 
 
 KIYONAGA 
 
 The actor Matsumoto Koshiro having tea with 
 two geisha. 
 
 Size 15} X 10%. 
 
 KIYONAGA 
 
 The Salt Gatherers. Two peasant girls at the 
 edge of the sea, carrying the buckets in which 
 they gather salt-water. Again in this print there 
 is a reference to an old romance, for the two girls 
 represent Matsukaze and Murasame, who passed 
 
 57 
 
84 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 into legend and became the subject of a No drama 
 because of their relations with a noble who had 
 been banished from court to exile on the sea 
 coast of Suma. Once more, as in the subject of 
 Number 78, the episode was but an episode for 
 the lover, but, for the girl, the beginning and 
 end of happiness, the warrant of immortality. 
 Kiyonaga has done the same scene again in a 
 pillar print. This print is from the same Series 
 as No. 79. 
 
 The subject has been reproduced in many places, 
 among which it is best to choose the reproduction 
 in color of the V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, No. 63, in 
 spite of the fact that this was made from an im- 
 pression that had been trimmed, and had faded 
 to a lovely harmony of quiet tones, whereas the 
 one exhibited here is in perfect condition. 
 
 Size 152 x 10%. 
 
 KIYONAGA | 
 
 A court lady of the long ago beside a stream. 
 Kiyonaga did a number of prints of this type 
 representing the old court costumes with their 
 beautifully flowing lines; most of these have two 
 figures each, the one exhibited with its stately 
 single figure is the finest that the compiler has 
 seen. 
 
 Print reproduced as frontispiece to Catalogue of 
 ‘‘A Small Private Collection,”’ Walpole Galleries, 
 New York, June 14, 1920. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Ficke Catalogue, No. 209. 
 Size 15 X 10. 
 
 58 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 85 KIYONAGA 
 Diptych. A group of people visiting a shrine in 
 winter. The entrance to each Shinto shrine is 
 marked by that beautifully decorative erection 
 known as a Jorii which consists of two uprights 
 surmounted by a cross piece, usually curved, and 
 is constructed of gray stone, wood or red lacquer. 
 The origin and significance of the Torii is some- 
 what in doubt, but the form goes back to imme- 
 morial antiquity. 
 The figure of the man in black is particularly fine, 
 the dark robes being set off against the snow. 
 The left-hand sheet is reproduced in color in the 
 Catalogue of the Exhibition held by the Japan 
 Society of New York 1911, No. 131; the right- 
 hand sheet is reproduced in the Van Caneghem 
 Catalogue, No. 45. 
 Size 15% X 20. 
 
 86 KIYONAGA 
 Triptych. Women landing from a pleasure boat. 
 The limited amount of space available permitted 
 the exhibition of but two triptychs. This one, 
 however, could not be omitted. It is a famous 
 impression of a famous print. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. III, 
 No. 110. 
 Size 15 X 30. 
 
 59 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 SHUNCHO (worked Ca. 1780-1795) 
 
 Shuncho’s work was contemporary with the best 
 of Kiyonaga’s. It is somewhat less masculine, less- 
 statuesque than that of his great rival; the figures 
 are apt to have a softer, more gently feminine grace. 
 Kiyonaga was the greater of the two, but Shuncho 
 has a quality all his own, that gives him high place 
 among the artists who worked in the closing decades 
 of the 18th Century. 
 
 87 SHUNCHO 
 Triptych. A group of women of pleasure, whose 
 names and addresses are given, in an iris garden. 
 A lovely color scheme of quiet tones that became 
 the vogue about 1790 and was much used by 
 Shuncho, Shunman and Yeishi. 
 It is said that in Japan demons cannot change 
 easily the direction in which they are going, a fact 
 that makes bridges of the kind shown in the print 
 exceedingly useful; for if the devil is after you 
 and you turn the corner abruptly he is likely to 
 fall off into the water and be drowned. 
 This triptych, unmounted at the time, was in the 
 famous fire at Nagoya, in which so many fine 
 prints were destroyed. 
 Subject reproduced, Sotheby Catalogue of April 
 17, 1918. (A Parisian Collector), No. 72. 
 Signed by Shuncho and published by Izumiya. 
 Sizé-15 X 30. 
 
