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The Committee on Publications of The 
 Grolier Club certifies that this copy of 4 
 Descriptive Catalogue of an Exhibition of 
 Japanese Landscape Prints from Hokusai 
 to KyOsai is one of an edition of three ~ 
 hundred copies, printed on Van Gelden 
 Zonen paper, at The Gilliss Press. The 
 presswork was completed in the month of 
 April, 1924. 
 

 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 FROM 
 HOKUSAI TO KYOSAI 
 

 

 

 
DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 
 
 OF AN EXHIBITION OF 
 
 JAPAN EOE 
 Pam DoCAPE, BIRD, AND 
 
 BLOWER PRINES, 
 AND SURIMONO 
 
 FROM 
 HOKUSAI TO KYOSAI 
 
 BY 
 
 PA) Mente SLO UX 
 
 
 
 | NEW YORK 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 1924 
 

 
 — 
 
 aS . Copyright, 1924, by eee 
 . } The Grolier Club of the Bee a 
 nt City of New York ea: 
 
 
 
BISTiOrrLATES 
 PREFACE 
 
 CATALOGUE 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 

 
Pie Be ACCES 
 
 PLATE “NUMBER PAGE 
 FRONTISPIECE HriROSHIGE No. 52. . . Title 
 PLATE I Y EISHI NO 6 
 PLATE II HOKUSAI NOr [5 aipuk jpe 8 
 PLATE III Hokusal Peo ee tO 
 PLATE IV HOKUuSAI Noob iO? aekede *heal 2 
 PLATE V HOKUSAI NOmeTOr 2 ta A 
 PLATE VI HirosHiGE No. 71. . . 58 
 PLATE VII HirosHice No. iia eee aye 
 PLATE VIII HirosHIiGE No. 79. . . 64 
 PLATE IX HirosHIGE No. 80. . . 66 
 PLATE X HIROSHIGE «NO. 94.) 45 4e. 72 
 PLATE XI HirosHIGE No.100. . . 76 
 PLATE XII KunitvosH1 No. 124... . 92 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 The exhibition of Japanese Figure Prints held 
 by the Grolier Club in 1923 followed the develop- 
 - ment of the art of color-printing in Japan, from 
 its origin in the outline work of Moronobu, to the 
 brink of that precipice from which it fell before 
 the death of Toyokuni, the last Master of the 
 Japanese print who chose to depict those fleet- 
 ing aspects of this delightful world that are pri- 
 marily of the Town—the success of actors, the 
 splendor of courtesans, the gay life of a newly 
 emancipated bourgeoisie. 
 
 By 1800, Yedo, the new capital of the Shoguns, 
 was not as buoyantly gay as it had been a hun- 
 dred years before; the middle classes had grown 
 accustomed to affluence; they did not feel pros- 
 perity with quite the exhilaration of their ances- 
 tors,—the novelty was wearing off; and, as M. 
 Louis Aubert, that most discriminating of critics, 
 has pointed out with his usual French clarity, it 
 is quite natural for people who have been ex- 
 periencing the pleasures of the town to try the 
 pleasures of the country. There was romance 
 about the old capital, Kyoto, where the great 
 Japanese traditions of zsthetic eclecticism had 
 been maintained at the quiet Imperial Court; 
 
 Xl 
 
PREFACE 
 
 there was the romantic beauty of pine-hung 
 shores at dawn or sunset, of mist and mountain 
 tops, of birds in flight or poised among delicate 
 blossoms; all along the roads which led out from 
 the bustling gayety of Yedo to the old-world 
 gardens of Kyoto, the cryptomerias of Nara, the 
 wilder Northern coasts. The bourgeoisie became 
 tourists with an eye to the picturesque; and the 
 Japanese print was reborn with Hokusai to de- 
 pict once more the beauty and interest of the 
 fleeting world we know; but in this second flower- 
 ing of the art the artists, who, it must be em- 
 phasized again, were of the people and working 
 for the people, became intent on the ephemeral 
 beauties of Nature rather than the ephemeral 
 joys and splendor of Life. 
 
 The reader is referred to the Catalogue of 
 Figure Prints for historical information, technical 
 details of processes, etc.; and it need only be 
 added that the system of measurements and 
 references is the same, except that for Hiroshige 
 the Hiroshige Memorial Catalogue, published in 
 Tokyo, is taken as the standard rather than the 
 final volume of the Vignier-Inada Catalogue of 
 Paris, in which too many unsubstantiated theories 
 are developed. 
 
 Loe: Viiody 
 
 Xil 
 
for iy Lee 
 
' 
 
 
 
 
 
CATALOGUE 
 
 THE ANTECEDENTS 
 
 For centuries before the birth of Hokusai or 
 of Moronobu the art of landscape painting had 
 flourished in Japan. The temples and palaces 
 of Kyoto, the storehouses of the nobles, were 
 filled with landscapes or bird-and-flower paintings 
 by the great Masters of old, priceless possessions 
 that were jealously guarded by their owners and 
 handed down from generation to generation of 
 keenly appreciative critics. The old painters, 
 however, had seen the moods and aspects of 
 Nature merely as transitory manifestations of 
 something that was not transitory but perma- 
 nent, eternal. Their minds had been intent on the 
 spiritual significance of a scene; they had striven 
 to look through Nature and depict that which 
 it implied, as a portrait painter might see, in 
 his sitter, beyond all else the manifestation of a 
 soul. Art was the apostle of Zen Buddhism; and 
 in all the amazing variety and beauty of dif- 
 ferent schools and masters there were certain fun- 
 damental laws regarding the way of seeing— 
 Platonism we might call it—and of expressing, 
 from which there could be little deviation. Ho- 
 
 3 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 kusai was not, by a thousand years and more, 
 the discoverer of the art of landscape; he was 
 an adapter, a discarder, in one sense a debaser. 
 Comparatively uninfluenced by tradition, Hoku- 
 sai looked at things with clear, fresh vision, 
 seeing Nature as a realist sees it from the point 
 of view of empiricism, and caring little or no- 
 thing for the shadowy world behind that play 
 of life and light and opalescent color which was 
 apparent to his senses and which kept him in- 
 tensely interested, life-long. 
 
 Artists of the popular school had experimented 
 with prints of bird-and-flower or landscape sub- 
 jects before Hokusai, but in almost every in- 
 stance these prints were done in the manner, if 
 not in the spirit, of painting; they were like a 
 line from Milton in a popular comedy—an echo 
 of a different world. M. Aubert has pointed out 
 the fact that the eagles and falcons of Masanobu 
 and the other primitive Masters of the print school 
 suggest the Samurai; have in them the knightly 
 spirit of mediaeval Japan. He might have gone 
 further and shown how like they were in feeling 
 to the keen and knightly eagles painted by 
 Sesshu, by Sotan or by Motonobu. 
 
 Two prints of lesser birds and one landscape 
 by artists earlier than Hokusai are exhibited, 
 partly as an indication of what the late, plebeian 
 school of print designers had done in this special 
 line before Hokusai, but chiefly, it must be con- 
 fessed, to show the sources of what is to follow 
 
 4 
 
ctl 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 by leading the mind back over the way it must 
 go always in Japan, back from the sunlit luxu- 
 riance of Yedo, through quiet gardens designed 
 by Soami, to the twilight cryptomerias of Nara, 
 whose roots hide deep in the ancient earth, as 
 the roots of all ““new”’ phases of art in the East 
 are hidden deep in the shadows of immemorial 
 antiquity. 
 
 KORIUSAI (worked Ca. 1768-1786) 
 
 Two white herons at sunset. One stands on the 
 snow-covered bank of a river, the other is flying 
 above the stream. 
 
 One of the few facts known about Koriusai is 
 that, like Yeishi, he was somewhat better born 
 than most of the other designers of prints; and it 
 is worthy of notice that the bird subjects selected 
 for this preliminary part of the exhibition hap- 
 pen to be by the only two artists of the school 
 who were connected, even remotely, by birth 
 with those circles in which the traditions of the 
 older painting were carefully maintained and 
 prints were despised. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. II, No. 
 432. 
 
 Signed Koriusai. 
 
 Size 92 X 7. 
 
 UTAMARO (1753-1806) 
 
 “The Silver World.” A snow-scene along the 
 Sumida River with men in straw storm-coats 
 
 y 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 towing a boat. The snow-covered, half-sub- 
 merged willow is done much in the manner of 
 Kano painting. The gradation of the grays in 
 the printing is notable. 
 
 Utamaro, whose career was fully discussed in 
 the catalogue of the preceding exhibition, did not 
 design many landscapes; it would be difficult, 
 however, to find any print by the avowed mas- 
 ters of that art more satisfactory in its rendering 
 of Nature or more pleasing than this snow-scene 
 by Utamaro. 
 
 The print is a double-page sheet from Yebon 
 Ginsekai, published in 1790 by Koshodd and 
 signed Kitagawa Utamaro. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Kurth’s Utamaro, Plate 
 14a. 
 
 Size 10 X 15. 
 
 YEISHI (1756-1829) 
 
 A white heron perched on a plum tree in pale 
 moonlight. 
 
 This print again suggests the painting of one of 
 the older schools, and it may be noted that Yeishi, 
 a samural, gave up designing prints to devote 
 the last thirty years of his life to the more aristo- 
 cratic art. No impression of this print appears 
 to have been reproduced and no other is known 
 to the writer. 
 
 Signed Yeishi. 
 
 Size 93 x 74. (Plate 1). 
 

 
 PLATE I > YTEISht NO. 4 
 

 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 HOKUSAI (1760-1849) 
 
 When Hokusai was born the period of the prim- 
 itives had not yet ended and Harunobu still 
 was unknown to fame. When Hokusai died 
 Hiroshige, the last great Master of the color 
 print, had only a few years in which to finish his 
 work before Japanese art was to be submerged, 
 at least for a time, under the flood of Western 
 influences. During nearly ninety years Hokusai 
 studied everything that came before his eyes and 
 drew it; he was the keenest and most insatiable 
 of observers, an artist of enormous productivity. 
 Nothing was too trivial for his attention, nothing 
 so sublime as to make him hesitate. He was a 
 person of overflowing vitality; an eccentric who 
 changed his name a score of times and had ninety- 
 three known addresses. He was modest but with 
 a fine sense of the dignity of art; he was very poor. 
 And what a figure he must have been, mingling 
 with mountebanks in street crowds, or, solitary, 
 watching the dawn over Fuji, always with brush 
 in hand, watching and learning! 
 
 In his youth Hokusai studied for a time under 
 Shunsho, and his earliest prints, signed Shunro, 
 are actor portraits of considerable originality but 
 somewhat in the manner of his master. No 
 studio, however, could hold him long; the prints of 
 his maturity show little or no trace of having 
 been influenced by Shunshé, Kiyonaga, Sharaku 
 or Utamaro, for he was intent on working out 
 
 7 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 his own destiny, sketching everything that ani- 
 mate or inanimate Nature offered, until he made 
 of himself the landscape artist, a small selection 
 from whose work is shown here. 
 
 Hokusai, the first Japanese painter to be appre- 
 ciated by the Occident, was promptly proclaimed, 
 to the amusement of the Japanese, their greatest, 
 lately it has become the fashion in Europe and 
 in America to look upon Hokusai more as he is 
 looked upon in Japan, as a consummate crafts- 
 man, an illustrator of amazing cleverness and 
 versatility, who yet lacked that spiritual in- 
 sight which alone can make from the qualities 
 he undoubtedly possessed, great art. Truth 
 may be somewhere between the two views; but 
 it is better to turn to the pictures than to con- 
 tinue the discussion. His book illustrations and 
 superb large panels are not represented here, 
 but from the prints that are exhibited it can be 
 said without fear of contradiction, that with 
 Hiroshige as perhaps his peer in landscape, Ho- 
 kusai certainly takes rank among the very fore- 
 most five or six of those distinguished artists who 
 gave their lives to making the Japanese print 
 the thing of beauty and of power that it is. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Surimono. Three men under a maple tree in 
 autumn. One is about to pour saké for another 
 who seems to be distinctly unhappy; the third 
 looks on and laughs. The text that went with 
 
 8 
 
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JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 this surimono 1s lost, but the picture, in all proba- 
 bility, alludes to the story of the three drinkers, 
 Gautama, Confucius and Lao-tsze, who illustrated 
 the different attitudes toward life of the relig- 
 ions they founded by varying reactions toward 
 draughts of the same wine. One found it sweet, 
 one sour and the third very bitter. There is one 
 truth, said the sage, but there are a number of 
 different ways of seeing it. 
 
 A surimono is a particular kind of print, the 
 characteristics and uses of which will be discussed 
 under Number 39. 
 
 The print is not signed, but is attributed to Hoku- 
 sai, and probably was issued about the year 1800, 
 perhaps as part of an invitation to some autumnal 
 party where there was to be drinking. 
 
 Size 7% X 10. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 Surimono. A scene of spring in the rice fields. 
 Women are setting out the young plants while 
 a farmer pauses on the iris-bordered dyke that 
 bounds their field to gaze at the far-off silver 
 cone of Fuji. 
 As surimono were privately printed and not for 
 sale, the editions could seldom have been large, 
 and it is unusual to find duplicates, or repro- 
 ductions from other copies of the same print. 
 Unsigned, but in Hokusai’s style of about 1800 
 or a little later. 
 Size 10% x 15%. (Plate II). 
 
 9 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 6 HOKUSAI 
 
 Surimono. A village on the shore. In the distance 
 Fuji rises through mist into the delicately tinted 
 sky of some quiet dawn or sunset. 
 
 The signature on this print, which means “Ho- 
 kusai mad-about-painting,” is shown by Number 
 350 in the Rouart Catalogue to have been a form 
 used, at least occasionally, as earlyas1796. It con- 
 tinues to appear, sometimes on work that almost 
 certainly is as late as 1805, and Hokusai may 
 have continued to sign in that way when he hap- 
 pened to feel like it, until 1815. No one knows; 
 and a wise cataloguer refrains from committing 
 himself whenever definiteness can be avoided. 
 Signed Gwakyo Jin Hokusai. 
 
 Size 6;x18. (Plate III). 
 
