THE FIRST PERIOD: THE PRIMITIVES
FROM MORONOBU TO THE INVENTION OF POLYCHROME PRINTING (1660-1764).
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.
The Primitive Period, first of those epochs into which the history of
Japanese prints may be roughly divided, begins about 1660 with the
appearance of the work of Moronobu. The period ends a century later
when, after many experiments, the technique of the art had been
developed from the black-and-white print to the full complexity of
multi-colour printing.
The commonly accepted name of "the Primitives" requires some explanation
when applied to these artists lest it create the impression that we are
dealing with designers in whose works are to be found the naïve efforts
of unsophisticated and groping minds. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. Thousands of years of artistic experience and tradition lay back
of these productions; and the level of æsthetic sophistication implied
in them was high. The word Primitive applies to these men only in so
far as they were workers in the technique of wood-engraving. As
producers of prints they were indeed pioneers and experimenters; but as
designers they were part of a long succession that had reached full
maturity centuries earlier.
Whether it be that a new technical form, like an unexplored country,
tends to exclude from entrance all but bold and vigorous spirits, or
whether it be that the stimulus of difficulty and discovery inspirits
the adventurer with keener powers, these Primitives were as a group
surpassed by none of their successors in force and lofty feeling. They
seized the freshly available medium with an exuberance of vitality that
had not yet lost itself in the deserts of a fully mastered technique.
"These Primitives," says Von Seidlitz, "are now held in far higher
esteem than formerly. We recognize in them not only forerunners, but men
of heroic race, who, without being able to claim the highest honours
paid to the gods, still exhibit a power, a freshness, and a grace that
are hardly met with in the same degree in later times. Despite the
imperfections that necessarily attach to their works, despite their lack
of external correctness, their limitations to few and generally crude
materials, and their conventionalism, there clings to their work a charm
such as belongs to the works neither of the most brilliant nor of the
pronouncedly naturalistic periods. For, in the singleness of their
efforts to make their drawing as expressive as possible, without regard
to any special kind of beauty or truth, these Primitives discover a
power of idealization and a stylistic skill which, at a later period
and with increased knowledge, are quite unthinkable."
To the new Ukioye School these Primitives gave the first great opening
for popularity. Their broadsides and albums disseminated among the
millions of Yedo the product of the new and vigorous art-impulse. They
were the river-streams through which the lake reservoirs of Ukioye art
returned to the sea of popular life whence the waters had come.
Fenollosa's picture of the popular life during a portion of this
Primitive Period, the Genroku Era (1688-1703), is not without its
significance in this connection. "This was the day when population and
arts had largely been transferred to Yedo, and both people and samurai
were becoming conscious of themselves. The populace of the new great
city, already interested in the gay pleasures of the tea-houses and the
dancing-girls' quarter, were just elaborating a new organ for
expression, namely the vulgar theatre, with plays and acting adapted to
their intelligence. They had just caught hold, too, of the device of the
sensational novel. Now here was an army of young samurai growing up in
the neighbouring squares, who were just on the _qui vive_ to slip out
into these nests of popular fun. For the time being, freedom for both
sides was in the air. Anybody could say or do what he pleased. Fashions
and costumes were extravagant. Everybody joined good-naturedly in the
street dances. It was like a world of college boys out on a lark; to
speak more exactly, it had much resemblance to the gay, roistering,
unconscious mingling of lords and people in the Elizabethan days of
Shakespeare, before the duality of puritan and cavalier divided them."
The subjects depicted by the Primitive artists for the pleasure of this
populace are drawn from the flourishing life thus described. First and
foremost, the stage is represented; and the greatest prints of this
period are, as a rule, the single figures of actors portrayed in their
rôles. But social and domestic scenes also find place here; and all the
play of fashion and recreation, the occupations and amusements of the
ladies, the boating-parties and tea-house scenes, the street and the
festival, appear in brilliant succession.
In the general style of their designs the Primitives were all controlled
by one fundamental aim--that of decoration. This dominating quality
appears most clearly in the large actor-prints which we associate with
the names of Kwaigetsudō, Kiyonobu, Masanobu, and Toyonobu. To an extent
greater than the artists of any succeeding period they eschewed
minuteness of detail and accuracy of representation, sacrificing these
things for the sake of achieving broad decorative effects combined with
vigorous movement. A certain unique simplicity and grandeur in the
spacial and linear conceptions of these men gives to the whole Primitive
Period a Titanic character that distinguishes it. In the best works of
this time the stylistic finish of the drawing is masterful. It
translates motion into sweeping caligraphic lines, and creates imposing
calm by the poise and balance of severe black-and-white masses. Just as
in opera the flow of music induces in the auditor a state of
semi-trance that makes him oblivious to the patent absurdities and
unrealities of the action, so in these pictures the rhythmic flow of the
composition lifts the consciousness of the spectator to a plane where it
ceases to take note of the incorrect report of Nature and loses itself
in the enjoyment of the noble decorative conceptions that actuate the
creating hand.
A profound formalism dominates these works. The figures are purely
one-dimensional; the picture is a flat pattern of lights and darks
bounded by the sharp outline of great curves. In the actor-pieces no
real portraiture of the actor as an individual is essayed; the artist's
aim is rather to convey some sense of the dynamic power of the rôle in
which the actor appears. He succeeds so well that his pictures, though
not representations of individuals, stand as abstract symbols of grace
or of power.
Historically, one of the chief interests in this period centres upon the
notable developments in technique. Wood-engraving was, as we have seen,
already known when the period opened; but it had not yet been subjected
to the purposes of the artist. Confined almost exclusively to crude book
illustrations, it had as little artistic significance as the cheap
hand-painted sketches called _otsu-ye_, which, produced by hundreds,
were sold for the amusement of the populace.
With the advent of the gifted Moronobu, the book-illustration was
transformed into an important and beautiful creation. Going further,
Moronobu and his successors produced single-sheet prints of large size,
in black and white only, that served all the purposes of paintings and
were capable of being reproduced without limit. These black-and-white
prints were called _sumi-ye_ (Plate 1). Books and albums by him appeared
at various earlier dates, but the first of his single-sheet prints was
issued about 1670.