 60 
 
88 
 
 89 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 SHUNCHO 
 
 A youth walking with a woman in black and two 
 attendants. 
 
 Print reproduced, Blanchard Catalogue, No. 27. 
 Signed by Shuncho and published by Eijudo. 
 Size 15% X 10. 
 
 SHUNCHO 
 
 Mica ground. Bust portrait of a young girl 
 holding a round, red fan. From a series of 
 beautiful women compared to flowers. The iris 
 is shown in a circle above. An exquisite piece of 
 color and design; one of the loveliest prints in the 
 exhibition. 
 
 Signed by Shuncho and published by Tsuruya. 
 S1ZE15.X On. 
 
 SHUNMAN (1757-1820) 
 
 Shunman designed many fine surimono, or prints 
 
 for special occasions, which were made with a some- 
 what different technique from those now exhibited. 
 His work of the more usual variety is exceedingly 
 rare and is noted for its delicacy of treatment and 
 color. 
 
 90 SHUNMAN 
 
 Two adjoining sheets, mounted as a diptych, of 
 Shunman’s best known composition—a six sheet 
 set illustrating the six rivers named Tama of 
 Japan. These six rivers of the same name are 
 frequently illustrated or allegorized. Many po- 
 ems were written about them, one being noted 
 
 61 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 for the beauty of the flowers that grew on its 
 banks, another for the sweetness of its water, 
 and so forth. 
 
 The subjects are reproduced with the sheet that 
 comes next on the left in Succo’s ‘““Toyokuni,” Vol. 
 I, Plate 13. The one still farther to the left is 
 shown in the V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 127. 
 Signed by Shunman and published by Fushi-zen 
 about 1790. 
 
 Size, right-hand sheet, 148 x 98. 
 
 Size, left-hand sheet, 15 x 98. 
 
 UTAMARO (1753-1806) 
 
 After Harunobu, Sharaku, Kiyonaga, and ranked 
 by the French as at least the equal of any of them, 
 comes Utamaro—the fourth great artist of the “ Bro- 
 cade Pictures”; the lover of women, the painter, 
 of the Fleurs du Mal. Unquestionably a great ar- 
 tist, he gave his art, he gave his life to the “Flowers 
 of Yedo,” as the courtesans in their gorgeous robes 
 had come to be called; and as his power worked to- 
 ward its premature decline he drew them with ever 
 increasing exaggeration of figure and of pose, more 
 and more like blooms of the jungle and morass, 
 never such blossoms as filled the spring-time orchards 
 of Harunobu or climb the wind-swept hillsides of 
 Japan. Utamaro’s earlier work is in the manner of 
 Kiyonaga and Shuncho, with figures of large propor- 
 tions; the finest of his prints come in the middle 
 period and toward the close of his career the exag- 
 geration and mannerisms become pronounced. 
 
 62 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 91 UTAMARO 
 Two geisha preparing for a fancy-dress proces- 
 sion. - A maid is helping one on with her outer 
 robe while the other is applying rouge (benz) to 
 her face before a mirror. From the so-called 
 “Niwaka” series which was published before 
 1780. This is a fine impression of a famous sub- 
 ject and has the color perfectly preserved. It is 
 exhibited, not so much to illustrate the very early, 
 imitative manner of Utamaro, as to show the 
 final technical perfection attained in the art of 
 color-printing from wood-blocks. Utamaro was 
 very fond of technical difficulties, tours de force 
 of engraving and printing. In the printing of 
 this sheet a large number of color-blocks were 
 used and the perfection of the engraving as well 
 as that of the printing is extraordinary. Notice 
 the translucent scarf thrown over the painted 
 screen, the edge of the material against the white 
 neck of the standing geisha and the reflected hair 
 of the other one. The print is too crowded to be 
 one of Utamaro’s artistic triumphs, but the un- 
 known cutter of the blocks and the printer de- 
 serve to have their work remembered. 
 Subject reproduced, from a trimmed, soiled and 
 dull-colored copy, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. IV, No. 
 18. The impression exhibited was No. 220 in the 
 Appleton Sale at Sotheby’s in 1g1o. 
 Signed Utamaro. 
 Size 53x, 104: 
 