 7 HOKUSAI 
 
 Surimono. A wooded hill beside the shore with 
 distant boats and mountains beyond. The sky 
 is streaked with pale yellow bars. 
 
 Such prints are called surimono because of their 
 delicacy though they have not the metallic touches 
 characteristic of surimono printing. This one ap- 
 pears to be a companion piece to the last, but is 
 signed merely “Hokusai.” 
 
 Size 6} x 18. 
 
 8 HOKUSAI 
 
 Surimono, A woman of the upper classes riding 
 an ox and playing on her flute as she rides. The 
 10 
 
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JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 beast is led by a peasant girl and followed by a 
 child. ‘The figures, the tree under which they are 
 passing, and the landscape background form an 
 exquisite composition; and the silver printing of 
 the lady’s robe is characteristic of the surimono 
 at its best. 
 
 There may be an allusion in this print to Michi- 
 zane (see Grolier Club: Catalogue of Figure 
 Prints, Numbers 21 and 117,—as well as number 
 99 of the present Catalogue), who is generally 
 depicted in his exile riding an ox. The silver 
 blossoms of the plum tree seem also to allude to 
 him, for when he was banished and came to say 
 farewell to his garden, he composed a poem which 
 ever after was associated with his name and story, 
 and which may be translated in the metrical form 
 of the original somewhat as follows: 
 
 Freight with your fragrance 
 Winds of Spring in their passing, 
 Plum-trees, my plum-trees! 
 Yea, though the Master be far, 
 Forget not Spring’s returning. 
 
 Unfortunately, this print brings up another of 
 the difficult questions regarding Hokusai’s signa- 
 tures, for although the impression exhibited is not 
 signed, one reproduced in the Hayashi Cata- 
 logue, p. 190, Number 1223, bears, just above 
 the collectors’ seals, an almost effaced signature 
 which was read from the original “Shinsai,’”’ but 
 
 Il 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 cannot be read in the reproduction. Most books 
 on the subject follow one another in stating, 
 without reference to any authority, that Hokusai 
 used this signature until about 1800 when he 
 gave it to a pupil. The personal name of the 
 pupil is known, and many surimono by him 
 closely resemble the less important work of his 
 Master; but in the absence of absolute proof that 
 Hokusai ever used a signature which his pupil 
 is known to have used, it has been necessary 
 either to continue to attribute by internal evi- 
 dence or to work out some theory. ‘The present 
 writer ventures a suggestion, founded on the 
 index in Japanese and English to the translated 
 edition of the Kawaura Catalogue, that when 
 Hokusai wrote this signature he used characters 
 the second syllable of which should be trans- 
 literated SEI, whereas the pupil signed SAI. If 
 the signature in the Hayashi reproduction could 
 be read it might prove the theory, but if it were 
 not for that reproduction the unsigned print ex- 
 hibited would be attributed confidently to Ho- 
 kusai, the drawing of the peasant girl being seem- 
 ingly too characteristic to have been done by 
 any one else. 
 
 The surimono was issued for New Year of the Ox 
 Year—probably 1793—and the text that was 
 printed with it contains, besides the date, a num- 
 ber of unimportant short poems. 
 
 Size 8 x 213. 
 
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 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Surimono. Three women on a balcony over- 
 looking the Sumida River, The farther shore 
 at Mimeguri beyond. 
 
 This is the type of Hokusai print that most 
 strongly influenced Whistler; in fact, there is a 
 water-color by Whistler in the Freer Museum 
 that seems almost like a translation of this very 
 surimono. 
 
 Signed Hokusai Sori. Date 1797-1800. 
 
 Size 8 x 22. (Plate IV). | 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Snowy landscape with mist. At the right pines 
 and a thatched cottage; at the left a curved 
 bridge with travelers; beyond, a hill and a flock 
 of birds flying. 
 
 With this print of delicate color and poetic charm 
 we leave the youth of Hokusat; most of his later 
 work is in a different mood and printed in stronger 
 color. Between the two come the years when he 
 was almost entirely absorbed in book illustra- 
 tion, but published occasionally separate prints 
 and surimono. 
 
 Signed Sori Aratame Hokusai, or Sori changed to 
 Hokusai. Seal Tatsumasa. Date about 1799. 
 Size 8 x 13%. (Plate V). 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 A fisherman in a boat raising his net. From 
 the set entitled Chi-ye no ume: ‘‘The Sea of a 
 
 13 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Thousand Pictures’; or, “‘A Thousand Pictures 
 of the Sea’, 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 338. 
 
 There are several ways of transliterating the 
 signature used here, but in any reading it means 
 I-itsu (or Tamekazu) formerly Hokusai. 
 
 Size 73% X 10. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Autumn Evening Light at Choko. A long stone 
 causeway stretching over the water; there are 
 strange junks of a Chinese type in the fore- 
 ground, hills beyond. 
 
 From a set of eight views of the semi-tropical 
 Ryikyai or Lucha Islands which lie between 
 Japan and Formosa, In the time of Hokusai 
 these islands had been for some centuries under 
 the double influence of Japan and China, to both 
 of which empires the native sovereigns paid trib- 
 ute. They are difficult of access to-day, but a 
 hundred years ago the trip there must have been 
 something of an adventure, and one is inclined 
 to question why a painter of advanced age who 
 was notably short of money took such a trip. 
 Perhaps some friend who was a sea-captain in- 
 vited him. 
 
 The signature is the same as that of number 11 
 and three of the readings of it might as well be 
 recorded in the hope that one of them will finally 
 become authoritative. Hereafter this catalogue 
 
 14 
 
A ALW1d 
 
 
 
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 a 
 PO ay OP 
 “a 
 

 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 will follow the V. I. Catalogue and other authori- 
 ties in the use of the first of the three trans- 
 literations given below: 
 
 Saki no Hokusai I-itsu 
 Zen Hokusai I-itsu 
 Zen Hokusai Tamekazu 
 
 Publisher Mori. Date probably 1832. 
 Size 102 x 143. 
 
 Numbers 13 to 16 are from “The Hundred 
 Poems Explained by the Nurse,” an unfinished 
 set, twenty-seven sheets of which were published 
 by Yeijudo in 1839. Drawings have been repro- 
 duced of six other designs for the same series 
 that for some reason were not published. All 
 the prints of this set are signed Saki no (or Zen) 
 Hokusai Manji, and measure approximately 10 
 X 15 inches. 
 
 The most famous of all Japanese anthologies, 
 the Hyaku-nin Isshiu or ‘‘Hundred Poems,” was 
 collected in the year 1235 and no poet was repre- 
 sented in it by more than a single “Tanka”’ or 
 lyric of five lines containing thirty-one syllables. 
 All of these hundred poems are perfectly fa- 
 miliar to-day to Japanese of even the slightest 
 education, as they have been familiar to all at 
 least for the seven hundred years since they 
 were collected. The earliest of them, in fact 
 most of them, were written centuries before the 
 
 15 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 anthology was compiled, and the language is 
 pure Japanese, Chinese words, which even then 
 were familiar to scholars, being rigidly excluded. 
 Japanese poetry is obscure at the best, and in 
 many of these old poems the obscurities, the 
 “pivot words,” the references, require a com- 
 mentary longer than the verses themselves. A 
 number of them are by no means simple to the 
 Japanese, and what is perfectly clear to them 
 may be dark to us. 
 
 Hokusai’s pictures often are not exactly illus- 
 trative of the poems, and in such cases his title 
 “The Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse,” 
 gives the clue. The picture is a Ukiyo-ye tray- 
 esty; it shows how a person of the common peo- 
 ple, the proletariat for whom prints were made 
 and to which Hokusai belonged by birth if not 
 by genius, might visualize the scenes of these 
 classical poems of an old courtly life, and trans- 
 late the remote allusions into terms of common 
 daily experience. ‘The stiff brocades, the gleam- 
 ing silks of the poets tend to become in these 
 pictures the poor garments of peasants. 
 
 Two of the translations quoted are taken from 
 those by Mr. William N. Porter who has pub- 
 lished the most readable English version of the 
 old anthology, but who adopted for his renderings 
 a verse form that is not Japanese. The trans- 
 lations and particularly the notes of Mr. F. V. 
 Dickins and others have suggested certain alter- 
 ations. In some instances the rendering given 
 
 16 
 
14 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 1s a wholly new attempt to express the meaning 
 in English verse. 
 
 HOKUSAI (Poem number I1) 
 
 Washerwomen carrying clothes up from a river. 
 In the village above, wash is hung out to dry. 
 The poem is by the Empress Jito who reigned 
 from 690 to 696 and whose reign 1s made notable 
 by the first brewing and drinking of saké at that 
 time. 
 
 The spring has gone, the summer’s come, 
 And I can just descry 
 
 The hidden peak of Ama, 
 Where angels of the sky 
 Spread their white robes to dry. 
 
 The reference seems to be to a story made famous 
 centuries later in Hagoromo or “The Feather 
 Mantle,” one of the finest of NO dramas, wherein 
 it is recounted how a fisherman finds hanging on 
 a pine branch the magical feather mantle of some 
 celestial being—Angel or Moon-Maiden—and re- 
 fuses to give it up until she shall perform before 
 him one of the Heavenly dances. 
 
 Publisher Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI (Poem number LXVIII) 
 
 A Shinto ceremony in honor of the full moon. 
 
 The poem, which is in the mood of Matthew 
 Arnold’s “Self-Dependence”’ and “A Summer 
 Night,” was written by the Emperor Sanjé who, 
 after a reign of three short years that were filled 
 
 17 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 with misfortune, abdicated in the year 1016. 
 None of the verse translations that have been 
 made hitherto read like poetry, and a new at- 
 tempt is no more successful; the meaning, how- 
 ever, iS approximately as follows: 
 
 If in this world of sorrow 
 With grief I must abide— 
 
 Oh tranquil Moon, to borrow 
 
 Thy calm, to man denied! 
 
 Subject reproduced from a pale printing, Spauld- 
 ing Catalogue, No. 499, and, with a richer effect 
 of moonlight, Sotheby Catalogue of October 18, 
 1920, No. 84. 
 
 Publisher Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI (Poem number XI) 
 
 Divers for Awabi at Ise. 
 
 The awabi is a kind of shell or shell-fish (Haliotis) 
 known, on account of its shape, as the “ear of 
 the sea.”” Themeat is eaten in Japan, and from 
 the shell is derived a variety of mother-of-pearl 
 which is used chiefly in the decoration of lacquer, 
 its use being a specialty of the Somada family of 
 lacquerers. The most highly prized mother-of- 
 pearl is said to have come from the Ryikyt 
 Islands and may have furnished the reason why 
 Hokusai’s suppositious sea-faring friend of Num- 
 ber 12 was going there. Utamaro did a notable 
 triptych on the subject and Kunisada as well 
 used the theme in one of his more successful 
 
 18 
 
16 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 landscapes. It will be noted that the divers are 
 always women, while the men handle the boats. 
 The poem is by Takamura, a Privy Councillor of 
 the ninth century, who became rich so quickly 
 after his appointment as Custom-house officer 
 in charge of the trade with China that he was 
 investigated and deported. It is while he was 
 being rowed away that he is said to have com- 
 posed and sung, or shouted, these lines. Later 
 he was recalled and pardoned. The translation 
 is that of Mr. Porter: 
 
 Oh! Fishers in your little boats, 
 Quick! tell my men, I pray, 
 They’ll find me at Yasoshima; 
 I’m being rowed away 
 Far off across the bay. 
 Subject reproduced in color from a less brilliant 
 impression, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 347. 
 
 HOKUSAI (Poem number X XVIII) 
 
 Peasant hunters or foresters warming themselves 
 at dusk by a great log fire outside a hut on a 
 snow-covered mountain-side. 
 
 The composition of this design, with the sweep 
 of the fire and the spotting of color, makes the 
 print one of the most important and admired 
 of the set. 
 
 The poem is by Minamoto no Muneyuki, a court 
 official and the scion of a great house, who died 
 inthe yearg4o. It may be rendered in the orig- 
 inal form: 
 
 19 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Friends have gone from me, 
 The grass and leaves are withered; 
 Ah, how remembrance 
 Makes winter-time more lonely 
 Here, in this mountain hamlet. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Focillon, “ Hokusai,’ Plate 
 XIX, and Miller Collection, Sotheby, 1911, No. 
 207. 
 
 Publisher Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 The Bridge of Boats at Sano, province of Kosuke. 
 Snow scene. 
 
 From the series numbering eleven sheets en- 
 titled “Views of Famous Bridges in Different 
 Provinces.”’ 
 
 This print, usually known by its Japanese title, 
 Funabashi, is considered the finest of the set. 
 Subject reproduced, Ficke Catalogue, No. 393, 
 and in color, Bing’s. “Artistic Japan,”’ Vol. V, 
 No. 25. 
 
 The signature is the same as that discussed under 
 Number 12. 
 
 Publisher Yeijudo. Date 1827-1830. 
 
 Size 10X15. 
 
 The following seventeen numbers belong to 
 what is now, without doubt, the best-known and 
 most popular of Hokusai’s sets, the ‘‘Thirty-Six 
 Views of Fuji.” Actually there are forty-six 
 
 20 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 prints in the full set, ten supplementary views 
 having been added—a proof, if proof were 
 needed, that its success was immediate. Impres- 
 sions were taken until the blocks were worn out; 
 changes in design appear to have been made by 
 Hokusai himself; cutters of new blocks failed to 
 copy exactly; probably there were pirated edi- 
 tions; and certainly, later printers, if not the 
 earlier ones as well, used their own discretion in 
 the choice and application of color. One who 
 wishes to study the etchings of Rembrandt, or 
 Whistler, or Meryon, can turn to catalogues 
 that will tell everything he needs to know 
 about the different states, but in spite of all that 
 has been written about Hokusai’s work in gen- 
 eral and the Fuji Set in particular, compara- 
 tively little attention has been given to details. 
 Mr. Will H. Edmunds pointed out some of the 
 differences in prints of this set in The Burlington 
 Magazine for January, 1922, but that is a mere 
 beginning; scholarship concerning Japanese prints 
 is still in its infancy, and the best that can be 
 done here is for the writer to set down, for con- 
 firmation or refutation by later students, a few 
 of his own personal beliefs and theories regarding 
 the “Thirty-Six Views of Fuji.” | 
 
 It is his opinion that the first edition is the 
 best and that at least the earlier impressions of 
 _it were printed under the supervision of the ar- 
 tist. He believes that prints of the first edition, 
 with two exceptions, always bear the seal of the 
 
 21 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 publisher, Yeijudo, and the round Kiwame seal 
 of approval, both of which were omitted in most 
 later but almost contemporary printings; that 
 the outlines from the key block and the titles 
 were printed in blue, at least for the first thirty- 
 six views, and possibly in black for the supple- 
 mentary ten, the issuing of which may have 
 coincided with an early but second edition of the 
 others, which may also have borne the publish- 
 er’s mark. It is generally stated that blues and 
 blacks were used indiscriminately with each re- 
 inking of the block, but study and comparison 
 may show some systematic regularity, and de- 
 tails are given here to bring one step nearer 
 completion the record begun in the British Mu- 
 seum Catalogue. In many of the prints of the 
 series those that have the most beautiful coloring 
 and are most carefully printed are almost en- 
 tirely in varying tones of blue. The edges of 
 the cartouches in which the titles appear were 
 the first things in the blocks to wear down and 
 consequently are sharper and more clearly de- 
 fined in earlier impressions than in later. 
 