The second step in development came with the realization that the
brilliant colour of the older _otsu-ye_ could easily be imparted to the
new prints. So some of the sheets of Moronobu and his contemporaries
were coloured by hand with orange, yellow, green, brown, and blue,
somewhat after the manner used by the painters of the classical Kano
School. In the actor-prints there began to appear, shortly after 1700,
solid masses of orange-red pigment. These sheets were called _tan-ye_,
from the _tan_ or red lead used in them. About 1710 citrine and yellow
were used in connection with the _tan_ (Plate 2). By 1715 or a little
later, _beni_, a delicate red colour of vegetable origin, was
discovered, and almost entirely replaced the cruder _tan_. Prints thus
coloured were called _kurenai-ye_.
About 1720 it was found that the intensity of the colouring could be
enhanced by the addition of lacquer. Red, yellow, blue, green, brown,
and violet were used in brilliant combination; and their tone was
heightened by painting glossy black lacquer on the black portions of the
picture, and sprinkling some of the colours with sparkling powdered gold
or mother-of-pearl. Such prints were called _urushi-ye_, or
lacquer-prints (Plate 5).
These various methods of hand-colouring prevailed up to about the year
1742. At this time, a method was perfected by which two colour-blocks
could be used in printing; and the true colour-print came into
existence. Masanobu is generally credited with being the inventor of the
new technique. The first colours employed were green and the red known
as _beni_; and from this the prints derived their common name of
_beni-ye_ (Plate 6). Later many varieties of colour were tried. To some
print-lovers, these two-colour prints seem unequalled in beauty.
About 1755 a method was devised by which a third colour-block could be
employed, and blue was the colour at first selected to accompany the
original green and red. Then blue, red, and yellow were used, and other
variations; and in the hands of such men as Toyonobu and Kiyomitsu, rich
decorative effects resulted (Plate 7).
To the end of the period hand-colouring was still occasionally used for
large and important pieces such as pillar-prints; but the old method
lost ground steadily, and the day of the polychrome-print was at hand.
To give in more detail the history of this period, the strict
chronological method must be abandoned; and each of the important
artists must be taken up in turn as an independent creator.
MORONOBU.
Hishikawa Moronobu, born probably in 1625, was the son of a famous
embroiderer and textile designer who lived in the province of Awa.
Moronobu worked at the trade of his father during his youth, obtaining
thus a training in decorative invention that is traceable in all his
later work. Upon the death of his father, he came to Yedo and took up
the study of painting under the masters of the Tosa and Kano Schools.
Gradually, however, the Ukioye style, introduced by Matabei some years
before, became his chosen province; and from painting he turned to the
designing of woodcuts for book illustrations and broadsheets. Later in
life he became a monk; and died probably in 1695, though some
authorities say 1714.
[Illustration: HISHIKAWA MORONOBU.]
Moronobu's importance in the history of Japanese prints is twofold. He
inspirited the Ukioye School with a new vitality; and he turned
wood-engraving into an art.
The Ukioye movement, when Moronobu appeared, was still indeterminate. A
great personality was needed to crystallize the vague tendencies then in
solution. This Moronobu accomplished; and the far-reaching effect of his
work was due to the fact that he did not confine his work to painting,
but took up the hitherto unexplored field of woodcuts. As we have seen
in the previous chapter, there had been produced up to Moronobu's time
no illustrated book that could lay claim to artistic value. The little
that had been done in this field was crude artizan work without
charm. Now Moronobu seized this medium and transformed it. Into his
woodcuts he poured that powerful sense of design which he so notably
possessed, creating real pictures of striking decorative beauty. These
books and prints, widely circulated, carried to the eyes of the masses a
new and delightful diversion, spreading far and near the contagious
fascination of this lively Ukioye manner of drawing and awakening in the
populace a thirst for more of these productions. Matabei had devised the
new popular style, but it was Moronobu who threw open the gates of this
region to the people.
[Illustration: MORONOBU: A PAIR OF LOVERS.
Black and white. Size 9 × 13½. Unsigned.
_Plate 1._]
Moronobu's first books appeared about 1660, and from that date to the
time of his retirement he brought out more than a hundred books and
albums and an unknown number of broadsheets. In all of these his
vigorous, genial personality and his strong sense of decoration make
themselves felt. Such a print as the album-sheet reproduced in Plate 1
exhibits his characteristic simplicity of sweeping line, the masterly
use he makes of black and white contrasts, and the vivid force of his
rendering of movement. The firm lines live; the composition is grouped
to form a harmonious picture; a dominating sense of form has entered
here to transform the chaotic raggedness of his predecessors' attempts.
Distorted as these figures may appear to unaccustomed Western eyes, they
have unmistakable style and their bold command of expression is the
first great landmark in Japanese print history.
All of Moronobu's work was printed in black and white only, but
occasionally the sheets were roughly coloured by hand after they had
been printed. His designs have little detail; as a rule the scene
surrounding his main figures is barely suggested by a few lines; and the
figures themselves are hardly more than intense shorthand notations of a
theme. But how much life he gives them! No wonder that the populace
loved his work, and that his many pupils bore away with them to their
own productions the impress of his strong personality and animated
style.
Certain of Moronobu's large single-sheet compositions (such as the Lady
Standing Under a Cherry Tree, in the Buckingham Collection, Chicago, or
the noble Figure of a Woman in the Morse Collection, Evanston), display
so fine a power of composition and so unsurpassable a mastery of
rhythmic line that there can be no hesitancy in judging him, quite apart
from his historical significance, to be an artist of the first order.
Nothing that he ever did was undistinguished.
The collector will not find it easy to procure adequate specimens of
this artist's work. Moronobu's large single sheets are unobtainable
to-day; they could never have been numerous, and the few that have
survived the vicissitudes of almost three centuries are now in the hands
of museums or collectors who will never part with them. Even his smaller
single sheets are uncommon. His work is seldom signed.
FOLLOWERS OF MORONOBU.
The powerful impetus of Moronobu's art communicated itself to many
pupils.
MOROFUSA was the eldest son of Moronobu; he collaborated with his
father, and produced designs that are in exact imitation of his father's
style. His work comprises book illustrations and some large single
sheets, and is very rare.
Additional pupils or contemporaries were: Moromasa, Moronaga, Morikuni,
Masanojo, Moroshige, Morobei, Masataka, Osawa, Morotsugi, Moromori,
Hishikawa Masanobu, Tomofusa, Shimbei, Toshiyuki, Furuyama, Morotane,
Ryujo, Hasegawa Toun, Ishikawa Riusen, Ishikawa Riushu, Wowo, Kawashima
Shigenobu, Kichi, Yoshimura Katsumasa, and Tsukioka Tange. Many of these
are obscure figures, of whose work little is known. Most of them were
chiefly book-illustrators.