 63 
 
Q2 
 
 93 
 
 04 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Bust portrait of Komurasaki of Tameya. Com- 
 pare this print with Number 91 and note the 
 elongation of the face—an indication that it was 
 made toward the close of Utamaro’s career, 
 though probably before 1800. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Haviland Catalogue, Part I, 
 No: 3 
 
 Signed by Utamaro and published by Yamaguchi. 
 Size 154 x 104. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Blowing up the Fire. The right hand and finer 
 sheet of the “Kitchen” diptych. First state. 
 The print was reissued later with a number of 
 important changes, perhaps necessitated by the 
 afterthought of a second sheet to go with it in a 
 diptych. 
 
 Subject reproduced in the later form, V. I. 
 Catalogue, Vol. IV, No. 90 and Hayashi Cata- 
 logue, p. 188. The first state, with the publisher’s 
 mark on the right hand, or only, sheet does not 
 appear to have been reproduced. © 
 
 Signed Utamaro and published by Uyemura. 
 Size 15 X10. 
 
 It is difficult to date accurately prints by Uta- 
 maro but this one and those that follow may be 
 classed roughly as of the middle period. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 A geisha and her maid in a storm, carrying an 
 umbrella, the box containing her samisen, and a 
 lantern, the rays of which light the scene. 
 
 64 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Print reproduced; Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 October 1913, No. 164. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Catalogue of Exhibition held 
 by Fine Art Society of London, 1910, No. 128. 
 Signed by Utamaro and published by Moriji. 
 Size 15 x 8. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Half-length figures of two women, each of whom 
 holds a round fan. 
 
 A proof without letters; for in other printings of 
 this subject, as in the one reproduced by Mr. 
 Ficke—‘‘Chats on Japanese Prints” Plate 39— 
 the upper right hand corner contains a small 
 landscape and a cartouche which gives a series 
 title—‘‘ Beautiful Women Compared with the 53 
 Stations of the Tokaido Road.” An explanation 
 of this comparison could be given, but it would be 
 tedious to read and tedious to write, for the Jap- 
 anese inherited or adopted from their Chinese 
 neighbors the habit of harping on certain sub- 
 jects, the result being far-fetched comparisons, 
 tedious to us. 
 
 This print must have been drawn shortly before 
 the middle period of Utamaro’s work had ended. 
 Signed Utamaro. 
 
 Size 152 X 103. 
 
 9 
 
 wn 
 
 96 UTAMARO 
 Consolation. A young woman being comforted 
 by her maid. This is said to be the right hand 
 sheet of a diptych of which the other part shows 
 
 65 
 
9 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 OO 
 
 CATALOGUE. THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 the girl’s lover going off with a rival. The com- 
 piler cannot recall having seen the left hand sheet. 
 A particularly beautiful piece of color and print- 
 ing. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Haviland Catalogue, Part I, 
 No. 307. 
 
 Signed Utamaro. Date about 1790. 
 
 BIZze'T5 % 10; 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 An Elopement. Frequently miscalled ‘A Night 
 Excursion.” This is one of Utamaro’s finest 
 designs. It represents the elopement of Jihei, a 
 merchant, with the geisha Koharu, a story the 
 details of which are unknown to the writer of 
 this catalogue. 
 
 Subject reproduced in color, V. b: Chtaliagde: Vol. 
 IV, No. 140. 
 
 Signed Utamaro. 
 
 Size 15% X 93. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Yellow ground. A seated girl looking down at 
 her beautiful white robe which is printed without 
 the key-block black outline, the folds being in- 
 dicated by gauffrage. Her face is outlined in 
 pink. Another proof without letters; the usual 
 impressions bear in the upper left hand corner a 
 self-glorifying advertisement of Utamaro and 
 all his works. Print reproduced, Catalogue of 
 Schraubstadter Collection, No. 788. The usual 
 state is reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. IV, No. 
 
 66 
 
G9 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 94 and Kurth: ‘‘Utamaro,” Plate 31. The print 
 is signed but bears no publisher’s mark. 
 Size 15 x 92. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Mica ground. Bust portrait of three famous 
 beauties of the day. The title has been written 
 in, perhaps by some contemporary. This may 
 be another proof before letters. 
 