 For the purposes of this exhibition there is no 
 reason to give the full titles of the prints in Jap- 
 anese, nor is it necessary to describe in detail what 
 is obvious to the observer. The subjects have 
 been described many times, and best of all by 
 Mr. Laurence Binyon, who has adopted in his 
 British Museum Catalogue a sensible geographi- 
 cal arrangement of the set, which should supplant 
 
 22 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 speedily the illogical order of De Goncourt. The 
 seventeen shown here are arranged in their order 
 merely for convenience of exhibition. 
 
 The size of prints in this set ts approximately 10 
 x 15 inches, and, as was said before, the reading 
 of signatures will follow the form adopted by the 
 V. I. Catalogue. The date of the series is from 
 1823 to 1829. 
 
 Those that have been selected from the ‘“‘ Views 
 
 _ of Fuji” follow, under Numbers 18 to 34. 
 
 19 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji above the Lightning. (Binyon, 2). 
 
 This subject and the next one are the two upon 
 which the compiler cannot recall having seen the 
 publisher’s mark, the reason for its omission prob- 
 ably being that there was no good place to put it. 
 There is a poor and probably late variation with 
 the tops of trees showing in the lower part of the 
 print. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 246, and in color by C. J. Holmes, “ Hokusai,” 
 Plate XI, as well as in the Catalogue of prints 
 owned by the Louvre, Vol. II, Plate 15. 
 
 Signed Hokusai aratame (changed to) I-itsu. 
 Blue outline. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji in clear weather at dawn. (Binyon, 1). 
 The impression exhibited is of the usual state. 
 Sometimes the mountain is printed in pink in- 
 
 23 
 
20 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 stead of flame-red,—a form preferred by many. 
 There is one variant with a slightly different 
 cloud block and another very poor one in which 
 most of the clouds are omitted and the moun- 
 tain is printed in blue and green. 
 
 Fuji is 12,395 feet high, which is over 1600 feet 
 higher than /Ztna. Neither one can quite be 
 counted among the tallest peaks of the world; but 
 probably there is no other mountain that ap- 
 proaches either of these in beauty and impres- 
 siveness, for each is alone, the one rising with 
 its marvellous line from low foot-hills, and the 
 other curving upward from an opalescent sea. 
 The slopes of Fuji often are hidden in mist, for 
 Japan is the rainiest country in the world, but 
 sometimes, far above where one is watching for 
 it, a white wraith comes, flower-like, for an in- 
 stant, and is gone. /£tna is farther south and is 
 seen in clearer light; but there is something magi- 
 cal about Fuji which may be due in part to the 
 fact that it is so often completely veiled from its 
 worshippers or seen only as a white cone floating 
 between earth and heaven. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 244. 
 
 Signed Hokusai aratame I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji seen from Hodogaya. (Binyon, 29). 
 
 The doubling-up of the passenger in the kago 
 24 
 
2 
 
 — 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 shows why Occidentals in general, and Mr. John 
 La Farge in particular, have had much to say 
 against that method of traveling; and, inciden- 
 tally, the pole comes just where one would nat- 
 urally put his head. The forward bearer is 
 typical of Hokusai—a figure and a face that 
 he seems to have drawn again and again. 
 
 This is one of the few subjects in which most of 
 the impressions with blue predominating are 
 not as satisfactory as those of the coloring of 
 the one exhibited, which has the foreground, 
 etc. in green. (For an explanation of the hat 
 and costume of the traveler on the right, see 
 Grolier Club: Catalogue of Figure Prints, Num- 
 ber 34.) 
 
 Print reproduced, Blanchard Catalogue, No. 191. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, 
 No. 259. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fujimihara. (Binyon, 45). 
 
 Fuji seen through an enormous tub in which a 
 cooper is at work caulking the seams. 
 
 An extraordinary composition that no artist 
 except Hokusai would have thought of. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, 
 No. 240. 
 
 Signed Hokusai aratame I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 25 
 
22 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 25 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji seen from the shore at Tago. (Binyon, 31). 
 Subject reproduced, V.1.Catalogue, Vol.V, No. 262. 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji seen beneath a great log supported on 
 trestles, among the mountains of Totomi. (Bin- 
 yon, 33). 
 
 Another extraordinary composition, as well as an 
 illustration of the adage that the Japanese do 
 everything in a manner exactly opposite to the 
 Occidental way of doing it. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 252, and in color, Perzynski, “ Hokusai,” p. 80. 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 A gust of wind at Yejiri. (Binyon, 3). 
 
 This is a fine representation of the sweep of wind, 
 and is a particularly fine impression. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 2677. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 The Lumber Yard. Tatekawa. (Binyon, 13). 
 Bamboo is stacked upright, probably because it 
 
 26 
 
26 
 
 27 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 is less likely to rot in that position. The Japan- 
 ese are particularly fond of this subject. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 268. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai J-itsu. Black outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 View of Fuji from Ono Shinden. (Binyon, 4). 
 It is very seldom that these prints are seen in 
 impressions of such quality as those exhibited. 
 They bear every indication of being early. This 
 one, however, has the outline and lettering in 
 black; and it is worthy of notice that the British 
 Museum impression catalogued by Mr. Binyon, 
 which also bears the publisher’s seal, had the 
 same black on the key block. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 Jan, 0 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji seen from where the ferry crosses the Sumida 
 River near the Rydgoko Bridge in Yedo. (Bin- 
 yon, 21). 
 
 Note the sweeping curves of the composition set 
 off by the vertical line of the fishing pole. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 283. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-tsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 27 
 
28 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji seen between the piers of Mannen Bridge 
 (Binyon, 12). 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 269, and in color from a different printing, C. J. 
 Holmes, “Hokusai,”’ Plate 13. 
 
 Signed Hokusai aratame I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 The big tree. Mishima. (Binyon, 40). 
 Localities depicted in the landscapes of Hokusai 
 and Hiroshige are often easily recognizable, the 
 prints being in many cases like illustrations of a 
 guide book. Both artists did this great tree 
 which is, or was, in Koshiu, and in both pictures 
 travelers (tourists?) are shown with linked hands 
 and outstretched arms, measuring its girth. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I.Catalogue, Vol.V, No. 256. 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 Fuji seen from Tsukuda Island. (Binyon, 25). 
 This impression, which is printed entirely in vary- 
 
 ‘ing tones of blue, is reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, 
 
 Vol. V, No. 276, and Rouart Catalogue, No. 609. 
 A different impression is reproduced in color, 
 Perzynski, “ Hokusai,”’ p. 64. 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 28 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 31 HOKUSAI 
 
 Kajikazawa. A cormorant fisher on a rock, 
 beside him an attendant with the bamboo drum 
 (kakko) which is used in cormorant fishing to 
 excite the birds and keep them at work. (Bin- 
 yon, 41). 
 A superb and very early impression, entirely in 
 blue, of one of Hokusai’s greatest prints; later 
 printings have the rock in green, or green and 
 yellow, and sometimes the coats in red. 
 One hesitates to disagree with anything so por- 
 tentous as the British Museum or with so delight- 
 ful a person as its cataloguer of Japanese wood- 
 cuts, but if Mr. Binyon will place himself on the 
 edge of a rock and endeavor to haul in a wet fish 
 net, he will find that he does not take the position 
 of the man in the print. Neither he nor | will 
 ever see what is at the end of the lines, but the 
 writer would go to the stake for his belief that 
 it is cormorants. In fact, the guide-books state 
 that day-time cormorant-fishing, without boats, 
 _ may still be seen not far from Kajikazawa to-day. 
 The better-known form, as practised from boats 
 by night at Gifu, is very amusingly described in 
 Chamberlain’s “Things Japanese.” 
 Subject reproduced from an impression con- 
 siderably trimmed at the top, V. I. Catalogue, 
 Vol. V, No. 272. 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 29 
 
32 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji seen from Ushibori. A big junk moored in 
 the foreground. (Binyon, 36). 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 250, and in color from a later impression that 
 introduced pink and yellow, Japan Society Cat- 
 alogue, 1913, No. 218. A comparison between 
 the edges of the cartouches in the print repro- 
 duced by the Japan Society and the one exhibited 
 here will show conclusively which is earlier, and 
 the other, with its more complicated coloring, 
 lacks the seal. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. ; 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fuji from Suwa Lake. (Binyon, 34). 
 
 In later impressions where some of these blue 
 tones are replaced by other colors the print is 
 less effective. 
 
 Print reproduced, Spaulding Catalogue, No. 658. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 251, and in color, Bing, “Artistic Japan,” Vol. I, 
 No. 4. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 Sealed Yeijudo. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 The Great Wave. Kanagawa. (Binyon, 28). 
 A superb impression of what is probably Hoku- 
 
 30 
 
35 
 
 36 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 sais most famous print. A later edition intro- 
 duces a heavy brown cloud block which spoils 
 the effect. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 258, and in color from an ineffective impression in 
 which the boats are yellow and the wave almost 
 black, C. J. Holmes, “Hokusai,”’ Plate XII. An- 
 other color reproduction is in the catalogue pub- 
 lished by the Louvre of prints in its collection, 
 Vol. II, Plate 14. This reproduction, like that in 
 the V. I. Catalogue, fails to show the mist or 
 clouds which should appear, as in the impression 
 exhibited, delicately printed against the sky. 
 Signed Hokusai aratame I-itsu. Blue outline. 
 No seal. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Mandarin Ducks, 
 
 The print is probably from the Shashin Gwafu or 
 “Drawings from Nature” published in 1814, but 
 differs from those impressions of the subject 
 which are reproduced in color in Bing, “Artistic 
 japan,” Vol. II, No. 7. 
 
 Size 97 X 14}- 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Morning-glories and Tree-toad. A sheet from 
 what is commonly known as the “Large Flower 
 Set.” 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 304; and in color, Binyon and Sexton, Plate XV. 
 
 st 
 
°F 
 
 38 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Published by 
 Yeijudo. Attributed to the year 1828. 
 3ize OF X 145. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fan. Cock, Hen and Chickens. 
 
 As fan prints probably were not published in 
 large editions and may occasionally have been 
 designed for private order, duplicate impressions 
 are seldom seen. 
 
 Print reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 October, 1919. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 332. 
 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Publisher Ya- 
 mata. 
 
 Size 83 x 114. 
 
 HOKUSAI 
 
 Fan. Pheasant and Snake. 
 
 Subject reproduced by the Osaka Daily News in 
 its supplement illustrating the exhibition, held 
 in its galleries (1922), of prints from the Collec- 
 tion of Mr. Kojiro Matsukata. 
 
 An impression from the Vever Collection is de- 
 scribed, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 335. 
 Signed Saki no Hokusai I-itsu. Publisher Tsu- 
 jilyasu. 
 
 Date about 1835. 
 
 Size 82 x 113. 
 
 32 
 
39 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 TOYOHIRO (1763 (?)-1828) 
 
 Toyohiro, a not very prolific artist, but one 
 whose work shows occasionally considerable sen- 
 sitiveness and distinction, was a fellow-pupil with 
 Toyokuni in the studio of Toyoharu. 
 
 TOYOHIRO 
 Surimono. Flowers and Wild Grasses. 
 
 Signed Toyohiro. The seal is that of a collector. 
 Size 7% X 21. 
 
 Surimono, literally translated, means printed 
 thing. The term is used to indicate prints of a 
 particular variety that were issued for special 
 occasions. Most of them were made on private 
 order to be distributed among the acquaintances 
 of the people who ordered them, and were not 
 for sale. They were sent out at New Year’s and 
 at the flower festivals, at weddings and to an- 
 nounce the birth of children; if you changed 
 your name, or wished to invite your friends to a 
 party you had one; they were issued to announce 
 the winning poems in local competitions ;—in 
 short, whenever the Occidental would go to a 
 fashionable stationer to have something engraved 
 or printed with special care for some occasion, 
 the Japanese of the middle classes either or- 
 dered a surimono or designed one himself. 
 Numbers 4-9 of this exhibition are surimono 
 by Hokusai who, if he made one each time he 
 changed his name or moved to a new address, 
 
 33 
 
40 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 certainly had ample opportunity to become pro- 
 ficient in the art. 
 
 In a surimono the text—now often lost—was of 
 more importance than the picture which, in many 
 instances, became merely a symbol or vague allu- 
 sion exquisitely rendered. 
 
 In the printing of surimono all the resources of 
 technical sophistication were exhausted; usually 
 they were printed on heavier paper with much 
 gauffrage and blind printing; hair was rendered 
 delicately, never in strong black; and in typical 
 examples the total effect was heightened by the 
 lavish use of gold, silver and copper which gave 
 the print a brilliant metallic lustre, this device 
 being more commonly employed in later suri- 
 mono than in the earlier ones. The best special 
 account of surimono in general is the tenth chap- 
 ter of “Japanese Color Prints” by Edward F. 
 Strange (Victoria and Albert Museum Hand- 
 book). It need only be added that the special 
 technique developed to its completion after 1800. 
 