[Illustration: NISHIKAWA SUKENOBU.]
SUKENOBU.
The name of Nishikawa Sukenobu brings to mind that long procession of
charming girl figures which year by year came from his hand--figures
whose sweet monotonous faces and delicately poised bodies move with a
pure grace that is perpetually delighting. Lacking the powerful
decorative sense of Moronobu, whose lead he in general followed, and
never attempting the massive blacks of the master's dashing
brush-stroke, Sukenobu yet achieved effects that are more gracious and
appealing than those of his great predecessor. Nothing could surpass
the delicate harmony of line in such a design as the one reproduced in
Plate 2; the willowyness of the young body, the naïve innocence of the
head, the movement and rhythm of the flowing garments, are admirably
depicted. This was Sukenobu's characteristic note; he lingers in one's
memory by virtue of it and none other; he was the least versatile of
artists.
He lived between the years 1671 and 1751. During the period of his
activity his popularity must have been enormous. The single-sheet prints
which he produced were not many, and only a small proportion of these
have come down to us. His main work was in the field of illustrated
books and albums. More than forty of these are known to-day. They
contain chiefly scenes from the lives of women and figures of young
girls. Most of them date from 1713 to 1750. They constitute Sukenobu's
claim to rank as Moronobu's most important successor in the field of
book-illustration. Generally they are printed in black and white only; a
few are embellished with colour added by hand. It is not always possible
to tell whether this colouring was done when the books were published or
whether it was the work of some subsequent owner of the volume.
The delicacy of Sukenobu's designs, and the absence of those peculiar
mannerisms and exaggerations which characterize much of the work of this
period, serve to make him, of all the Primitives, perhaps the most
comprehensible and pleasing to the European taste. To the Japanese
connoisseur he recommends himself because of the refinement of his
work both in subject and in manner, and because of a certain classic
dignity that pervades it.
[Illustration: SUKENOBU: A YOUNG COURTESAN.
Black outlines, with hand-colouring of pale green, orange, and white.
Size 9½ × 6. Unsigned.
_Plate 2._]
The collector will do well to bear in mind that the books of Sukenobu
were frequently reprinted long after his death; and these later
impressions, lacking the original sharpness of line and intensity of
tone in the blacks, are not desirable acquisitions. The original
editions of his books are still to be found occasionally. His
single-sheet prints are, however, of great rarity.
KWAIGETSUDŌ.
In the period immediately succeeding Moronobu--the early years of the
eighteenth century--the work which of all others stands out with a
unique and colossal grandeur is that of Kwaigetsudō.
Kwaigetsudō has long been a puzzle to the student. The original idea
held by Fenollosa and other authorities, that all the prints signed
Kwaigetsudō were by one man, has been abandoned; and the theory now
prevails that there existed a group of artists, headed by a dominant
master named Kwaigetsudō, and that all of these artists produced prints
signed with his name together with their own. The most perplexing
problem has been to determine which of the print-makers was the original
master and which were his disciples. Dr. Kurth confidently states that
Kwaigetsudō Norishige, was the original master. On the other hand, Mr.
Arthur Morrison has recently expressed the opinion that the original
Kwaigetsudō was solely a painter, who produced no prints whatsoever. His
studio name was Kwaigetsudō Ando; his personal name was Okazawa
Genshichi; he was a late contemporary of Moronobu, and worked in Yedo
from about 1704 to 1714, when he was banished to the island of Oshima in
consequence of his participation in a scandal involving a gay banquet
party at a theatre tea-house attended by certain Court ladies. Later he
was pardoned, but did not resume his work. According to this theory all
the prints were the work of his followers, who signed the name
Kwaigetsudō with various additions. This view is probably the correct
one.
The names of the Kwaigetsudō group of print-designers that have so far
come to light are--
KWAIGETSUDŌ ANCHI (or YASUTOMO);
KWAIGETSUDŌ DOHAN (or NORISHIGE);
KWAIGETSUDŌ DOSHU (or NORIHIDE);
KWAIGETSUDŌ DOSHIN (or NORITATSU).
The Kwaigetsudō work is perhaps the most powerful and imposing in the
whole range of Japanese prints. The sheets, of large size, generally
represent the single figure of a standing woman clad in flowing robes.
So much for the theme; it is nothing. But the treatment consists of a
storm of brush-strokes whose power of movement is like that of writhing
natural forces; out of this seething whirl of lines is built up the
structure of the monumental figure.
[Illustration: KWAIGETSUDŌ: COURTESAN ARRANGING HER COIFFURE.
Black and white. Size 24½ × 12.
_Signed Nippon Kigwa Kwaigetsu Matsuyo Norishige._
Spaulding Collection.
_Plate 3._]
The Kwaigetsudō reproduced in Plate 3 exhibits these qualities. The body
is merely suggested, but with complete effectiveness, under the great
swirls of the robes. The dominance of the main curves, the vigour of
the blacks, and the importunate life that vitalizes every touch and
line, give Kwaigetsudō a place as high as the greatest contemporaries or
successors.
All the Kwaigetsudō work was printed in black and white; sometimes the
print was hand-coloured by the application of spots of _tan_, or red
lead. Excellent full-size reproductions of several of them are
obtainable. With these reproductions the ordinary collector will be
obliged to content himself, for the whole number of Kwaigetsudō prints
in existence can scarcely be more than a score or two. They are perhaps
the rarest of all prints.
THE FIRST KIYONOBU.
_Kiyonobu Speaks._
The actor on his little stage
Struts with a mimic rage.
Across my page
My passion in his form shall tower from age to age.
What he so crudely dreams
In vague and fitful gleams--
The crowd esteems.
Well! let the future judge if his or mine this seems--
This calm Titanic mould
Stalking in colours bold
Fold upon fold--
This lord of dark, this dream I dreamed of old!
With Kiyonobu begins that school of painters, the Torii, which was to
take the initiative during the first half of the eighteenth century in
developing the actor-portrait to a very high level, and which still
later was to have the honour of claiming as its head Kiyonaga, in whom
the whole art culminated. It may be convenient to list here the
successive leaders of the school, who were in their turn entitled to the
name of _the_ Torii, and whom we shall take up in their order.