 The V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. IV, No. 72, reproduces 
 a print like the one exhibited, except for the car- 
 touche in the corner and the names of the girls 
 which must have been put in later and are lacking 
 here. 
 
 Signed by Utamaro and published by Tsutaya. 
 Size 15% X 10%. 
 
 100 UTAMARO 
 
 Mica ground. Half-length portrait of a young 
 woman of good society holding an open fan and 
 open umbrella, under which in cartouches are 
 the title of the series: ‘“Ten young women 
 judged by a study of their faces’’; and the cur- 
 ious signature “‘Utamaro the Physiognomist, 
 after mature consideration.” 
 
 The print is in as perfect condition as though it 
 had just come from the printer. 
 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 September, 1917; and ‘‘Album of Old Prints 
 reproduced from the Collection of Ken-ichi 
 Kawaura,” No. 186. 
 
 67 
 
10 
 
 — 
 
 102 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. IV, 
 No. 32. 
 
 Publisher Tsutaya. 
 
 Size 15 X 104. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Mica ground. Half length portrait of the 
 courtesan Hanaogi, whose address is given, 
 holding a writing brush in one hand and a 
 sheet of paper in the other. Above, in a second 
 cartouche, is an erotic poem. 
 
 The 001, or sash, is printed in dull yellow, not in 
 the green of some copies. 
 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 October, 1913, No. 123. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. IV, 
 No. 62. 
 
 Signed by Utamaro and published by Tsutaya. 
 Size 14% x of. 
 
 UTAMARO 
 
 Mica ground. The beautiful tea-house waitress 
 Naniwaya Okita, carrying a bowl of tea on a 
 black lacquer stand. The poem above is signed 
 Katsura Biju, and has a heading—‘‘ Written 
 while resting in Naniwa’s tea-house.” The text 
 is a charming compliment to the lovely Naniwa, 
 but the Japanese are as fond of unseasonable 
 puns as the Dying Duke in “Richard IJ,” and the 
 number of them in this brief lyric would neces- 
 sitate a commentary to explain a translation. 
 
 68 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. IV, 
 No. 67. 
 
 Signed by Utamaro and published by Tsutaya. 
 Size 14% X gf. 
 
 CHOKI (worked Ca. 1789-1797) 
 
 Very little is known of this artist who appears to 
 have worked only for a few brief years, but has left 
 prints of surpassing grace—as beautiful as they are 
 rare. Choki’s color schemes are particularly dis- 
 tinctive; and his finest prints, such as the two-figure 
 one exhibited, are filled with romance. 
 
 103 CHOKI 
 Mica ground. Half-length portrait of Tsukasa 
 Dayu, a lady of pleasure of Osaka. 
 Print reproduced, Haviland Catalogue Part I, 
 No. 336. 
 Signed by Choki and published by Tsutaya. 
 Size 142 X 10. 
 
 104 CHOKI 
 Mica ground. Two young women in moon- 
 light beside a stream. One is lighting her pipe. 
 Print described, Haviland Catalogue, Part I, 
 
 No. 337. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, 
 
 No. 112. 
 Signed by Choki and published by Tsutaya. 
 
 Size 15 x 10 
 69 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 YEISHI (1756 (?) -1829) 
 
 Yeishi, who was one of the few print designers of 
 samurai rank, gave up making prints about 1799 
 and devoted the remaining thirty years of his life to 
 the more respected occupation of painting. He was 
 fond of portraying the ladies of the upper classes and 
 his long slim figures—drawn with exaggeration and 
 mannerism as some are—are distinctive in their 
 aristocratic grace; an effect which is helped by the 
 quiet refinement of his favorite color scheme—black, 
 gray, green, purple, yellow, in which the predom- . 
 inant blacks and grays are set off by the touches 
 of brighter color. His earliest prints date from about 
 1788, so that the period of their production covers 
 only eleven years. There is a delicacy of willowy 
 loveliness about his work that makes it peculiarly 
 prized. . 
 