 TOYOKUNI (1769-1825) 
 
 TOYOKUNI 
 
 Surimono. A white rabbit in a red coat, writing. 
 Ages ago, when the world was young and the 
 gods, or the sons of the gods, were accustomed 
 to walk therein, the white rabbit who lived in 
 the island of Oki, near Korea whence so many 
 
 34 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 things have come, desired ardently to go to Japan. 
 But rabbits are poor swimmers, the straits are 
 broad and some means of crossing had to be de- 
 vised; so, after pondering awhile as rabbits do, 
 he went to call on a crocodile of his acquaint- 
 ance and in the course of conversation wondered 
 how many crocodiles there were. The host said 
 there were a very great number but that they 
 never had been counted, whereupon the guest 
 volunteered to run along their backs and count, 
 if they would arrange themselves in a line, tail 
 to head and head to tail, stretching from the 
 coast of Oki toward Japan. 
 
 This was agreed, and when the appointed day 
 came the crocodiles gathered from far and near 
 and ranged themselves in a line, the tail of the 
 first one touching the island shore. The rabbit 
 ran blithely along their backs, but when he saw 
 that the head of the last one was within jumping 
 distance of Japan he could not forbear saying 
 that he never had cared at all how many croco- 
 diles there were and had not bothered to count 
 them, his sole interest being to provide himself 
 with a simple and easy way of getting across the 
 Straits. With that he jumped, but a second 
 too late, for great jaws opened and closed, and 
 though the rabbit himself reached the shore, 
 most of his skin and all of his fur remained be- 
 hind. After that he had rather a bad time of it 
 until a kind-hearted god of the country, who 
 chanced to be wandering by, took pity on him, 
 
 35 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 and ever since then the white rabbit has been a 
 friendly benefactor of the land. He is repre- 
 sented in a variety of ways in prints and paint- 
 ings, in ivory, on sword guards and in lacquer, 
 sometimes, like the rabbits in Daudet, with noth- 
 ing to do but chauffer les pattes a un rayon de 
 lune and sometimes engaged in all sorts of occu- 
 pations. He is in the Zodiac, and certain years 
 in Japanese chronology are named for him; a fact 
 which accounts for his presence in this New 
 Year’s card of some Rabbit Year, probably 1819. 
 The first thing that anyone did on New Year Day 
 was to write a little, and the rabbit in the pic- 
 ture is writing words of felicitation. The poems 
 above are signed with poetic names and contain 
 rather conventional words of greeting appropri- 
 ate to the occasion. 
 
 Signed Toyokuni. 
 
 Size 8} x72. 
 
 HOKKEI (1780-1850) 
 
 The two most important of Hokusai’s pupils 
 are Hokkei and Gakutei. Hokkei made many 
 fine surimono, a number of landscapes somewhat 
 in the manner of his master but of distinctive 
 charm, and certain other prints in which he en- 
 deavored with considerable success to use the 
 surimono technique in the printing of ordinary 
 landscape subjects.. There is great delicacy about 
 
 36 
 
late 
 
 4 
 
 42 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 the best of his work. Hewasa fishmonger before 
 he became professionally an artist. 
 
 HOKKEI 
 
 A crowded ferry crossing the Sumida River in the 
 rain. 
 
 This print is from a set called Shokoku Meisho or 
 “Views of Various Provinces.” 
 
 Print reproduced, May Catalogue, No. 919. Sub- 
 ject reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue, No. 195. 
 Signed Aoigaoka (or Totoya) Hokkei, a signature 
 which may be translated Hokkei of the Hill of 
 Hollyhocks. For note on the flower, the Japan- 
 ese name of which is Aoi, see Number 66. 
 
 Size 7 X 15. 
 
 HOKKEI 
 Peasants being ferried across the Sumida. One 
 of them points to the moon. 
 Japanese artists are fond of making pictures in 
 sets of three which show respectively the beau- 
 ties of Moonlight, Snow and Flowers. This print 
 and the next are from such a set and illustrate 
 Hokkei’s use in landscape of surimono printing 
 in gauffrage and silver. To appreciate the quality 
 and color of surimono they should be examined 
 carefully and, if possible, from the side as well as 
 from a position directly in front of them. 
 Print reproduced, Blanchard Catalogue, No. 160. 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 385. 
 
 a7 
 
43 
 
 44 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Signed Hokkei. Sealed Awaka. 
 Size 10 X 133. 
 
 HOKKEI 
 
 Flower-viewing beside the Tatsuta River. 
 Tatsuta and the little river of its name are near 
 Nara, the ancient capital, and only a mile or two 
 from famous Horyuji, which is the oldest existing 
 Buddhist temple in Japan and was completed in 
 the year 607 of our chronology. The locality has 
 been noted since time immemorial for the splen- 
 dor of its maples in their autumnal color. 
 
 This print is from the same set as the preced- 
 ing, the maples taking the place of flowers. 
 Signed Hokkei. 
 
 Size 10 X 134. 
 
 HOKKE]I 
 
 Surimono. Lovers of old, boating. The shores 
 which border the silver ripples of a mountain 
 lake are white under the thin snow of Spring, 
 new-fallen on pine branches. 
 
 This exquisite surimono was issued by the “Ak- 
 aba Club” to announce the winning poems in a 
 competition, and is respectfully brought to the 
 attention of Committees on Announcements of 
 similar organizations in America. 
 
 The poems are printed in gold against the black. — 
 There are three, and the general gist of each is as 
 follows: 
 
 38 
 
45 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 I 
 The beautiful snow of Spring seems itself to 
 have become fragrant falling on plum blos- 
 soms. 
 
 (See Grolier Club: Catalogue of Figure Prints, 
 Number 8.) 
 II 
 
 Like stars are the plum blossoms above us; 
 may our love endure like the stars! 
 
 The remaining poem requires some annotation: 
 In old legend, Okina is the enchanted boat of 
 faithful lovers; there is a NO drama of the same 
 name which symbolizes happiness and long life, 
 and there may be a pun on the word to indicate 
 the date-year of the Dog, probably 1814 or 1826. 
 It must be further observed that in old Japan- 
 ese chronology Spring might begin before the 
 old year had ended. The costumes are those of 
 the long-ago. 
 II] 
 
 As the departing year meets the Spring, so 
 
 we have met, and glide over happy waters as 
 
 it were in the boat of Faithful Love. 
 
 Signed Hokkei. 
 size 8 x 73. 
 HOKKEI 
 
 Surimono. A white cock on a war-drum half 
 buried in leaves. , 
 The subject is symbolic of peace, the allusion 
 
 ao 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 being to the legendary story of a Chinese Em- 
 peror, the war-drums outside whose palace were 
 long disused. The surimono was issued at New 
 Year of some year of the Cock, probably 1825. 
 The poem, which is signed Zuido Akegarasu, 
 reads: . 
 
 With the first crow of the cock, the New 
 Year dawns; and the glad news seems to re- 
 sound through a thousand hamlets. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. V, No. 
 380. 
 
 Signed Kiko Hokkei. Sealed Aoioka Hokkel. 
 Size 84 X 7#. 
 
 GAKUTEI 
 
 Gakutei, who was better known in Japan as a 
 writer than as a print-designer, is said to have 
 studied under Hokkei as well as under Hokusai. 
 He made many surimono of somewhat variable 
 quality, the best being among the most notable 
 productions of their kind. The dates of Gaku- 
 tei’s birth and death are unknown but the period 
 of his production may be set down approxi- 
 mately as from about 1810 to 1840. 
 
 46 GAKUTEI 
 Surimono from a set of five. 
 A bearded Chinese hero on a sort of throne- 
 chair on a verandah. His great pike is beside 
 him and on his knees is a harp of seven strings, 
 
 40 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 an old Chinese form of instrument said to have 
 been used by Confucius. The figure represents 
 “The Five-Tiger General’? whose deeds are re- 
 counted in an enormously long Chinese romance 
 which was translated about this time by the 
 popular novelist Bakin, and published with the 
 Japanese title Suiko-den. Probably the surimo- 
 no was issued as a compliment to Bakin or in 
 reference to the success of the novel. The 
 poems, which are signed with fanciful names, 
 Rope-man and Rice-leaf, read: 
 
 I 
 As he takes out and plays his harp the wind 
 in the pine tree outside the gate accompanies 
 him. 
 
 II 
 He is waiting for the happy time when man 
 and wife will be in accord like the strings of 
 the harp. 
 
 It may be said in passing that most poems made 
 up for occasions and printed on surimono have 
 lost their point and, having little literary value, 
 lack interest for us. 
 
 Signed Gakutei Teiko. 
 
 Size GEOR 79) 
 
 47 GAKUTEI 
 
 Surimono from a series of ‘‘Three Scenes in the 
 Life of Michizane,” for whose career the reader is 
 
 AI 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 referred to the Grolier Club’s Catalogue of Fig- 
 ure Prints, Numbers 21 and 117, and especially 
 to Number 8 of the present catalogue. 
 
 The print may represent Michizane engaged in 
 the same occupation—New Year’s writing—as 
 the rabbit of Number 4o. Behind him and be- 
 side a screen stands another man, holding books. 
 The poems, as phrased by Mr. Ficke, read: 
 
 I 
 Conforming to the ceremonial laws 
 For the first writing of the New Year, 
 I break the ice on my ink-tablet 
 And compose a poem, in the Chinese manner, 
 Concerning the nightingale of Spring. 
 
 I] 
 On the second night of the New Year 
 Even the people of China 
 Will dream of the shape of the Japanese Fuji- 
 yama. 
 II] 
 There was a great poet in China. 
 He learned his art from the worm that eats the 
 books. 
 This morning a nightingale is chanting 
 More than all the songs of China. 
 I wonder if perhaps he has eaten the book- 
 worm? 
 
 Print reproduced, Ficke Catalogue, No. 377. 
 Signed Gakutei. 
 Size 83 X 7. 
 
 42 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 HIROSHIGE (1797-1858) 
 
 If one should name the six foremost design- 
 ers of Japanese prints as Harunobu, Kiyonaga, 
 Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige, he 
 would find few, if any, to contradict him. The 
 comparative number of prints by which the first 
 four of these artists and the last two have been rep- 
 resented in these exhibitions 1s, of course, utterly 
 disproportionate; but in the Exhibition of Figure 
 Prints the work of thirty-one different men was 
 shown as adequately as was possible, while in 
 the field of Landscape- and Bird-prints Hokusai 
 and Hiroshige stand almost alone, summing up, 
 in themselves, well-nigh the whole glory of that 
 brief second flowering of the art. 
 
 Like Hokusai, Hiroshige was enormously pro- 
 lific, and since he devoted much less of his time 
 to book-illustration, the number of his separate 
 color prints is very large. One American col- 
 lection contains 1700 different subjects by Hiro- 
 shige. Naturally the comparative recentness 
 of his prints, combined with the large editions in 
 which many of them were issued, has tended to 
 make them survive. Hokusai saw things real- 
 istically and in clear, strong light; Hiroshige was 
 more like a Northern artist—romantic, a lover of 
 mist and moonlight. The work of Hokusai ts 
 more astonishing, more brilliant, and in his 
 finest prints shows a high quality of imagination, 
 rising suddenly and surely from perfect crafts- 
 
 43 
 
48 
 
 49 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 manship to great art. Hiroshige seldom or never 
 aspires quite so high, but in average quality the 
 best of his very variable work is more imagina- 
 tive, more sensitive, more appealing than that 
 of the extraordinary genius who pointed for him 
 the way he was tofollow. Some prefer strength, 
 some delicacy; each has its place in art; but there 
 can be no possible question of the beauty of 
 Hiroshige’s finer prints when they are seen in 
 early and well-preserved impressions. 
 
 The prints of Hiroshige have been described and 
 catalogued so many times, and, most notably, 
 in connection with the exhibition held in Tokyo 
 to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the 
 artist’s death, that details as to sets and editions, 
 which can be found in many books and cata- 
 logues, will be omitted here. 
 
 Prints are shown because they are beautiful, 
 and the enjoyment of them is too often dis- 
 turbed by obtrusive questions of technical detail 
 or of scholarship. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Fan print. A fishing basket floating on a stream 
 below a pine branch. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed. Dated June 1854. 
 Size 8 x 107. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Fan print. A ferry boat withamonkey-showman, 
 a monkey in a little pink coat and straw hat, and 
 
 44 
 
50 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 other passengers, one of whom points out a 
 cuckoo flying by. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Yamata. 
 
 Size 9% X I1f. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Fan print. Catching fireflies at the Ugi River, 
 near Kyoto. 
 
 From a series of ‘‘Viewsof the Various Provinces.” 
 The catching of fireflies is one of those happy 
 diversions in which the Japanese delight, the va- 
 riety of firefly called Genji, which gives the finest 
 light, being particularly admired. Exquisite lit- 
 tle cages are made for them, and in the proper 
 season whole populations will go to favorite lo- 
 calities where fireflies can be seen to the greatest 
 advantage. Singing insects are the objects of 
 equal devotion, and Lafcadio Hearn has written 
 charming essays on both varieties, with transla- 
 tions of many poems about them, which are as 
 quaint as they are lovely. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Dansendo. 
 
 Size 83 x 112. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Fan print. Flare fishing off Tsukuda Island. 
 From the same series as Number 50. 
 Print reproduced, Rouart Catalogue, No. 210. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Dansendo. 
 Size 8% x 11%. 
 
 45 
 
52 
 
 53 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Fan print in deep blue with white reserve. 
 
 This striking print is a view of the Tonogawa at 
 Konodai. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige and with his diamond-shaped 
 seal. The lower round seal appears to be that of 
 the censor, Fukushima Giyemon. The upper one 
 probably is a date seal of about 1850, but has not 
 been deciphered. 
 
 Size 83 x 103. (Frontispiece). 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Long-tailed Bird and Peach Blossoms. 
 