Torii I Kiyonobu I (1664-1729)
Torii II Kiyomasu (1679-1763)
Torii III Kiyomitsu (1735-1785)
Torii IV Kiyonaga (1742-1815)
Torii V Kiyomine (1786-1868)
Torii VI Kiyofusa (1832-1892)
The importance of the school terminated with Kiyonaga, or at latest with
Kiyomine.
[Illustration: TORII KIYONOBU.]
Kiyonobu I, the founder of the Torii line, was born in 1664 and died in
1729. It is said that he was first a resident of Osaka, and then of
Kyoto; and that he finally came to Yedo about the beginning of the gay
and brilliant Genroku Period, 1688-1703. Thus he must have been in Yedo
a few years before the death of Moronobu in 1795, and it is evident that
he studied the Moronobu style. Kiyonobu's father is variously reported
to have been either an actor or a painter of theatrical sign-posters; at
any rate his connection with the theatre was a close one. This
circumstance doubtless determined the line of the son's activity in
designing. About 1700 Kiyonobu produced the first single-sheet
actor-print in black and white only. From this it was only a step to the
production of _tan-ye_, which he probably invented--actor-sheets simply
but brilliantly coloured by the application of orange to certain
portions of the picture. In this manner he issued both _hoso-ye_ (that
is, sheets about 12 inches high and 6 inches wide) and sheets of larger
size, perhaps the most striking being actor-portraits, sometimes several
feet in height, which enjoyed an immense popularity. By about 1715 he
had taken up a more delicate kind of hand-colouring known as
_kurenai-ye_, which some writers think he himself devised. A few years
later he adopted the _urushi-ye_ technique, increasing the number of
colours and using lacquer to heighten the brilliancy of the effect.
Kiyonobu's subjects comprised a few landscapes of no great interest, and
figures of several types. His _forte_ was the representation of actors
and heroes of history. His bold and gigantic style of drawing lends some
probability to the story that he was, when he first came to Yedo, a
painter of huge theatrical sign-boards or posters for the exteriors of
theatres. The same manner that would be appropriate for these is found
in his prints--arresting, forceful, highly exaggerated. His designs must
be regarded as establishing for all later times the general type to be
used in actor-portraits. This constitutes his greatest historical
importance.
The prints which appear to be Kiyonobu's earliest are marked by an
extraordinary development of line, handled in great sweeping strokes.
The brushwork is indicated with much dash and _bravura_, in the manner
of the painter as distinct from the print-designer. A hasty glance might
lead one to mistake some of these early compositions for the work of a
Kwaigetsudō, though they are, as a rule, more uncouth.
Although power of line always remains one of Kiyonobu's characteristics,
there appears in his later work a certain insistence on spaces, a
treatment of the surface of the print as if it were a placque into which
were to be inlaid large flat masses of a different substance. The robes
are broken up into definite segments with sharp boundaries like parts of
a picture puzzle, instead of remaining a surface on which to display the
splintering vigour of brush-strokes. This second style is admirably
adapted to the technique of wood-engraving.
The geometrical quality of some of Kiyonobu's designs is striking. There
are several of his large _tan-ye_ in which the whole print is nothing
more than a series of great circles, brought into relation with each
other, as part of the decoration of the drapery, by wild and whirling
brush-strokes.
The work of Kiyonobu varies greatly in attractiveness. Some of his
prints have more force than beauty; and it requires little effort to
understand the contempt of the aristocracy for these crude
manifestations of the mob's taste. Yet even in these grosser designs
Kiyonobu realizes the power and passion of the dramatic rôle which he
depicts, achieving an effect of tragic rage that is no less intense and
impressive because of its lack of subtlety. Most of his prints suggest
the shout and roar of bombast: this is precisely what they were meant to
convey. But there are a few of another type, that embody the masterful
power of line of the first Torii, joined with a simplicity and
refinement of design which his work frequently lacked, or which, if
present, is disguised from us by the repellent violence of the figure
portrayed. One must see Kiyonobu's rarest and greatest prints in order
to realize why he is regarded as so great an artist.
I have written of Kiyonobu as if he presented no difficulties; but such
is not the case. A stumbling-block for the student is created by the
fact that there exist many two-colour prints signed Kiyonobu. It is
recorded that Kiyonobu died in 1729, many years before the date fixed
upon by Fenollosa and most other authorities as the date of the
invention of colour-printing. If we are to believe that the numerous
colour-prints signed Kiyonobu are by the first Torii, we must either put
back the date of the invention of colour-printing to an extent that is
improbable in view of other facts, or we must abandon the recorded date
of Kiyonobu's death and regard his life as having extended well beyond
the middle of the eighteenth century. Formerly this difficulty was not
appreciated, and all work signed Kiyonobu was confidently attributed to
the first Torii; but at present it is generally regarded as likely that
there was a second Kiyonobu who produced all the two-colour prints
signed with that name. Whether he produced any hand-coloured prints is
uncertain. This Kiyonobu II theory has met with scepticism in certain
quarters, and some students prefer to accept the alternative of one of
the two other possible solutions of the puzzle. Certain differences in
style between the hand-coloured and the two-colour work confirm the
Kiyonobu II theory to such an extent that I have felt constrained to
adopt it here. It may be disproved eventually, but it is the best
solution available at present. I shall therefore take up Kiyonobu II as
a separate artist, without again drawing attention to the unsettled
state of the relation between him and Kiyonobu I.
[Illustration: TORII KIYOMASU.]
KIYOMASU.
Kiyomasu, the second head of the Torii School, has been variously
regarded as the brother or the son of the first Torii. The question of
this exact relationship is a matter scarcely worth all the words that
have been wasted upon it. What is important is the well-known fact that
the two kinsmen worked side by side in the same studio for many years
producing work of precisely the same type. The most experienced judges
would find it impossible in some cases to distinguish between their
productions.
Kiyomasu was born about 1679; some authorities say 1685; but if it is
true, as Von Seidlitz states, that there exists a play-bill by him which
is dated 1693, the earlier of the two dates is the only possible one.