 105 YEISHI . 
 The popular beauty Karakoto of Choji-ya walk- 
 ing with her attendants under wistaria blossoms. 
 This is a sheet from a triptych. Signed by 
 Yeishi and published by Izumtya. 
 Size 15% X 10%. 
 
 106 YEISHI 
 A lady, her maid and a child on a balcony with 
 yellow railings. Above them the lattice screen 
 is rolled up. At their feet is an empty bird 
 
 hy 
 
107 
 
 JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 cage and all are looking out of the picture to the 
 right as though the bird had just been released. 
 Behind is a brook in which ducks are swimming 
 and, back of that, other buildings of a palace, or, 
 temple enclosure. Probably the left hand sheet 
 of a lost triptych. 
 
 Signed Yeishi. 
 
 Size. 15 X 10. 
 
 YEISHI 
 
 Anepisode in the life of Komachi. Snow Scene. 
 Komachi, a famous ninth century poetess of 
 great talent and unusual beauty, passed her 
 youth in luxury and splendor, gratifying each 
 extravagant fancy. ‘‘But age, apace, comes at 
 last to all,’ and to her it came more quickly 
 than to most, bringing with it poverty, squalor 
 and hunger. The strange reversal of Koma- 
 chi’s fortune from such heights of splendor to 
 such depths of want, made her life a favorite 
 subject for the artist and the moralist. Seven 
 episodes in her career usually are depicted in a 
 sort of analogue, no attempt being made to 
 portray the costumes of the by-gone age, but 
 the story being applied to some scornful con- 
 temporary beauty. Yeishi’s Komachi Series is 
 the best known and probably the finest of the 
 printed ones, and two sheets of it are shown here. 
 Print reproduced, Haviland Catalogue, Part I, 
 No. 318. 
 
 Signed Yeishi and published by Izumtya. 
 
 Size 15 x 10. 
 
 7i 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 108 YEISHI 
 
 109 
 
 The fifth episode in Komachi’s Life. ‘“‘ Praying 
 for Rain.” From the same series as the pre- 
 ceding number, and with the same signature 
 and publisher’s mark. This must be a very 
 early impression from the blocks and is a 
 particularly fine piece of engraving and print- 
 ing. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Haviland Catalogue, Part 
 [; No, 310; 
 
 Size 154 X 10%. 
 
 YEISHI 
 
 An episode from that chapter of the ‘Genji: 
 Monogatari,” or tales of Genji; which deals with 
 the adventures of the Amorous Prince during 
 his exile at Suma. | 
 
 Yeishi designed a number of fine triptychs de- 
 picting the famous Prince Genji, of whom more 
 anon. 
 
 The print exhibited is thought to be a sheet 
 from one of these triptychs, the rest of which has 
 not been found; and, if this be the case, it prob- 
 bably was the middle sheet—an inference to be 
 drawn from the composition and the placing of the 
 signature. The print, which is complete enough 
 in itself, is one of Yeishi’s best known and loveli- 
 est designs—the figure of the young lady in 
 black having that inimitable refinement and 
 charm which are characteristics of his finest 
 work. 
 
 72 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 Prince Genji is the hero of the first and best of 
 Japanese novels, a book that was written in the 
 tenth century by Murasaki Shikibu, a court- 
 lady whose diary has recently been published 
 in English and shows, as does her novel, the 
 astonishing degree of culture, refinement and 
 aesthetic appreciation which had been attained 
 by the Japanese at that early date. The Prince 
 himself, a natural son of the Emperor, and a 
 gentleman as talented as he was charming, won 
 the hearts of most men and—with the notable 
 exception of his step-mother—of all women; 
 but notwithstanding his own impressionable 
 nature he was difficult to win. There was, for 
 example, one young lady for whose education 
 and talents he had the highest admiration but 
 for whom his friendship could not ripen into 
 love because, forsooth, her nose turned red 
 whenever the weather grew chilly. The “ele- 
 gant’’ Genji was a very fastidious person in 
 spite of his propensity for ‘‘Bunberrying.”’ 
 An excellent English translation of the first 
 seventeen chapters of the novel, was published 
 years ago, and gives a fascinating picture of the 
 old court life with its rigid decorum and over- 
 developed zstheticism. 
 