 During the long peace of the Tokugawa Shogun- 
 ate there had been among the middle classes a 
 slow effeminization of the ancient spirit of Ja- 
 pan—the spirit of the Samurai. The tale of the 
 Forty-seven Ronin met with vast popular ap- 
 proval in the theatre, but the public for whom 
 prints were made preferred for themselves what 
 Hiroshige had to give them—not the eagles of 
 Motonobu, but birds of springtime and of gar- 
 dens, poised among delicate blossoms. The bird 
 prints of Hiroshige have the exquisiteness, the 
 charm of all that is most delicately feminine. The 
 poem on this print reads: 
 
 By what happy chance flame thy peach- 
 flowers, now, O Garden? 
 It is very difficult to date these bird-and-flower 
 prints accurately; and the attempt to do so will 
 46 
 
54 
 
 55 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 not be made here. It may be said, however, 
 that the Hiroshige Memorial Catalogue considers 
 the earliest of them as of about 1832, and it is 
 likely that most of them were published be- 
 tween that date and 18 0. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Blanchard Catalogue, No. 
 518. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 >1ze 5 X 75. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Blue Titmouse and Camellia, on a blue back- 
 ground. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 Size 10 X 4f. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Small Bird and Poppies. 
 The poem reads: 
 
 Frail are the petals, 
 So frail I fear lest they fall 
 In the wind of wings. 
 
 Sometimes these little poems, which are as ex- 
 quisite and charming as the prints themselves, 
 can be rendered, as above, in the exact metrical 
 form of the original. 
 Subject reproduced, Metzgar Catalogue of 1916, 
 No. 711, and Metzgar Catalogue of 1919, No. g10. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed [chiryusai. 
 Size 1334 x 42. 
 
 47 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 56 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Morning-glories. 
 The poem is signed Gyoko and reads: 
 The morning-glory on the bamboo lattice 
 
 lives only through the brief hour of our 
 watching. 
 
 The subject, with slight variations and without 
 the poem, is reproduced as No. 248 in the Metz- 
 gar Catalogue of 1916. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Published by Kawa-sho. 
 Size 13 x43. 
 
 57 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Pinks and Lace-flower. 
 The poem on this print is translated tentatively: 
 Lace-flower, your structure is as delicate 
 
 as the silver inlay on the rivet-cover of 
 a sword-hilt. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 46, and in color, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. 
 VI, No. 250. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Kawaguchi Shozo 
 or Kawa-sho. 
 Size 15 X 5%- 
 
 58 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Bird with long blue tail, asleep on a drooping 
 branch hung with peach-blossoms. 
 The three brief lines of the poem mean literally; 
 
 48 
 
59 
 
 60 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 “Day-break—bird rests—branch of peach-blos- 
 soms’’; and may be translated: 
 
 Still when the dawn comes 
 Does the bird on the peach-bough 
 Sleep among blossoms. 
 
 Subject reproduced, No. 909, Metzgar Catalogue 
 of 1919. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Kawamasa. 
 
 Size 132 X 43. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Kingfisher and Iris. 
 Poem: 
 
 Rain on the Iris; and Lo! My sleeves 
 that brush them in passing are fragrant. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Orange and Thornicraft Cat- 
 alogue, No. 377. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Hiroshige. Many of 
 these bird prints bear the round Kiwame seal of 
 approval, but it does not seem necessary to call 
 attention to it in each case. The subject is dis- 
 cussed in the Hiroshige Memorial Catalogue, 
 pp. 38-39, and a volume especially devoted to it 
 has recently been published in Japan. 
 
 Size 142 X 5. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Bird on Wistaria. 
 
 Poem by Hachijintei: 
 49 
 
6 
 
 — 
 
 62 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Pendulous down from the leaves droop the 
 wistaria blossoms, 
 
 Showing the dyer within tints that he fain 
 would achieve. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Ficke Catalogue, No. 756. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Shéyeido. 
 Size 14% X 5. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Sparrows and Poppies. 
 The poem is the same as that on number 55: 
 
 Frail are the petals, 
 So frail I fear lest they fall 
 In the wind of wings. 
 
 Print reproduced, “The Arts,’’ October, 1921, 
 eee 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Kawa-sho. 
 
 Size 132 x 48. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Uguisu on a drooping branch with white blos- 
 soms. 
 
 In Japan the Uguisu has “the sweetest voice of all 
 God’s creatures.” Occidentals, in compliment 
 to its melodiousness, call it the nightingale, but 
 mistakenly from the scientific point of view, for 
 the two birds are quite different in color and the 
 Uguisu sings only in the daytime. The word 
 nightingale, however, has overtones for our ears 
 and will be used in the rendering of the poem, for 
 
 50 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 the problem of the translator is to convey the 
 feeling of the original; and if, on the doubtful 
 chance of pleasing some ornithologist, he were to 
 call the bird by what appears to be its name, 
 Cettia Cantans, his little poem—the fruit of much 
 loving and patient labor—would be spoiled. 
 
 It is difficult enough at best to make the trans- 
 lation of a miniature Japanese poem remotely re- 
 semble poetry, for, in the first place, the nature 
 of the English language forbids compression and, 
 in the second, a Japanese poet sets down merely 
 a few suggestive key-words, unlocking a door for 
 the imagination, and the reader is confidently 
 expected to make the poem for himself. The 
 more sensitive the reader is, the more he has in 
 his mind to draw on, the more he gets out of it. 
 The hokku on this print is a particularly good 
 example because it is considerably more difficult 
 than most. The seventeen syllables of the orig- 
 inal, arranged in three unrhymed lines of five, 
 seven and five syllables each, mean literally: 
 
 O Uguisu (Cettia Cantans)—taxes—two sho, 
 five go (a measure of capacity approximately 
 equivalent to four quarts). 
 
 This does not appear at first to make much more 
 sense than it does poetry, but what would a Jap- 
 anese reader find in it? He would know that 
 taxes were paid in rice, that the very poorest of 
 peasants would only be required to pay an an- 
 nual tax of about the amount mentioned, and 
 he would visualize and feel the bitter life-long 
 
 51 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 struggle of the very poor; getting from the poem 
 a meaning which may be rendered in the original 
 form: 
 
 O Nightingale! Sing 
 Even to the poor who pay 
 The humblest tribute. 
 
 This gives the meaning, but to get the feeling in 
 English it is necessary, sometimes, to expand the 
 translation and use the Japanese thirty-one syl- 
 lable form, like that of ‘“‘“The Hundred Poems,” 
 some of Hokusai’s illustrations for which are ex- 
 hibited. The poem on the print might be ren- 
 dered more adequately in this longer form: 
 
 Yea, for the poorest 
 Whose barren field can barely 
 Cover the taxes; 
 Even for his enjoyment 
 Nightingales pour forth music. 
 
 If the poetically-minded reader of this version will 
 turn back to the literal, word-for-word transla- 
 tion given above, he will see that a number of 
 other ideas, equally poetic, are latent in it. A 
 translation could be made, for example, which 
 would contrast the beauty of the singing bird 
 with the sorrow and sordidness of life. The 
 Japanese poet merely sets free the imagination, 
 as Heredia sets it free occasionally by the final 
 line of a sonnet; but after all, the little poem in 
 question has been selected for discussion just be- 
 
 52 
 
63 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 cause it is an extreme example, much more dif- 
 ficult than most. 
 
 Print reproduced, “The Arts,’ October, 1921, 
 Dols: 
 
 Signed Hiroshige and sealed Ichiryusai. 
 Publisher Kawa-sho. 
 
 Size 15 X 53. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Crested Yellow Bird and Hibiscus. 
 
 It is impossible to say what kind of a bird this is, 
 and there is reason to believe that Hiroshige 
 sometimes did not draw from Nature. 
 
 The Japanese name of the flower is Fuyo (see 
 note on Number 66). The poem once again is 
 but a sigh; regret for the passing of all things 
 lovely, for beauty perishing in its moment of per- 
 fection, the transitoriness of this exquisite, fleet- 
 ing world of sense: 
 
 O Fuyo, fallen at dawn, wet with the dew! 
 
 No verse translation can quite give the brevity 
 and pathos of the lines; it should be explained, 
 however, that “wet with the dew”’ does not con- 
 vey to the Japanese the idea of discomfort that 
 it does to us; to them dew is one of the most 
 beautiful of evanescent things, a bringer of fra- 
 grance, the companion of flowers and of dawn. 
 Subject reproduced, Field Catalogue, No. 486. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 Size 15 X 5. 
 
 53 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 64 HIROSHIGE 
 
 65 
 
 Five swallows in tumbling flight above a branch 
 from which the blossoms have fallen. 
 Poem: 
 When twilight deepens, 
 Home to the sheltering hills 
 Gather the swallows. 
 
 Sometimes, ‘as here, when the little poem can be 
 rendered in its Japanese form, it closes naturally 
 with the lulling cadence of the Sapphic ending, a 
 fact that startles a translator who happens to be 
 fond of Greek meters and knows how grudgingly 
 they flow into the moulds of English speech. 
 Subject reproduced, Happer Catalogue, No. 289. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 Publisher Kawa-shd. 
 
 Size 154 X 5¢. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Egret and Iris. 
 On the print is a quotation of two lines from a 
 Chinese poem: 
 
 When white herons light in a field it is like 
 the falling of a thousand flakes of snow, but 
 flower-like is the yellow nightingale (Uguisu) 
 on a tree. 
 
 All egrets are herons but not all herons are egrets. 
 The birds in Numbers 1, 3, 65 and 69 are desig- 
 nated in the manner that has become custom- 
 ary. 
 
 54 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 There are two or three variations of this subject. 
 The state shown is believed to be the original and 
 is that reproduced in the V. I. Catalogue, Vol. 
 VI, No. 246. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Hiroshige. 
 
 Size 15 x 62 
 
 66 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Blue Bird and Yellow Hibiscus. 
 The poem is a Chinese quatrain which has stub- 
 bornly refused to allow the foreign devil to do 
 anything with it. A half-dozen soothing meters 
 have been tried; but when the translation com- 
 mences to have a pleasant lilt the meaning has 
 escaped, and when the sense is captured again 
 the sound becomes barbarous. ‘The plain prose 
 of it is: 
 
 Delightful is the breath of the cool autumn wind, 
 
 Dew gathers thick on the hollyhocks; 
 
 The great heat, the cruel torment of summer, have 
 
 passed, 
 What now have the palace attendants to do? 
 
 Like ornithology, botany is somewhat outside 
 the province of the present cataloguer. The 
 flower represented here is called “Aoi,” and the 
 dictionary translates it “hibiscus, rose-mallow, 
 hollyhock”’ just as it translates the “Fuyo”’ of 
 number 63. The safer thing to do is to call 
 them both hibiscus and spoil the poem thereby. 
 Subject reproduced, Orange and Thornicraft 
 Catalogue, No. 380. 
 
 D9 
 
67 
 
 68 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. Publisher 
 Kawa-sho. 
 Size 154 X 5¢. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Pheasant and Pine in Snow. 
 
 The pine is associated with the idea of longevity, 
 and except for a suggestion in the lines that the 
 green of the tree seems deeper after snow has 
 come, the Chinese poem on the print might be 
 rendered: 
 
 Eternal pine tree! 
 
 Snows of a thousand winters 
 Came and have vanished, 
 Leaving to thee their beauty,— 
 
 Oh, Long-enduring. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Metzgar Catalogue of 1916, 
 No. 246. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. Publisher 
 Kawa-sho. ' 
 
 Size 147 X 543. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 A sleepy little brown owl on a pine-branch, with 
 the white crescent of the twilight moon behind 
 him. 
 This is one of Hiroshige’s most charming bird- 
 prints, and the poem on it—a Tanka by Hachi- 
 jintei—is equally delightful: 
 
 56 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 Blissful sails the owl 
 In his moon-boat three nights old; 
 Yea, and the pine-boughs 
 Wind-swept, are harps; but sounded 
 Alas! for ears unhearing. 
 
 The Japanese of this is: 
 
 Mika-zuki no 
 Fune o yama-shiki 
 
 Mimi-zuku no 
 Mimi-ni ere-taki 
 Matsu*kaze no koto, 
 
 with its alliteration of M and K; and that, line 
 by line, means literally: 
 
 Moon three nights old of— 
 
 Boat—a mountain of (i. e. superlative) pleasure— 
 Short-eared owl of— 
 
 Ears but to wish 
 
 Harped pine-breeze 
 
 It may be added that the moon is supposed to be 
 most delicately beautiful when it is just three 
 nights old; before that it is too thin, later too 
 gross. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, 
 No. 252, but numbered wrongly on Plate LXVII. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Yusai. 
 
 Size 142 x 5. 
 
 69 HIROSHIGE 
 A white heron standing among reeds. 
 
 57 
 
790 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 The poem, which is in Chinese, has been trans- 
 lated as follows: 
 
 Can this crested head find among reeds a 
 dainty food to accord with its delicate, frosty 
 garbr 
 
 This, like Number 68, is one of the most admired 
 of Hiroshige’s bird-prints. The subject is repro- 
 duced, Hiroshige Memorial Catalogue, No. 45; 
 V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 251; and in color in 
 the Catalogue of Japanese Prints belonging to 
 the Louvre, Vol. II, Plate 37. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 Publisher Kawa-sho. 
 
 Size 15 X 5%. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Wild ducks in a snowstorm, swimming near a 
 snow-laden shore. 
 Poem: 
 
 Hark! Ducks are crying;— 
 Over the wind-swept water 
 Driven by winter. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 39, and in color in the Catalogue of 
 Japanese Prints belonging to the Louvre, Vol. II, 
 Plate 38. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed with a picture of a 
 deer and a horse in a cartouche, this being Hiro- 
 shige’s Baka or Fool seal, so called because Ba is 
 
 58 
 

 
 PLATE VI HIROSHIGE NO. 7I 
 

 
= 
 
 7 
 
 72 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 the word for horse, Ka the Japanese for deer, 
 and the two together, Baka, mean Fool. 
 Size 15 x 6%. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 A small bird on the blossoming branch of a wild 
 cherry. 
 
 Occidental poets, at least in their public utter- 
 ances, have been models of sobriety as compared 
 with their Chinese brethren. The most bibulous 
 of them would have felt at home and at ease in 
 the bamboo grove or the peach orchard; but 
 there is a naive frankness about the Chinese 
 that disarms criticism. 
 