Since Kiyonobu was born in 1664, the theory that they were brothers is
the more probable. Kiyomasu's chief work was done contemporaneously with
Kiyonobu's, in black and white, _tan-ye_, and _urushi-ye_; but later he
produced some prints in two colours. His subjects were chiefly women and
actors; he executed a few small landscapes and some fine representations
of birds. His work must have continued some years after 1743, but
appears to have terminated a considerable time before his death in 1763
or 1764.
A more prolific artist than the first Torii, Kiyomasu was in some
particulars an equally distinguished one. Possibly his originality was
less marked in that he merely followed the actor type which had already
been created by Kiyonobu; but in the power of his draughtsmanship,
reminding one again and again of a tempered Kwaigetsudō, he is no
secondary figure. Nothing can surpass the vigour of linework in some of
his large figure prints--great curves made with a heavily charged brush,
expressing with notable simplicity the beauty of flowing drapery. His
masterpiece is undoubtedly that superb figure in black and white of the
actor Kanto Koroku (in the Buckingham Collection, Chicago), drawn in the
Moronobu-Kwaigetsudō manner, which is reproduced in Fenollosa's "Epochs
of Chinese and Japanese Art" with the erroneous attribution of Kiyonobu.
This print is a triumph. Nothing finer was designed by all the
succeeding generations of artists.
THE SECOND KIYONOBU.
Kiyonobu II, who signed all his work simply Kiyonobu, was a son of
Kiyomasu, and probably a nephew of Kiyonobu I. His whole name was Torii
Kiyonobu Shirō. He appears to have worked chiefly from about 1740 to
about 1756, the period of the predominance of the two-colour print. All
two-colour prints signed Kiyonobu are by this artist and not by the
first Torii, who died before the process was invented. Kiyonobu II is
regarded by many collectors as the best representative of the two-colour
technique. His figures have a delicacy and grace that is alien to the
work of his two predecessors in the Torii School; and his handling of
the green and rose designs of these prints is charming. The great
insistent colour masses and monumental figures of his predecessors
undergo a change in his hands to a more detailed division of colours and
a slightening of the forms of the bodies and limbs. Also the old
passionate vigour of brushwork disappears in the new technique--a loss
that seems a grave one.
Most writers speak of Kiyonobu II as a two-colour artist only. It is,
however, fairly established that at least one of the _urushi-ye_ signed
Kiyonobu is by Kiyonobu II. That he did a few three-colour prints is
certain. His work, like that of all these early men, is rare. It is
particularly difficult to find examples of his _beni-ye_ that are in
good condition, since the rose-colour has in most cases entirely faded.
OTHER FOLLOWERS OF KIYONOBU.
KIYOTADA was one of the best known and one of the most brilliant of the
numerous followers of the great Torii pioneers. He is said to have been
a pupil of Kiyonobu I. His period of production began not far from 1715,
and ended before the invention of two-colour printing. His prints are
all _tan-ye_ or _urushi-ye_, some of them slightly like Okumura Masanobu
in style. Certain of his _hoso-ye_ have fascinating curves and superb
colour--red, yellow, green, pink, and black, woven together into rich
combinations.
KIYOSHIGE produced very fine actor-portraits coloured by hand, which
remind one distinctly of Kiyonobu I in his later period. Large masses of
colour are used by him with powerful decorative effect; and the
geometrical designs of his textiles are sometimes striking. Kiyoshige's
work has a strong yet graceful quality that makes him worthy of more
attention than he has hitherto received. He lived to produce some
two-colour prints. Dr. Kurth believes him to have been the first to use
the pillar-print form for actor-portraits. His working period was from
about 1720 to about 1759.
HANEGAWA CHINCHŌ was an eccentric and interesting figure, who, though a
pupil of Kiyonobu I, appears to have been more closely related to the
Kwaigetsudō School than to the Torii. Born about 1680 he, by birth a
Samurai, became a Ronin, and entered the studio of Kiyonobu. He was
erratic, proud, and isolated. In spite of his pressing poverty, he
worked at print-designing only when it pleased him to do so, which was
seldom; and though he lived until 1754, his output was small. He was a
poet and an aristocrat. His single-sheet prints have a curious esoteric
quality--strange, stiff, beautiful curves that are not quite like the
work of any other designer. Chinchō's work is of extraordinary rarity;
there can scarcely be more than a score of his prints in existence.
HANEKAWA-WAGEN is represented by two prints in the Buckingham
Collection. Nothing is known of him.
KIYOTOMO, whose work appears to fall entirely within the period of
hand-coloured prints, produced excellent actor designs, in some of which
the line-work reminds one slightly of Kwaigetsudō. The influence of
Kiyomasu appears in some of his _urushi-ye_. His prints are
distinguished by their vigour and are found but seldom.
SANSEIDO TANAKA MASUNOBU produced hand-coloured and two-colour prints in
the Torii manner. A print by him dated 1746 is known, but most of his
work precedes 1740. He is not to be confused with the Masunobu who was
Harunobu's pupil.
KIYOSOMO is said to have been a distinguished pupil of Kiyonobu I,
influenced also by Okumura Masanobu.
Other men of this period, closely connected with the Torii School, were:
Kiyoake, Kondo Sukegoro Kiyoharu, Katsukawa Terushige, Nishikawa
Terunobu, Nishikawa Omume, Fujikawa Yoshinobu, Tamura Yoshinobu, Tamura
Sadanobu, Kichikawa Katsumasa, Kiyomizu Mazunobu, Shimizu Mitsunobu,
Kondo Kiyonobu, Kondo Katsunobu, Kiyorō, Tadaharu, and Nakaji Sadatoshi.
[Illustration: OKUMURA MASANOBU: COURTESANS AT TOILET.
Black and white. 10 × 15. Unsigned.
_Plate 4._]
[Illustration: OKUMURA MASANOBU.]
OKUMURA MASANOBU.
_A Figure._
Garbed in flowing folds of light,
Azure, emerald, rose, and white,
Watchest thou across the night.
Crowned with splendour is thine head;
All the princes great and dead
Round thy limbs their state have shed--
Calm, immutable to stand,
Gracious head and poisèd hand,
O'er the years that flow like sand.
Okumura Masanobu may be termed the central figure of this period: not
only does he tower among the greatest men of the time, but around him
revolve the changes in technique, full of far-reaching consequences,
which came into being with his invention of two-colour printing.
Furthermore, he takes on an additional historical importance as the
founder of the Okumura School, which continued parallel with the Torii
School, and whose productions are characterized by a finer development
of grace and elegance than is to be found in the output of the rival
line.