 The subject of the print exhibited has been re- 
 produced several times; the best of these repro- 
 ductions being that of the Appleton Catalogue 
 (London 1910) Plate 23, though another, more 
 easily accessible, is in Ficke’s ‘‘Chats on Japan- 
 ese Prints” Plate 37. Mr. Ficke’s impression 
 
 73 
 
110 
 
 1] 
 
 — 
 
 CATALOGUE! THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 is entirely in black and gray without the purple 
 of the one exhibited. 
 
 Signed Yeishi. 
 
 Size 15+ x 10%. 
 
 YEISHI 
 
 The Geisha Itsutomi standing; her samisen is 
 at her feet, the plectrum in her hand. From a 
 series of portraits of Geisha. This tall, slender 
 figure shows the mannerism into which Yeishi’s 
 style developed, but is an exquisite thing that 
 could not have been done by anyone but Yeishi. 
 The print looks as though it might once have had 
 a silver background, though neither of the other 
 impressions known to the writer—that in the 
 Louvre and that reproduced in the V. I. Cata- 
 logue, Vol. V, No. 25, shows any more trace of 
 silver than does the print exhibited. 
 
 Signed by the artist and published by Iwatoya. 
 Siz@145 X Ot: 
 
 YEISHI 
 
 Silver ground. The courtesan Takigawa of 
 Ogiya. From a Series of “‘Beauties of the Gay 
 Quarters” (Yoshiwara). The silver ground 
 prints of this series are the finest as well as the 
 rarest of all Yeishis; perhaps there is nothing 
 more lovely in the whole range of the art. 
 Subject reproduced in color, V.I. Catalogue, Vol. 
 V, No. 26. A comparison will show that the 
 print exhibited here is in much better condition, 
 the delicate design in the white part of the 
 
 74 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 kimono having faded from the Paris impression. 
 Signed Yeishi Kigwa (designed for fun), and 
 published by Iwatoya. 
 
 Size 14% X 10. 
 
 YEISHIN 
 
 Nothing has been ascertained regarding Yeishin 
 who is assumed to have been a pupil of Yeishi. His 
 few known works are excessively rare. 
 
 112 -YEISHIN 
 Silver ground. Half length portrait of a young 
 noble with a falcon on his wrist. His outer 
 kimono is decorated with a design of eggplants 
 and, where his family mon, or crest, should be 
 is Fuji in white reserve, thus uniting the three 
 fortunate omens of Japanese superstition—the 
 eggplant, the sacred mountain and the falcon. 
 It is worthy of notice that while there are three 
 reproductions of this subject, V. I. Catalogue, 
 Vol. V, No. 62, Hayashi Catalogue, p. 228, where 
 the numbers and names are transposed through 
 a printer’s error, and Sotheby Sale of June 5, 
 1914, No. 63; all of these lack the silver ground, 
 though that of the print exhibited certainly is 
 old.. The slight pink flush about the temple 
 was part of the original printing but was printed 
 very lightly and has almost faded out with time. 
 Signed Choyensai Yeishin. 
 Date about 1790. 
 Size 15 x 10. 
 
 75 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 GOKIO 
 
 Not much more is known of Gokio than of Yei- 
 shin except that his work is not quite as rare and 
 that he signed a number of prints “Yeishi’s pupil 
 Gokio.” He is thought to have died very young. 
 
 113 GOKIO 
 The Courtesan Makinoya of Matsukaneya, with 
 her attendants, passing in front of one of the 
 Yoshiwara houses with its green blinds. The 
 color scheme of predominant gray with black, 
 green, lavendar and yellow is characteristic of 
 Yeishi; but the print, though unsigned, is at- 
 tributed with some confidence to Gokio whose 
 signed work it resembles even more than it does 
 that of his teacher. 
 Subject reproduced, Basil Stewart: ‘Subjects 
 Portrayed in Japanese Color Prints, Plate 2, 
 No. 2. 
 Date about 1790, probably just after Gokio 
 ceased to sign as a pupil; or, it may be part of a 
 triptych one sheet of which was signed. 
 Size 154 X 103. 
 