 The Chinese poem on this bird-print reads: 
 
 While the fair landscape holds me under blos- 
 soming trees, forgetful of returning, the 
 spring wind lures me to go and get drunk 
 beside the wine cask. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 The other seal is probably that of the poet and 
 seems to read Ryoshin-Sho. 
 
 Size 143 x 62. (Plate V1). 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Swallows and peach-blossoms under the full 
 white moon of day. An exquisite print. 
 
 The poem requires the explanation of a word, 
 and requires as well, for adequate translation, 
 to have the seventeen syllables of the ‘original 
 expanded to the thirty-one syllables of the longer 
 
 99 
 
73 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 form. The word that demands explanation is 
 “Sengen.” This is a fabled earthly paradise of 
 the Taoists, a place of running water and of 
 peach-blossoms, where death comes not, and 
 sages, dreamers live in retirement, calmed and 
 ennobled by the beauty of Nature, unharassed by 
 the world. There is no English equivalent; for 
 the Bowers of Bliss of our epics are too passionate, 
 and the Islands of the Blest too dim. One part 
 of the word is familiar to students of Japanese 
 art in “Sennin.” 
 Bright on every stream 
 Are fallen blossoms floating. 
 Now that Spring is here, 
 Who could tell where Sengen lies? 
 The whole sweet world is Sengen. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Happer Catalogue, No. 57, 
 without two of the seals; and in color in the 
 Japanese translation of Ficke’s “Chats on Jap- 
 anese Prints.”’ 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 Publisher Wakasa-ya. (Jakurindo) Poets Seal 
 Ryoshin. 
 
 This appears to be a very early impression of the 
 first edition; a later printing bears the seal of 
 another publisher, Kikakudo. 
 
 Size 142 x 7. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Titmouse and Camellia. 
 Poem by Kojin: 
 60 
 
74 
 
 73 
 
 76 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 On the fresh-swept lawn, Lo! the camellia falls. 
 
 Print reproduced, Hirakawa Catalogue, No. 334. 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 31. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. 
 
 Size 14% x 6%. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 A pheasant among pines on a snowy declivity. 
 Subject reproduced, Orange and Thornicraft Cat- 
 alogue, No. 350. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Jakurindo. 
 
 Size 14% xX 63. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Cock, Umbrella and Morning-Glories. 
 The Japanese poem is written in Chinese char- 
 acters. The English of it as rendered by Mr. 
 Ficke is: 
 Would that I were living in a land 
 Where no cock crew at dawn, 
 That I might never hear this melancholy signal 
 For parting from my love. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cat- 
 alogue, No. 35. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Yusai. 
 
 Size 15 X 7. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Kingfisher and Hydrangea. 
 When the expected botanist and ornithologist 
 
 61 
 
77 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 are removing the motes from the eye of their 
 cataloguing brother, the former may explain why 
 the flower here depicted is called in English by 
 a Greek word meaning water-vessel, while the 
 poem on the print reads: 
 
 You bloom not in water, O Hydrangea, but 
 there is the smack of water about you now. 
 
 Subject reproduced in color, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. 
 VI, No. 244. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Yusai. 
 
 Publisher Jakurindo. 
 
 Size 143 x 64. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 A golden pheasant among snow-laden bamboo 
 on a hillside. 
 
 The poem is signed Mamegaki Koharu, and 
 reads: 
 
 Even more beautiful than the crested bird 
 with his plumage like brocade, is the ex- 
 quisite pattern of the fresh snow. 
 
 Print reproduced, Fine Art Society of London, 
 Catalogue, 1910, No. 176. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 365. 
 
 Signed Hiroshige. Publisher Marusei. 
 
 Size 102 x 74. 
 
 62 
 

 
 
 
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78 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 The following four prints are from a rare series 
 of twelve (?) “Views of the Environs of Yedo.” 
 They have often been referred to as the “Long 
 Surimono of Hiroshige,” but they are probably 
 more accurately described as his “ Letter-sheet 
 Prints.” It seems incredible that any letter- 
 writer would venture to inscribe his casual or 
 ceremonious words on such delicate works of art 
 as these; yet the prevailing opinion is that the 
 sheets were designed for precisely this purpose. 
 Doubtless they were used on special occasions 
 only, and not for ordinary letters; and we may 
 even go so far as to assume that the addition of 
 a stately Chinese poem or an exquisitely-turned 
 New Year’s greeting, when engrossed on the blank 
 paper above the landscapes, was not necessarily 
 as barbaric an intrusion as our ignorance of beau- 
 tiful calligraphy might lead us to fear. No sheet 
 thus inscribed has yet come to light. The ex- 
 treme rarity of these prints is obviously due to 
 the fact that such greetings were things of merely 
 ephemeral interest to the recipient. 
 
 Each print has its title printed in gold, in a car- 
 touche. Thecolors are translucent and delicate; 
 the printing is executed with extraordinary care, 
 on soft absorbent paper. All of these prints are 
 size 7 x 20, and bear Hiroshige’s seal in red. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Gyotoku. Salt-beach. 
 A beach with thatched huts on the shore of a 
 
 63 
 
79 
 
 8 
 
 = 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 bay, with white sails coming in from the open 
 sea at the right. Mountains rise in the back- 
 ground to the left. Salt-gatherers on the shore. 
 (Plate VII). 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 The bay of Matsudo 
 
 Beyond an embankment and a little fishing 
 village is outspread the wide quiet panorama 
 of the bay, with its scattered boats, low-lying 
 marshes, and remote blue mountains. Some of 
 the boats are moored, with their masts bare; 
 others, under sail, move tranquilly over the pale 
 water. (Plate VIII). 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Kaianji no Koyo. 
 
 On hill-tops overlooking the sea, scarlet-foliaged 
 maples and green-foliaged pines stand outlined 
 against the sky. A few small figures move in 
 the foreground; they are doubtless city-dwellers 
 who have come a long distance to this spot, that 
 they may enjoy its famed autumn moment of 
 beauty. (Plate 1X). 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Hagidera.’ 
 
 A mist-haunted garden; the winding lake is 
 bordered by hillocks; in the far distance, pine 
 trees rise out of strata of mist. A low bridge 
 
 64 
 
6L ‘ON ADIHSOUIH TIA ALY Id 
 
 
 
 ox Abe +a Pee ” 
 
 StS 
 
 — WADHSZOS 
 5 > oy 
 

 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 crosses the middle distance. In the foreground, 
 a few figures walk along the paths or rest on the 
 tea-benches, amid pink-flowered bushes. 
 
 Numbers 82 to 121 are landscapes by Hiro- 
 shige; and, as already stated, the sets from which 
 these come have been catalogued so often that it 
 seems quite unnecessary to repeat the details 
 of publishers, signatures, sizes, etc. here. Any 
 deviation from the ordinary will be noted, and 
 the name of the set from which each print comes 
 will be given immediately after the name of the 
 artist. In general it is sufficient to say that all 
 these prints are signed by Hiroshige and that the 
 landscapes of the usual size were printed on pa- 
 per of approximately 10 x 15 inches, the designs 
 themselves being generally a little smaller to 
 allow for the black bounding lines Hiroshige af- 
 fected, and for margins. The prints that follow 
 are arranged roughly, though probably not ex- 
 actly, in chronological order, the period of pro- 
 duction running from 1830 to 1858; and the 
 Hiroshige Memorial Catalogue is accepted as the 
 standard authority, after which, in order of im- 
 portance for the student of Hiroshige, comes the 
 Happer Catalogue. The reproductions in the 
 V. I. Catalogue, while not so numerous as those 
 of the Memorial Catalogue, are on a larger scale 
 and better printed, though sometimes from poor 
 or late impressions. 
 
 65 
 
82 
 
 83 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 
 The first cuckoo of the year at Tsukuda-jima. 
 The complete set of the early Toto Meisho, or 
 “Views of Toto” (Yedo) is in ten sheets charac- 
 terized by peculiar red clouds. If not Hiroshige’s 
 earliest landscape series, it is certainly the first 
 important one done by him. Such prints of the 
 set as are exhibited are all of the first edition. 
 The scene of this print is the same as that of 
 Hokusai No. 30, but the little island is shown 
 here from nearer by and from a somewhat dif- 
 ferent direction. It might also be confessed that 
 Hokusai had a way of getting views of Fuji 
 from places where a view of Fuji was difficult, if 
 not impossible, for any one else to get. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue, No. 477. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 
 Twilight Moon at Ryogoku Bridge. 
 
 It may be noted in passing that this subject is 
 the exception to the rule that prints of this set, in 
 the first edition, bear the publisher’s mark on the 
 margin outside the decorative border; the other 
 nine subjects do, this does not. The print will 
 recall to the student of modern Western art, as 
 clearly as did Number 9, Whistler’s indebtedness 
 to the Japanese. 
 
 This is one of the rare examples of this print in 
 tones of blue instead of the usual brown. To the 
 mind of this cataloguer, the effect is extraordi- 
 narily beautiful. 
 
 66 
 
O08 “ON HOIHSOUIH XI ALV 1d 
 
 
 
 
 

 
84 
 
 85 
 
 86 
 
 87 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No, 17. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 
 Full Moon at Takanawa. A flock of wild geese 
 flying down. 
 
 Print reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue, No. 473. 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 18, and in color in the Catalogue of 
 Japanese Prints belonging to the Louvre, Vol. 
 I], Plate 31. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 
 Cherries at Gotenyama seen at twilight. 
 Gotenyama is one of the famous places for view- 
 ing the cherry-bloom. 
 
 Subject reproduced in color, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. 
 VI, No. 188, and Catalogue of Japanese Prints 
 belonging to the Louvre, Vol. II, Plate 33. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 New Year’s sunrise after snow at Susaki. 
 Subject reproduced, Happer Catalogue, No. 16. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 
 Late spring at Massaki. 
 Subject reproduced, Kinbei Murata Catalogue of 
 April, 1918. 
 
 88 HIROSHIGE (Tokaido) 
 
 The set known as ‘‘The 53 Stations of the To- 
 kaido” contains fifty-five prints which were de- 
 
 67 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 signed in 1833, consequent, it is said, to a trip 
 made by the artist in the retinue of an official 
 who had been appointed to bring a present from 
 the Tokugawa Shogun in Yedo to the Emperor in 
 Kyoto. Later in his life Hiroshige did various 
 other Tokaido sets but none of as fine average 
 quality as the first. There are also a number of 
 series of Toto Meisho with fine prints in each, 
 but again the earliest set is the best. 
 
 The Tokaido was the main road along the coast 
 between the two capitals and the 53 Stations 
 were places where relays of bearers or horses 
 could be obtained and travelers could be ac- 
 commodated. Now, through the windows of the 
 observation cars of the Tokaido Railway, which 
 traverses much the same route, scenes flash on 
 one that startlingly suggest the prints; but the 
 train covers the 330 miles in a few hours, while in 
 the time of Hiroshige the journey took at least 
 as many days. For two hundred years the To- 
 kaido was traveled regularly by nobles who came 
 each year from their fiefs, followed by bands of 
 retainers, to pay their annual, obligatory re- 
 spects to the Shogun. There was an etiquette of 
 the road; and many adventures befell poor and 
 rich among the crowds that moved along it. 
 The print here shown represents the crossing of 
 the Ten Ryu or Heavenly Dragon River near 
 Mitsuki—Station 29. The characterization of 
 the two boatmen whose faces are unseen is ex- 
 traordinarily expressive. 
 
 68 
 
89 
 
 gO 
 
 9 
 
 L ool 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, Plate 26, and V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 220. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Tokaido) 
 
 Clear weather after snow at Kameyama. Sta- 
 tion 47. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 22, 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Tokaido) 
 
 Twilight snow at Kambara. Station 16. 
 Hiroshige has been called the artist of mist, 
 snow and rain. This subject and the preceding 
 one are among his most notable snow scenes, 
 and, as the impressions of both that are ex- 
 hibited are of unusually fine quality, it is inter- 
 esting to notice how the snow is rendered—in 
 Number 8o crisp and crystalline, in Number 90 
 sodden. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, Plate 25. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Tokaido) 
 
 A shower at Shono. Station 46. 
 
 This is one of the three or four most famous 
 rain scenes done by Hiroshige. 
 
 The subject is reproduced in the Hiroshige Me- 
 morial Catalogue, Plate 27, from a print of the 
 second edition, as published in book form, 1834, 
 the difference being that in the second state the 
 characters on the umbrella are omitted. The 
 
 69 
 
Q2 
 
 93 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 first state is reproduced in color in Bing’s “‘Ar- 
 tistic Japan,” Vol. III, No. 15. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 The Bow Moon. | 
 
 For some of his landscapes Hiroshige used the 
 narrow panel form adopted for most of his bird 
 and flower subjects, and sometimes, as here, with 
 most notable success. The print comes from a 
 series of “Twenty-eight Moonlight Views” only 
 two of which are known, the other being as fine 
 as this. 
 
 The poem is Chinese and reads: 
 
 In early dawn the moon gleams for a time 
 within the myriad forests, above autumn 
 streams hurrying westward through huddled 
 hills. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 48; V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 258, 
 and in color as a frontispiece in Ficke’s “Chats on 
 Japanese Prints.” 
 
 Size 142 x 6%. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 Boatman and raft in snow on the Sumida River. 
 This panel is the winter scene from a series of 
 “Views of Yedo in the Four Seasons.” 
 
 The poem reads: 
 
 The snow that falls on the waters of the Su- 
 mida may be the feathers of the oyster- 
 catcher (A kind of bird—Miyako-dori.) 
 
 70 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 The dictionary translates miyako-dori as “ oyster- 
 catcher,” which conveys to us nothing of poetic 
 value and little else, except that we know there is 
 a bird by that name which lives on shell fish. 
 One could translate “sea gull,” losing a little in 
 literalness and gaining something in charm; but 
 the Japanese would hear instantly the overtones 
 of the word, for Miyako is the old name for the 
 early capital, Kyoto, and miyako-dori is the bird 
 of the Capital. Besides all this, the Japanese 
 would remember a famous poem by Narihira (see 
 Grolier Club: Catalogue of Figure Prints, Num- 
 ber 1), written when, far from Kyoto, the name 
 of this bird, casually heard, saddened his heart 
 with recollections of the old home and a loved 
 one left there. These allusions, whose poetic 
 significance is clear to the Japanese, defy all at- 
 tempts at translation. 
 