Masanobu was born about 1685, and lived until about 1764--a life of very
nearly eighty years, full of varied achievements. During the course of
his career he used many names, among which Genpachi, Hōgetsudō,
Tanchōsai, Bunkaku, and Kammyō are the most frequent. Little is known of
his life except that he began as a bookseller in Yedo. He is reputed to
have been a pupil of Kiyonobu, but Mr. Arthur Morrison believes this to
be an error, and thinks that Masanobu was an independent artist educated
in no one of the Yedo schools. Whichever account may be correct, it is
at least certain that Masanobu shows in his work few traces of
resemblance to the first of the Torii masters. It is equally clear that
he was early and strongly influenced by the work of Moronobu, who died
when Masanobu was only ten years old, but whose designs were of course
still widely known. It is said that soon after 1707 Masanobu founded a
publishing establishment in connection with his book-shop, issuing
prints as well as books. This must have afforded him great opportunities
for experiments in technique, and may have been no small factor in
making possible the remarkable advances for which he was responsible.
[Illustration: OKUMURA MASANOBU: STANDING WOMAN.
Black outlines, with hand-colouring of black lacquer, orange, yellow,
and gold powder. Size 13½ × 6. Signed _Yamato no Gwako, Okumura
Masanobu, hitsu_.
_Plate 5._]
[Illustration: HŌGETSUDŌ.]
Masanobu's earliest works were book-illustrations and albums, which
closely follow the manner of Moronobu. Plate 4 reproduces one of
these. Parallel with them he produced a number of _tan-ye_, the large
single-sheet prints in black and white, which, after printing, were
coloured by hand with orange pigment. These probably date from before
1720, although exactness cannot be hoped for. About 1720 he began to do
work in a medium which he is said to have invented--the _urushi-ye_, or
lacquer-prints, in which the lacquer gives a new richness and luminosity
to the various colours. An example of these appears in Plate 5. The
device of heightening the effect by applying gold powder to certain
portions of the design was also employed by him. A play of light that is
extraordinarily fascinating often marks his combinations of colours. By
about 1742 a new technical advance, the most vital in the whole history
of the art, came into existence; and Masanobu is generally credited with
its invention. This was the employment of two blocks beside the black
key-block to print two other colours upon the paper. The importance of
this step was immeasurable: when it was taken the doom of the
hand-coloured print was sealed, and the way to still further development
lay open. At first the colours used by Masanobu in his two-colour works
were a delicate apple-green and the equally delicate rose called _beni_,
from which the name _beni-ye_ came to be applied to all the two-colour
prints of this period. A print of this type appears in Plate 6. The
combination of these two colours is singularly lovely, and the fresh
charm of these sheets has led some collectors to prize them as the most
beautiful products of the art.
Certainly Masanobu's mastery of the problem of producing a rich and
vivacious colour-composition by the use of only two colours is
noteworthy. By varying the size and shape of his colour masses, and by a
judicious use of the white of the paper and the black of the key-block,
he produces an effect of such colour-fullness that it requires a
distinct effort of the mind to convince oneself that these prints are
designs in two tones only, and not full-colour prints. Masanobu lived
long enough to produce some three-colour prints, when these were devised
about 1755, but the effects he obtained in them were possibly less
fascinating than those of his earlier process.
It can probably never be proven that Masanobu was, in fact, the inventor
of all the devices that were attributed to him--the lacquer-print, the
_beni_ print, the use of gold powder, and the first actual prints in
colour. Certainly some of them may be credited to him; but any one
familiar with the growth of hero-legends knows how a great name attracts
to itself in popular report achievements that were really the fruit of
scattered lesser men. To the list of Masanobu's probable inventions must
be added the pillar-print, that remarkable type, about 4 to 6 inches
wide and 25 to 40 inches high, which was to be an important form of
design from this date on. It is possible that we must also attribute to
him the invention of the mica background--that silver surface of
powdered mica which give a curious and beautiful tone to the figures
outlined against it.
[Illustration: OKUMURA MASANOBU: YOUNG NOBLEMAN PLAYING THE DRUM.
Printed in black, green, and rose. Size 12 × 6. Signed _Hogetsudo
Okumura Masanobu, hitsu_. Chandler Collection.
_Plate 6._]
Of Masanobu as a designer it is difficult to speak with moderation.
Through his work runs that sweeping power of line which he derived from
his study of Moronobu, and, in addition, an elegance and suave grace
that is the expression of his innate grace of spirit. The grandeur of
certain others of the Primitives is austere and harsh, but Masanobu is
always mellow and harmonious. His figures, more finely proportioned than
most of the figures of the period, sway in easy motion--a mixture of
sweetness and distinction characterizes the poised heads, superb bodies,
and ample draperies of his women, while every resource of compact and
dignified design is expended upon the impressive figures of his men. A
certain large geniality, a wide, sunlighted warmth of conception, runs
through his work. The dramatic distortions of his Torii predecessors and
contemporaries are melted in him, as towering but uncouth icebergs melt
in the sun of kindlier latitudes. At times his line-work has a force
that seems derived from the Kwaigetsudō tradition; more often it is
imbued with a gentler rhythm no less expressive of strength. In his
finest designs he achieves notable balance of line, and a massing of
colour beside which, as Fenollosa remarks, "even the facades of Greek
temples were possibly cold and half-charged in comparison."
Women, out-of-door scenes, and a few actors, constitute the main
subjects of Masanobu's work. As a portraitist, his few productions, such
as the well-known humorous pillar-print of the story-teller Koshi
Shikoden, give him rank as the greatest of his time. The landscape
backgrounds in some of his smaller prints are a delightful innovation,
executed with delicate power of suggesting by a few strokes the whole
circle of a natural setting. The quiet charm of these landscapes
surrounds with an atmosphere of felicity the beautiful figures that move
through them.
A full and brilliant life stirs in all Masanobu's work. At no other
period in the history of Ukioye was such effective use made of the
patterns of draperies. The elaborate fashions of the brocades worn in
this day lent themselves to the decorative needs of the larger prints;
and frequently we find the figures clothed in a riot of striking
textiles--flowers, trees, birds, ships, geometrical shapes--all mingled
in the weave of the cloth, and arranged by the print-designer into a
combination that is tumultuous without confusion and glowing without
garishness. Masanobu's pictures seem the overflow of his spirit's
wealth; they never have the ascetic and rarefied quality that sometimes
appears in the work of even great artists.