 YEIRI 
 
 Little or nothing is known about Yeiri. His prints 
 are as rare as those of Yeishin, with whom and with 
 Gokio it is probable that he studied under Yeishi; 
 but in any case he is not to be confounded with 
 Rekisentai Yeiri, or the so-called Yeiri 2nd, both 
 
 76 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 of whom were artists of far less power than he. 
 The fame of our Yeiri rests chiefly on the two or 
 three astonishing portraits by him that have survived, 
 one of these is exhibited. 
 
 ha YER) 
 Mica ground over black. Portrait of the novel- 
 
 ist Santo Kyodden, who in his earlier years was 
 the painter and print designer Kitao Masanobu 
 (see note on Number 74), and who in his youth 
 made the pictures for a volume that is consid- 
 ered one of the handsomest illustrated books of 
 any nation. From a series depicting the celeb- 
 rities of the various districts of Yedo. An- 
 other of the set, and almost the only other that 
 has survived, is reproduced in color, V. I. 
 Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 59. It is unfortunate 
 that no reference can be given to any reproduc- 
 tion of the subject exhibited. 
 
 Signed Yeiri. Probable date about 1794. 
 Size 152 x 104. 
 
 KUNIMASA (1773-1810) 
 
 Kunimasa appears to have designed prints only 
 for about eight years (1795-1803). He is noted for 
 his large heads of actors and was a pupil of Toyo- 
 kuni, the last great artist of the figure prints, whose 
 work will close the present exhibition. 
 
 115 KUNIMASA 
 The Laughing Girl. Bust portrait of the actor 
 Matsumoto Yonesaburo, as a woman. 
 
 77 
 
CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Subject reproduced, ‘Selected Actor Prints,” 
 No. 263. 
 
 Signed Kunimasa and published by Uyemura 
 about 1796. 
 
 Size 145 X 92. 
 
 TORIN 
 
 The little that is known or surmised of Torin, as 
 a designer of prints, may be stated briefly. He 
 represented the third generation of a family of paint- 
 ers called Tsutsumi, who were followers of the school 
 of. Korin, and was considerably more distinguished 
 than his predecessors. He is known chiefly as a 
 painter of pictures for temples and is said to have 
 taught Hokusai. There are a few Surimono signed 
 Torin, and it is recorded that one sheet of an illus- 
 trated book published in 1798 bears his signature. 
 The Hayashi Catalogue lists one print by him, and 
 the compiler knows of no other, except the one ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 116 TORIN 
 
 Bust portrait of Ogino Isaburo as Yuranosuke, 
 the hero of Chushingura (see Numbers 39, 67 
 and 120), in gray and black against a black 
 ground. The outlines and details of the head 
 are printed without key-block and are indicated 
 by gauffrage. 
 
 This print was No. 129 in the London Loan 
 Exhibition of 1915 and is illustrated in Plate 
 XXXV of the Joly and Tomita Catalogue. 
 
 78 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 The same subject, and from the same blocks, is 
 reproduced in the second Manzi Catalogue, No. 
 380, but that impression is signed “Toyokuni,” 
 lacks the black ground, and was published by 
 Marusei, with the name of the actor and the réle 
 given in cartouches. Probably the original, by 
 the obscure painter Torin, did not sell and the 
 print was re-issued with the substituted signa- 
 ture of the immensely popular Toyokuni whose 
 work it does not resemble. 
 
 Signed Kawa Torin. 
 
 Publishers Tsutaya and Uemura. 
 
 Size 15} xX 103. 
 
 TOYOKUNI (1769-1825) 
 
 Toyokuni Ist, the last great artist of the figure 
 prints, survived and hastened the death of the art. 
 In his later years, yielding to the enormous demand 
 for his work, he produced a great number of designs 
 which were mediocre in themselves and were printed, 
 because of the lowered standard of public taste and 
 the carelessness of the overworked artist, in crude 
 colors. After him came the deluge of imitators and 
 pupils and adopters of his name, the ocean of whose 
 works is supposed by the uninitiated to represent the 
 color printing of Japan. Fortunately, at the very 
 moment when the last good figure prints were being 
 made, the art itself came to a new birth in the land- 
 scapes of Hokusai and Hiroshige. 
 