 After all, it takes two to make almost any 
 poetry. For example, there is a lovely lyric by 
 Thomas Hardy which commences, “When | set 
 out for Lyonnesse.”’ The overtones reverberate 
 instantly for us but would be lost on most Japan- 
 ese. If, on the other hand, Mr. Hardy had 
 written “When I set out for Liverpool,” there 
 would have been no overtones for anybody, or 
 at least very different ones. A poet can only sow 
 seed that blows hither and thither in the wind 
 until it happens to fall on receptive ground, and 
 then, instantly, there is created the flower of 
 poetry. 
 
 wt 
 
94 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 The finest of these panel prints, such as this and 
 Number 02, are rather rare. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 53 and V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 286. 
 
 Size 14% X 5. 
 
 HIROSHIGE 
 
 A very rare snow-scene from the rare series 
 Wakan Royet Shi or “Poems of China and 
 Japan.”’ The mountains of Chinese painting, 
 snow-covered; in the foreground peasants in 
 straw storm-coats toiling painfully over a snow- 
 laden bridge toward cottages roofed in snow. 
 The poem is Chinese: 
 
 The snow flies like wild-goose feathers, scat- 
 tered disorderly; men, standing and wander- 
 ing, robed in snow, are like white cranes. 
 
 According to the Hiroshige Memorial Catalogue, 
 which reproduces two of the others, six sheets of 
 this set are known. This is a very notable print, 
 as fine as it is rare. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Plate 22 in Japanese Color 
 Prints Lent by R. Leicester Harmsworth, Esq., M. 
 P., Victoria and Albert Museum, 1913; and No, 
 528 in Catalogue of the Private Collection of an 
 Importer of Japanese Products, Sotheby, 1911. 
 Signed Hiroshige. Sealed Ichiryusai. Publisher 
 Jokin. 
 
 Size 14% x 103. (Plate X). 
 
 72 
 

 
 94 
 
 HIROSHIGE NO 
 
 PLATE. X 
 
et to 
 Opis if 
 at 
 
 
 
95 
 
 06 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Omi Hakkei) 
 
 The set to which this print belongs shows eight 
 views of the beautiful Lake Biwa. 
 The habit of depicting a place or region, or, by 
 extension, phases of life, in eight characteristic 
 aspects, was inherited from the Chinese, tradi- 
 tion also fixing the general subjects of the eight, 
 —Night Rain, Autumn Moon, Sunset, etc.; this 
 one being Fishing Boats Returning. 
 Poem: 
 The boats that return with swelling sails to 
 Yabase are even now leaving the shore of 
 Uchida with following winds. 
 
 Yabase is in the foreground of the picture. 
 
 The subject is reproduced, with the title of a 
 different print, in ‘‘Japanese Color Prints” by E. 
 F. Strange (Victoria and Albert Museum), Plate 
 XI. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Omi Hakkei) 
 Sunset at Seta. 
 Poem: 
 
 Freed from the wintry showers passing over 
 
 far-off Mount Moru, the rays of the setting 
 
 sun are crossing the long bridge of Seta. 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, Plate 28, and V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 231,in a clearer printing. Another reproduction, 
 in Bing’s “Artistic Japan,” Vol. I, No. 1, is in 
 color. 
 
 73 
 
97 
 
 98 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Omi Hakke1) 
 
 Returning Geese at Katata. 
 Poem: 
 
 Lured from their flight over many peaks to- 
 ward far-off Koshiji, the wild geese are 
 alighting at Katata. 
 
 Subject reproduced in color, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. 
 VI, No. 240. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Omi Hakkei) 
 
 Evening Rain at Karasaki. The Great Pine. 
 This ancient and gigantic pine, which is supposed 
 to have, or to have had, the widest spread of any 
 pine-tree in the world, is now merely a ghost of 
 what it was ninety years ago; for there were bor- 
 ers in some of the wooden supports put under 
 its far-reaching branches, and the splendor of 
 the great tree is gone. The dimensions as given 
 by different authorities vary greatly but the cir- 
 cumference of the trunk is at least thirty feet 
 and, a very few years ago, the spread from east 
 to west was given as 160 feet and from north to 
 south as 150 feet. 
 
 The poem is difficult but its general meaning 
 seems to be: 
 
 Hushed stands the giant pine in the night 
 rain; 
 
 Elsewhere now the evening breeze that mur- 
 mured of it, sings its fame. 
 
 74 
 
99 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 The subject is much better reproduced in the V. 
 I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 233, than in the Hi- 
 roshige Memorial Catalogue, Plate 28. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Toto Meisho) 
 
 The grounds of the Kameido Shrine in snow. 
 The print is from a later Toto Meisho set which 
 was published by Kikakudo about 1836. 
 
 The shrine, popularly called Kameido because of 
 a stone tortoise that is there, is dedicated to the 
 memory of Michizane, to whom these two Gro- 
 lier Club catalogues have so often referred, and 
 whose romantic story is outlined under Number 
 8 of the present one. 
 
 The gardens of the Kameido Shrine were de- 
 signed in imitation of those that Michizane built 
 in his exile to console himself for the loss of the gar- 
 den he had loved at home. The curved bridges, 
 the wistaria arbor, here seen in winter, are still 
 there, and still the sprawling, old plum-trees 
 blossom in the snow, as trees will blossom in 
 Japan; but now the quiet little shrine lies an- 
 achronous, in the midst of modern Tokyo with 
 its trolleys and its noise, and just outside the 
 sacred enclosure rises the smoking chimney of 
 some great factory whose workers, still Japanese 
 at heart, creep back now and again to dream of 
 old things among the plum trees. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 60, and V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 
 194. 
 73 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 100 HIROSHIGE (Kanazawa Hakkei) 
 
 10 
 
 — 
 
 This print, Evening Snow at Uchikawa, is from 
 a series of ‘‘Eight Views of Kanazawa.” 
 Poem: 
 
 In the early dusk, when the pine is buried 
 in snow and other trees are leafless, one 
 glittering whiteness illumines a superb view 
 of the Harbor. 
 
 Curiously enough, this well-known subject does 
 not appear to have been reproduced except in 
 an undated catalogue of a Hiroshige Exhibition 
 in the Yamanaka Galleries in New York. 
 (Plate XI). 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Kyoto Meisho) 
 
 The Gion Shrine in snow. 
 
 This series of views of the old capital, Kyoto, 
 comprises ten prints, two of which are shown. 
 The entrance to each Shinto shrine is marked 
 by that beautifully decorative erection known 
 as a Torii which consists of two uprights sur- 
 mounted by a cross piece, usually curved, and 
 is constructed of gray stone, wood or red lacquer. 
 The origin and significance of the Jorzz are some- 
 what in doubt, but the form goes back to im- 
 memorial antiquity. 
 
 The accuracy of Hiroshige is sometimes start- 
 ling. The compiler, who was perfectly familiar 
 with the print but had forgotten where the Gion 
 Shrine was, came on it suddenly with instant 
 
 76 
 
OO! “ON HOIHSOUIH IX HLV 1d 
 
 Se i) eal a s oo ms ee eee ee a . " , aagRaatat - (ee 
 
 
 
 I oS 
 
 PAE oy 
 ee open 
 
 gl 
 
 Se 
 
 
 

 

 
 102 
 
 103 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 recognition. The popular name of this Shrine, 
 by which the print is known, is really that of a 
 Buddhist temple in the same enclosure. The 
 Shrine in the print was erected in 1654 in the 
 place of a much earlier one dedicated to a deity 
 known as The Impetuous Male because of the 
 manner in which he behaved toward his sister. 
 There is a festival that has been held there, with 
 one intermission, ever since the year 876. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, 
 No. 206, and in color, from a paler impression, by 
 Strange in “Japanese Illustration,” Plate VIII. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Kyoto Meisho) 
 
 A passenger boat on the Yodo River, with a 
 cook-boat alongside. ~The boatman at the bow 
 watches a bird flying across the moon; and one 
 who looks at the print with any imagination 
 almost seems to hear that plaintive little song 
 the boatmen sing. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 58, and V. 1. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 205. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Kisokaido) 
 
 The highway called Kisokaido connected the 
 two capitals as did the Tokaido, but was an 
 inland road whereas the other followed the 
 coast. There were sixty-nine post-stations on 
 the Kisokaido and there are seventy prints in 
 the set, forty-seven of these having been designed 
 
 i 
 
104 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 by Hiroshige, the remainder by Keisai Yeisen. 
 Four by Hiroshige have been selected for exhibi- 
 tion, this snow scene being Station 47, Oi. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Happer Catalogue, No. 448. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Kisokaido) 
 Mochizuki. Station 26. 
 
 . The road bordered by great pines; below lies 
 
 105 
 
 106 
 
 a valley dimly seen under a full moon. This 
 is one of Hiroshige’s finest prints. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, No. 86. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Kisokaido) 
 
 Miyanokoshi. Station 37. 
 
 Another famous print of mist and moonlight, 
 and a superb impression of it. The nearer trees 
 are sometimes printed in gray. 
 
 Subject reproduced in color, Hiroshige Memorial 
 Catalogue, No. go. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Kisokaido) 
 
 Seba. Station 32. Frequently miscalled Semba. 
 Two of the most dangerous prints to buy with- 
 out consulting an expert, or after consulting 
 one, are the much-admired Seba and Mochizuki 
 of this Kisokaido Set. It is very rarely that 
 either turns up in the original coloring and in 
 such condition as those exhibited, most clean 
 copies being partially reprinted, retouched or 
 recolored. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 
 78 
 
107 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 logue, No. 89; V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 
 299, and in color, Bing’s ‘‘Artistic Japan,”’ Vol. 
 IV, No. 23. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Yedo Kinko Hakkei) 
 
 This set of eight views of the suburbs of Yedo 
 was first privately printed and bore, in this edi- 
 tion for private distribution, three poems on 
 each print. The set appears to have been 
 ordered by a poet for himself and his literary 
 friends, some of whose verses appear with his 
 own on the prints. At least two of Hiroshige’s 
 masterpieces are in this set; and, to the Occi- 
 dental eye, the prints were improved in the 
 edition published for sale a little later by hav- 
 ing two of the poems taken out of the sky. 
 Five subjects are exhibited in this second state, 
 the first being “‘ Fishing Boats Returning to Gy6- 
 toku.”” The poem that was retained is signed 
 Hayabunero Shinsu and reads: 
 The Gyotoku boats anxiously homeward 
 bound are driven by irresistible winds to the 
 divided streams of the cat-haunted river 
 (Kowagawa). 
 
 The adjective applied to the unfortunate river 
 does not strike the cataloguer as particularly 
 poetic, nor does the imagination, set free and 
 given impetus by the poem, find itself wan- 
 dering in an Elysium of appealing sights and 
 sounds; all of which goes to prove what was said 
 before,—that the effect of a Japanese poem 
 
 79 
 
108 
 
 109 
 
 THE ‘GROLIER CLUB 
 
 depends largely on the mind of the reader—his 
 inherited associations, his ideas, his accumulated 
 store of knowledge. There must be some legend 
 about that river, some quaint bit of folk- 
 lore; but a tolerably industrious search has only 
 brought to light one fact of general interest: 
 in Japan respectable cats have short tails; cats 
 with long tails are liable to be possessed of the 
 devil. 
 
 Subject reproduced with one poem, Hiroshige 
 Memorial Catalogue, No. 100, and from the first 
 edition, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 276. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Yedo Kinko Hakkei) 
 
 Clearing weather at Shibaura. 
 
 The poem contains a play on words, Awa being 
 a place name and also meaning “foam.” It 
 reads: 
 
 The clouds having blown away and the strong 
 wind died, across the calm bay of Shibaura 
 can be seen Awa and Kazusa floating on the 
 gentle waves. 
 
 Subject reproduced from the first edition, V. 
 I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 273. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Yedo Kinko Hakkei) 
 
 Evening Rain at Azuma. 
 
 As was stated in connection with the Omi 
 Hakkei, these series of eight views had their 
 general subjects prescribed by tradition. It is 
 
 80 
 
I1O 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 interesting to compare, for example, the Even- 
 ing Rain of one set with that of the other. 
 The poem is signed Suichado, and reads: 
 
 Caught late at night by the spring rain in the 
 woods of Azuma on Willow Island, one would 
 like to borrow a young willow for a raincoat 
 (or, a raincoat made of young willow). 
 
 These poems probably were souvenirs of ex- 
 cursions or poets’ picnics which the prints were 
 made to commemorate, and in all likelihood 
 were not intended to be taken seriously. They 
 were not even written for strangers, much less 
 to be worked over by laborious cataloguers six 
 thousand miles away. 
 
 Subject reproduced with one poem, Hiroshige 
 Memorial Catalogue, No. 98; from the first 
 edition, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 275, and 
 in color in the Japanese translation of Ficke’s 
 “Chats on Japanese Prints.” 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Yedo Kinko Hakkei) 
 
 Evening Snow at Asukayama. 
 This is one of Hiroshige’s most famous snow- 
 scenes. Asukayama was a place noted for its 
 cherry blooms and was much frequented in the 
 blossom season. 
 Poem: 
 
 The snow both covers the warnings against 
 
 breaking the cherry branches and breaks them 
 itself. 
 
 SI 
 
II 
 
 aad 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 These warnings, of course, were on the little 
 sign posts represented in the picture, a fact 
 showing that even in Japan the aesthetic van- 
 dalism had occasionally to be verboten. 
 
 Subject reproduced in the edition exhibited, Hi- 
 roshige Memorial Catalogue, No.99, and from the 
 first edition, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 277. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Yedo Kinko Hakkei) 
 
 Autumn Moon on the Tama River. 
 This print, with perhaps a dozen of its peers, is 
 
 - counted among Hiroshige’s finest achievements. 
 