Masanobu's work is scarce. His larger and more important prints very
rarely appear outside of the great collections.
PUPILS OF OKUMURA MASANOBU.
OKUMURA TOSHINOBU, a son of Masanobu who died young, was the best as
well as the most famous of Masanobu's pupils. He gave promise of
becoming one of the notable print-designers, and even in his short
career produced work of high quality. Born about 1709, his period of
production covered the years of the lacquer-prints, and ended before
1743. His _urushi-ye_, lithe in design and powerful in colouring,
constitute almost his whole known work.
Okumura Masafusa, Shuseido, Hanekawa Chiucho Motonobu, and Mangetsudō
may be mentioned as other and less important pupils of Masanobu.
NISHIMURA SHIGENOBU.
Nishimura Shigenobu is an artist about whom there is great confusion. He
is variously called the father, the son, or the pupil of the
better-known artist Shigenaga: the first of these alternatives is the
most probable. Nothing is known of Shigenobu's life, and very little of
his work is extant. Kurth says that Shigenobu founded the Nishimura
School, and worked in the manner of the earliest Torii. Von Seidlitz
believes that he did some work in the Kwaigetsudō manner. Fenollosa
dates his work 1720-40, and thinks that he worked first like the Torii,
then like Masanobu. At present it seems impossible to gather further
information about this interesting artist.
SHIGENAGA.
Nishimura Shigenaga was at one time regarded as the inventor of the
two-colour process; but now that the weight of opinion attributes this
invention to Masanobu, Shigenaga remains a figure whose importance is
hardly diminished. He must still be regarded as perhaps the most notable
master of the Nishimura School, both as a designer and as the teacher
of a group of pupils whose brilliancy is equalled by the disciples of no
other artist.
Shigenaga was born in 1697 and lived until 1756. He used the names
Senkwadō and Magosaburō as well as his own. Little is known of him
personally, except that he was probably the son of Shigenobu.
[Illustration: NISHIMURA SHIGENAGA.]
His work began with black-and-white prints in the manner of Kiyonobu;
these were already something of an anachronism at the date when he
commenced his designing. He then turned to _urushi-ye_, and produced
some beautiful examples. About 1742, when the two-colour process was
invented, he made himself one of the most successful masters of it. Dr.
Anderson reproduces, as the frontispiece of his "Japanese
Wood-Engraving," a fine example of Shigenaga's work in this technique,
but erroneously dates it as 1725--more than fifteen years too early.
Shigenaga also did fine work in the three-colour process, of which he
may possibly have been the inventor. His designs comprise not only women
and actors, but also landscapes, flowers, animals, and birds. His
versatility is one of his most striking characteristics.
It was from the style of Masanobu that Shigenaga drew his most lasting
stimulus; and among his sheets we shall find many a figure worthy to
stand beside his master's serene creations. Dr. Kurth calls him a
"faded or weakened Masanobu"; but this term can be applied with justice
to only a portion of Shigenaga's work. His productions are uneven; part
are indeed somewhat tame; but certain of his designs rise to a high
level. His finest works, which are rare, are his figures of graceful
women in the Masanobu manner. But he was no mere imitator. The Masanobu
poise, the Masanobu flow and patterning of garments he did, it is true,
adopt; but with how fresh and sensitive a life does he infuse them!
Shigenaga's pupils comprise most of the great men of the succeeding
generation Toyonobu, Harunobu, Koriusai, Shigemasa, Toyoharu, and many
others learned from him the elements of their art. Thus Shigenaga may be
regarded as the most important bridge between the Primitives and the
later men, passing over to them the traditions of the older schools
together with the stimulus of that fresh, inventive, and assimilative
spirit which was peculiarly his own.
PUPILS OF SHIGENAGA.
Among the less important pupils or associates of Shigenaga may be named
the following artists:--
TSUNEGAWA SHIGENOBU produced work much like Shigenaga's; in the few
prints of his which I have seen there is grace and ease, but not great
strength. His work appears to have been mainly in _urushi-ye_. Mr.
Gookin believes this name to be merely the early name of Nishimura
Shigenobu.
YŌSENDŌ YASUNOBU or ANSHIN, by whom a fine lacquer-print with strong
blacks is in the Spaulding Collection, may, with some hesitancy, be
classed here. Mr. Gookin thinks this signature may be merely one of the
studio names of some more famous artist.
NAGAHIDE, dated by Strange about 1760, appears to belong to this group.
The Harmsworth Collection, London, contains a print by him representing
famous theatrical characters depicted by geisha, the colours partly
printed and partly applied by hand.
HARUTOSHI is known to me only by one pillar-print, in the manner of
Shigenaga's actors. It is doubtful where he should be classified.
AKIYAMA SADAHARU, HIROSE SHIGENOBU, and RYŪKWADO ICHIICHIDO SHIGENOBU
were obscure pupils of Shigenaga.
YAMAMOTO YOSHINOBU is said by Fenollosa to have been a pupil of
Shigenaga, and possibly the same as KOMAI YOSHINOBU, who is treated
later under Harunobu. Dr. Kurth thinks him a member of a Yamamoto
School, which comprised also YAMAMOTO DENROKU, YAMAMOTO SHIGENOBU,
YAMAMOTO SHIGEFUSA, YAMAMOTO FUJINOBU, YAMAMOTO SHIGEHARU, TOMIKAWA
GINSETSU also known as FUSANOBU, YAMAMOTO MARUYA KYŪYEIMON, YAMAMOTO
KUZAYEIMON, and YAMAMOTO RIHEI.
[Illustration: TOYONOBU: TWO KOMUSO, REPRESENTED BY THE ACTORS SANOKAWA
ICHIMATSU AND ONOYE KIKUGORO.
Printed in black and three colours. Size 15 × 10. Signed _Tanjodo,
Ishikawa Shuha Toyonobu ga_. Chandler Collection.
_Plate 7._]
TOYONOBU.
_A Pillar Print._
O lady of the long robes, the slow folds flowing--
Lady of the white breast, the dark and lofty head--
Dwells there any wonder, the way that thou art going--
Or goest thou toward the dead?
So calm thy solemn steps, so slow the long lines sweeping
Of garments pale and ghostly, of limbs as grave as sleep--
I know not if thou, spectre, hast love or death in keeping,
Or goest toward which deep.