 In his earlier work, which shows a wide range of 
 subject, Toyokuni is well able to rank with the best 
 
 72 
 
CATALOGUE. THE GROLIER® CLUB 
 
 of his contemporaries. He drew many lovely por- 
 traits of women and scenes of the passing world; but 
 for the purposes of this exhibition, with the limited 
 space available, it seemed wiser to represent Toyo- 
 kuni more adequately in one phase alone of his work, 
 and for this purpose his standing figures of actors 
 have been chosen, the selection being made chiefly 
 from the best known and finest series—‘“‘ Portraits of 
 Actors on the Stage.”’ 
 
 117 TOYOKUNI 
 The standing figure of an actor whose green outer 
 robe is decorated in yellow with a design of con- 
 ventionalized cherry-blossoms—the mon, or 
 crest, of Michizane, a statesman and poet of the 
 ninth century, who is famous in song and story. 
 There were many plays about him. (See note 
 on Number 21.) 
 Signed Toyokuni and published by Izumiya. 
 Size 15 X 10. 
 
 118 TOYOKUNI 
 The actor Bando Mitsugoro as a young Samurai, 
 stepping forward with right leg bared. 
 Signed Toyokuni and published by Izumiya. 
 Size 143 X OF. 
 
 The remaining seven prints are from Toyokuni’s 
 finest series “Portraits of Actors on the Stage” or 
 Yakusha Butai no Sugata-ye. All are signed and 
 have the usual publishers’ marks and cartouches 
 
 80 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 bearing the titles. They were published about 
 1795. 
 
 119 
 
 120 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 
 The 3rd Sawamura Sojuro (Kinokuntya), as the 
 Daimyo of Sendai. Hecarries a fan anda straw 
 shade hat. 
 
 Subject reproduced in color V. |. Catalogue, 
 Vol. VI, No. 20. 
 
 Sizé 155 X 10%. 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 
 Mica ground. The same actor as Yuranosuke. 
 (See Numbers 67 and 116.) 
 
 Yuranosuke was accustomed to delude the spies 
 of Moronao by pretending intoxication. In 
 this print he is said to be depicted with his 
 clothes on backward; but, even though all Japan- 
 ese actors are more or less double-jointed, and 
 sake is a powerful stimulant, it is difficult to 
 see how anyone could have gotten his head, feet 
 and hand into the relative positions shown. 
 There is some mystery about this print. The 
 kimono of the actor bears the usual Sojuro mon 
 (compare Numbers 57, 58); but the crest on 
 the outer robe, which appears to be falling off 
 him, is one frequently used to indicate the ronin 
 in this play—the “‘Chushingura,” in which so 
 many actors have been depicted. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, 
 No. 30. 
 
 Size 148 x oF. 
 
I21 
 
 122 
 
 123 
 
 124 
 
 CATALOGUE: THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 
 The 3rd Segawa Kikunojo (Hamamuraya) as a 
 woman. Compare this print with the next. 
 Subject reproduced, No. 4, in the ‘Journal of 
 the Ukio-ye Society of Japan,” Vol. II, No. I, 
 November, 1922. 
 
 Size 152 X 103. 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 
 The same actor, apparently in the same part but 
 differently posed, with different sweep of the 
 draperies and with the black obi, or sash, tied 
 behind instead of in front as it was in No. 121. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, 
 No. 37. 
 
 Size 142 x 103. 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 
 Matsumoto Koshiro as a man of rank. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue, No.653. 
 Size 152 X 10%. 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 Mica ground. Bando Mitsugoro drawing his 
 sword. 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 October, 1919, No. 81. 
 Subject reproduced, “Journal of the Ukio-ye 
 Society of Japan,’’ November, 1922, No. 7. 
 Size 142 x 10. 
 
 82 
 
JAPANESE FIGURE PRINTS 
 
 125 TOYOKUNI 
 The 3rd Segawa Kikunojo as a dancer with an 
 open fan in her right hand. (See note on Num- 
 ber 16.) 
 Size 143 X 10. 
 
 THE END 
 
 83 
 
_ UL AINVIL 
 TANNO LA PERS 
 FLZIONE MA LA 
 
ee ce ae