 In the first edition the moon was printed in silver. 
 The poem is signed Asanoyado Massugu which, 
 like many of the other signatures, may be a 
 fanciful nom de plume. It reads: 
 
 The autumn moon shines with the light of 
 
 day upon the Futago pine on the Tama 
 
 River. 
 There is a play on the word Futago, which 
 besides being the name of a place happens 
 to mean “twin.” The “Futago pine” might 
 equally well be translated, the “Twin pines,” 
 Like other illustrators, Hiroshige seems not al- 
 ways to follow his text very closely; but it may 
 be that the willow upon which the moon is shin- 
 ing in the picture was mentioned in one of the 
 deleted poems. At any rate, even the poet 
 could have wished nothing changed in a print 
 so lovely. 
 Subject reproduced with one poem, Hiroshige 
 
 82 
 
112 
 
 113 
 
 114 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 Memorial Catalogue, No. 101; from the first ed- 
 tion, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 278, and very 
 beautifully in color in the Catalogue of Japanese 
 Prints owned by the Louvre, Vol. II, Plate 32. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Marusei Tokaido) 
 
 This print is from one of the later Tokaido sets 
 and was published by Marusei about 1852, near- 
 ly twenty years after the first Tokaido series 
 was drawn. The scene is at Hammamatsu 
 (Pine Shore) Station 30. It represents a pil- 
 grim and kelp gatherers under wind-warped 
 pines on the shore of a stormy sea. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Happer Catalogue, No. 194, 
 and in color in the Catalogue of the exhibition 
 held by the Japan Society of New York, No. 
 234 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Upright Tokaido Set) 
 
 In the landscapes of Hiroshige’s later years he 
 was inclined to turn more and more constantly 
 from the horizontal to the upright form. This 
 Tokaido set was published by Tsutaya in 1855. 
 The print chosen for exhibition is Fujikawa, Sta- 
 tion 38; a snow-scene of charming composition. 
 Subject reproduced, Ficke’s “Chats on Japanese 
 Prints,” Plate 54. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 
 This set, which is commonly known from its 
 
 title as ‘The Hundred Views of Yedo,”’ contains 
 
 118 prints by Hiroshige and one by his succes- 
 83 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 sor, Hiroshige II, among the former being sev- 
 eral of the artist’s finest designs. The earlier 
 prints of the series are dated 1856 and the latest 
 1858, the year of his death, these dates, of course 
 being those of publication. 
 
 Perhaps the most familiar of all Japanese prints 
 are some of these ‘“‘Hundred Views of Yedo.”’ 
 There have been innumerable printings, often 
 careless, usually positively bad or at least in- 
 different, so that in this set there is an even 
 more marked difference than usual between 
 good prints and poor ones. Ordinary impres- 
 sions in imperfect condition or of poor color 
 utterly lack the beauty that should be theirs. 
 For example, the band of deep blue that Hiro- 
 shige is apt to put across the top of his upright 
 prints, or as a streak in water, should never be 
 cut off straight with a clearly defined edge, but 
 should be blended softly into the color of the 
 sky or whatever else is adjacent to it. Ithas 
 been stated, without proof, and on what author- 
 ity I know not, that the first edition of this set 
 has three colors in the square that bears the title 
 of each print. Observation will indicate that, 
 as a general rule with plenty of exceptions, the 
 earliest and finest impressions have these three 
 colors, the later and poorer ones have not. 
 The first of The Hundred Views chosen for 
 exhibition is Onmayagashi,—a twilight scene, 
 with a ferry crossing the Sumida. This subject 
 was sometimes printed, perhaps even in the first 
 
 84 
 
LI 
 
 ww 
 
 116 
 
 ty 
 
 118 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 edition, much darker, with the foreground al- 
 most black; sometimes the whole print is lighter; 
 but neither of these printings is apt to have the 
 beautifully graded color in the sky which adds 
 so greatly to the charm of the one exhibited. 
 Subject reproduced, Ficke’s “Chats on Japan- 
 ese Prints,”’ Plate 55. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 
 Meguro Taikobashi. The Taiko Bridge at Me- 
 guro. Snow-scene. 
 Subject reproduced, Jacquin Catalogue, No. 485. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 
 Asakusa Temple in snow. Even to-day, the 
 great lantern still hangs at the gate. In the 
 print the lantern should be brilliant red as it is 
 here, not the dull purple of most impressions. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, 
 No. 310. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 
 This moonlight scene with its deep shadows and 
 spots of brilliant color is a view of Tagegashi, 
 the bamboo-sellers’ quarter beside Kyo Bridge. 
 The bamboo is stacked upright in the yards. 
 (Compare Hokusai, Number 25.) 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI 
 No. 314. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 Fukagawa Jumantsubo. A great eagle poised 
 85 
 
119 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 above the snow-covered plain and looking down 
 at a tub floating in Yedo Bay. 
 
 Many of Hokusai’s views of Fuji have great 
 carrying power and gain in impressiveness when 
 looked at from a distance. This is one of the 
 few prints by Hiroshige of which the same might 
 be said, for the effectiveness of his work de- 
 pends usually upon delicacy and charm of de- 
 tail rather than upon strength, or boldness of 
 conception. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, Plate 78, and V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI. 
 No. 320. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 
 Ohashi. The Bridge in Rain. 
 
 There are three states of this famous print, the 
 one shown, which is considered the best; a rare 
 one with two boats in the distance near the 
 shore; and a later, ineffective state in which the 
 storm clouds that droop here have been cut 
 off straight and the shadow on the surface of 
 the bridge which ties the picture together is 
 omitted. The buildings on the shore should be 
 printed as in this impression, neither so light 
 that they become obtrusive nor so dark that 
 they cannot be seen or sensed half-consciously. 
 Subject reproduced in the first and second states 
 mentioned in the Hiroshige Memorial Cata- 
 logue, Plate 77, and in the third state, V. I. 
 Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 321. A fine impression 
 
 86 
 
120 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 of the state exhibited is reproduced in color by 
 Von Seidlitz and in the second volume of Fenol- 
 losa’s “Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art.” 
 
 HIROSHIGE (Meisho Yedo Hyakkei) 
 
 Oji. The Fox-fires. 
 
 Partly because this is one of the most gener- 
 ally admired of all prints by Hiroshige, and 
 partly because the impression exhibited is such 
 a splendid one, a poor and late impression that 
 is, however, unsoiled and in its original condi- 
 tion, is left framed on the table in the centre of 
 the room as an illustration and a warning. The 
 one shows what the artist intended, the other is 
 a dead thing with the magic of creative imag- 
 ination, of personality and of charm gone. 
 Those who come to the Grolier Club to learn 
 must remember that much the same difference 
 as this exists between impressions of most 
 Japanese prints. 
 
 The duplicate, while it is in hand, will serve to 
 point another lesson: the original block for 
 “The Fox-fires’’ either was damaged before 
 many impressions were taken from it or anew 
 block, marvellously like it, was cut from an 
 imperfect piece of wood. In the framed im- 
 pression there is an imperfection like a knot- 
 hole near the lower left-hand corner; in the print 
 exhibited there is not. The few superb im- 
 pressions and all of the many poor ones that 
 have come to the attention of the writer show 
 
 87 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 the same difference; and remembrance of the 
 fact might help the inexpert in choosing be- 
 tween prints of this subject if the qualities of 
 printing, etc. were not in themselves a suf- 
 ficient guide. There is just the difference be- 
 tween the two impressions that there would be 
 between a magical line of Keats and the same 
 line with the words in some way transposed and 
 the magic gone. 
 
 A few remarks must be added about the subject 
 of the print, for fox-legends in Japan form a 
 particularly appealing part of a folk-lore that is 
 unusually rich and romantic. Foxes in Japan 
 have magical power. Good foxes guard the rice 
 fields and protect the families of people who 
 have been kind to them. Bad foxes are not- 
 able players of pranks; frequently they assume 
 human form, appearing usually as priests or 
 women, and a fox so metamorphosed is very 
 difficult to distinguish from the dignified cleric 
 or bewitching young girl whose form he has 
 taken. One way to discover him is to get the 
 reflection in water, for a face so reflected will 
 show its real form; but fried rat is an infallible 
 detector of foxes. No fox can resist fried rat; 
 if one is placed near where a person suspected 
 of being a fox is about to pass and he stops to 
 sniff the delectable odor, you are sure and can 
 shoot; if he passes by, unmoved, you are 
 equally sure and make inward apologies for 
 your suspicion. 
 
 88 
 
I2 
 
 — 
 
 JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 The foxes in the print, however, are good foxes, 
 assembled on New Year’s Eve near the great 
 Fox Temple at Oji, which is dimly seen under 
 the dark trees. There Inari—the Fox-god, pro- 
 tector of crops and kindly, if somewhat whimsi- 
 cal, friend of the poor, has his chief shrine, and 
 there the foxes themselves gather once a year, 
 each with his magical fire—astral body, shall we 
 call itP or will-o-the-wispr—visible beside him. 
 In the shadowy distance of the print these little 
 fires dot the dark plain from the tree of assem- 
 blage to the shrine. The foxes themselves have 
 not the bodies of real foxes; they are super- 
 natural beings, endowed with strange powers, 
 fabulously old, and wise beyond the earthly 
 reach of wisdom. 
 
 The subject is reproduced in color in the Hiro- 
 shige Memorial Catalogue from an early im- 
 pression like the one exhibited, and the V. I. 
 Catalogue, Vol. VI, No. 318, reproduces a late 
 and poor impression with the imperfection in 
 the block. 
 
 HIROSHIGE (The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji) 
 
 Kai Misaka Goye. ‘Travelers at the top of a 
 steep descent; water below with a hill and pine 
 tree on the right and the sweeping line of snow- 
 white Fuji far away. 
 
 The Thirty-Six Views of Fuji was Hiroshige’s 
 last set, finished just before his death and pub- 
 lished after he died. Some few copies of prints 
 
 89 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 from this set and from the almost equally late 
 upright Tokaido, were struck off in unusually 
 delicate color, chiefly blue, and on unusually 
 fine paper, perhaps to be distributed among the 
 artist’s friends and pupils; it is one of these that 
 has been chosen to be the last Hiroshige of 
 this exhibition. 
 
 KUNIYOSHI (1797-1861) 
 
 Born in 1797, as was Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi 
 lived on for three more of those eventful years 
 that saw the opening of Japan. He was 
 strongly influenced by steel engravings and other 
 European pictures which had long been fa- 
 miliar in Japan through the Dutch traders and 
 sailors at Nagasaki; and much of his work is an 
 unsuccessful attempt to combine the Occidental 
 and Oriental traditions in prints which remind 
 one of certain dogs whose exterior semblance 
 inevitably suggests disturbing questions of an- 
 cestry and heredity. 
 
 Kuniyoshi is at his best when he is most Jap- 
 anese; his figure prints lack distinction, but the 
 finest of his landscapes are worthy to hang be- 
 side those of Hiroshige and of Hokusai; and in 
 so hanging they lose nothing of their own pe- 
 culiar dignity and charm. 
 
 Kuniyoshi was a pupil of Toyokuni, whose work 
 ended the Grolier Club’s exhibition of Figure 
 Prints. 
 
 go 
 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 122 KUNIYOSHI 
 
 123 
 
 Eel Catchers in the Miyatogawa. 
 
 Subject reproduced, Barboutau Catalogue, Paris, 
 1904, Vol. II, No. 378. 
 
 Signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi. Publisher Ya- 
 mata. 
 
 Size 9% X 143. 
 
 KUNIYOSHI 
 
 Nichiren in snow. This print is from a set de- 
 picting episodes in the life of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury Japanese saint and reformer, Nichiren, and 
 shows him during a period of exile brought on 
 him by the Buddhist authorities who regarded 
 his activities much as the Roman Church did 
 those of certain reformers who confined them- 
 selves to protesting and reforming from within 
 until they were forced to a definite break. The 
 sect Nichiren founded is still one of the strong- 
 est in Japan. 
 
 The subject sometimes is printed with a harm- 
 ful, heavy line along the horizon. When the 
 print is as it should be it is perhaps the finest 
 of all by Kuniyoshi, and a masterpiece. 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue, Vol. VI, 
 No. 140, and in color with the horizon line, 
 “Legend in Japanese Art,”’ p. 224. 
 
 Signed Kuniyoshi. Sealed. 
 
 Size 83 x 13% exclusive of margins. 
 
 QO! 
 
THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 124 KUNIYOSHI 
 
 125 
 
 A river flowing between high banks, a tree at 
 the left and Fuji in the distance; all seen in the 
 gloaming through falling rain. 
 
 This striking print is exceedingly rare. The 
 subject does not appear to have been repro- 
 duced. 
 
 Signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi. 
 
 Size, inside margins, 10} x 14%. (Plate X11). 
 
 KYOSAI (1831-1880) 
 
 Ky6sai, a nineteenth century artist, and the 
 last whose work is to be included in this exhibi- 
 tion, was a painter of considerable distinction 
 and the designer of a few fine prints among 
 which the one shown is the most admired. He 
 was especially fond of drawing ravens at rest or 
 in flight, and always with a fine sense of their 
 individuality. 
 
 KYOSAI 
 
 A black raven on a branch, watching. 
 
 The character of the bird is unmistakable and 
 the print merits a place in any exhibition. It 
 is here, however, partly to carry the mind 
 back once more to older things; back from 
 Hiroshige to the paintings that were before 
 prints, to the tradition behind those artists 
 whose recorded vision of the fleeting world and 
 
 Q2 
 
VZI ‘ON IHSOAINN™M IX ALVI1d 
 
 
 
 
 

 
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PRINTS 
 
 its loveliness has been exhibited; back to Sesshu, 
 to Sotan, to painters of the Sung and Tang, to 
 birds and flowers of the long ago. 
 
 Subject reproduced, V. I. Catalogue Vol. VI, 
 No. 384; Barboutau, Vol. II, No. 384, and Joly 
 and Tomita Catalogue, Plate 30. 
 
 Signed Shojo Kyosai, the Shojo being a name 
 adopted on occasions by Kydosai, probably in 
 reference to a mythical being called Shojo whose 
 most prominent characteristic was his fondness 
 for saké (rice wine). It is fitting that these 
 exhibitions of Japanese prints held by the Gro- 
 lier Club should end as they began, with a note 
 of levity; for beautiful as the prints are, they 
 were not intended to inculcate morals or be 
 viewed in a spirit of austere solemnity. 
 
 Sealed Ky6sai. 
 
 Size 144 x o8. 
 
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