Thou layest thy robes aside with gesture large and flowing.
Is it for love or sleep--is it for life or death?
I would my feet might follow the path that thou art going,
And thy breath be my breath.
Ishikawa Toyonobu, who not many years ago was regarded as an artist of
secondary importance, has of late, thanks to fresh discoveries, come to
be esteemed by competent observers as one of the giants of the line--one
of those masters among the Primitives whose dignity of composition makes
all but a handful of his successors appear petty beside him.
[Illustration: ISHIKAWA TOYONOBU.]
This important artist, who sometimes signed himself Shuha, was, like so
many other of the better men of his time, a pupil of Shigenaga. In his
early work we find him influenced by the suave and noble figures of
Okumura Masanobu more than by the figures of his direct master. Born in
1711, Toyonobu lived until 1785; and the long space of his life thus
extended beyond the period of the Primitives and into the period of
polychrome printing. Nevertheless his real activity terminated with the
end of the Primitive Period. His earliest work was in black-and-white
or hand-coloured; from this he passed on to two-colour prints, a manner
in which he produced many _hoso-ye_ of flawless grace; and then into
three-colour prints, in which his most important work was accomplished,
and "whose classic master," as Kurth says, "he may be called." Between
1755 and 1764, the great period of the three-colour print, Toyonobu
stood almost unmatched in the field. A fine example of his work appears
in Plate 7. After 1764 the ascendancy of Harunobu eclipsed Toyonobu;
even the classic style of the older master could not match the brilliant
and popular innovations of Harunobu's "brocade pictures." He was
therefore driven to take up the technique of full-colour printing. In
one print he gives us figures like those of Koriusai; in another he
follows Harunobu with the most complete exactness. Though forced to the
wall, the old giant could still fight his rivals, and with their own
weapons.
The works of Toyonobu's prime--particularly his pillar-prints--produce a
singular impression of lofty greatness. His line-arrangements have
always a magical serenity and balance, and the repose of his
compositions is equalled only by their strength. In these tall figures,
where hauntingly lovely lines never degenerate into mere sweetness,
there is a combination of rigour with suavity, of force with grace, that
makes him forever memorable. His masterful precision, and the curiously
"towering" effect which his figures produce, as in the Girl with the
Umbrella reproduced in Plate 8, serve to mark him as one of the
important representatives of the grand style in design.
[Illustration: TOYONOBU: GIRL OPENING AN UMBRELLA.
Black outlines, with hand-colouring. Size 27 × 6. Signed _Tanjodo
Ishikawa Shuha Toyonobu zu_. Metzgar Collection.
TOYONOBU: WOMAN DRESSING.
Printed in black and three colours. Size 27 × 4. Signed _Ishikawa
Toyonobu hitsu_.
_Plate 8._]
Perhaps more than any other artist of the Ukioye School, Toyonobu
devoted himself to the drawing of the nude. These rare works are among
the finest of his productions, and are so distinctly an exception to the
general practice of Japanese artists that they call for special remark.
Certain other painters also produced a few such pictures, but they must
all be regarded as sporadic phenomena running counter to the
characteristic Japanese feeling. The national temper recognizes feminine
beauty in art only when clothed; and it is due solely to the profounder
perception of a few great artists that any such designs have come down
to us. One is moved to speculation over this curious fact, particularly
when one considers that the sight of the body, at least among the lower
classes, must have been almost as common in Japan at this time as it was
in Greece during the great period of Athenian art. But very different
was the reaction produced upon the two races by this familiarity. In the
Greeks, it encouraged an art whose prime aim was to give expression to
those harmonies and hints of perfection that lie hidden in the
imperfections of each individual body; so that we have from the Greeks
those syntheses and idealizations of the human form which still haunt us
like faint memories of the gods. But in the Japanese mind, the sense of
the individual defects seems to have overpowered the impulse to creative
idealism; and the people, as a race, turned from the nude figure to the
more easily manipulated beauties of flowing robes and gorgeous patterns,
translating Nature into images of an alien richness, and love into
hyperboles of public splendour. That part of Nature which lay outside
themselves they could indeed cope with, as the lofty visions of
landscape which they have transcribed testify; but with a few
exceptions, such as Toyonobu and Kiyomitsu and Kiyonaga, they dared not
attempt the final venture of rationalizing the uses and aspects of the
body. And it is because of an inadequacy whose source and root spring
from this attitude that posterity will perhaps rank this art below the
art of Greece, adjudging even the matchless subtlety and refinement of
these designs to be no adequate compensation for the absence of that
frank Greek courage which attempted to clarify and ennoble the
fundamental conditions of the existence of man.
Toyonobu, great artist that he was, overstepped the national barrier and
came very near to surpassing the finest achievements of Greek art.
[Illustration: KIYOMITSU: THE ACTOR SEGAWA KIKUNOJO AS A WOMAN SMOKING.
Printed in black and three colours. Size 11½ × 5½. Signed _Torii
Kiyomitsu ga_.
_Plate 9._]
KIYOMITSU.
_Pillar Print of a Woman._
A place for giant heads to take their rest
Seems her pale breast.
Her sweeping robe trails like the cloud and wind
Storms leave behind.
The ice of the year, and its Aprilian part,
Sleep in her heart.
Therefore small marvel that her footsteps be
Like strides of Destiny!
_Pillar Print of a Man._
Out of spaces hazed with greyness, out of years whose veils are grey,
With the slow majestic footsteps of a lord of far-away,
Comes a form that out of glooming
Rises from some old entombing
To confront once more the day.
And with splendid gesture dwarfing the confusion of our hands,
With his ancient calm rebuking the unrest of vain demands,
He with solemn footsteps slowly
Passes: and his garments holy
Leave the scent of holy lands.
[Illustration: TORII KIYOMITSU.]
Kiyomitsu took his place as the third great head of the Torii line,
succeeding his father Kiyomasu. In subject and in manner, it is the
Torii tradition that he carries on. We know nothing of his life, save
that he was born in 1735 and died in 1785. His work falls almost
entirely within the class of two- and three-colour prints. I know of
only one hand-coloured print by him; but as his dates denote, he lived
far into the period of polychrome printing, and was a partaker in
Harunobu's experiments in colour. Von Seidlitz is wrong in saying that
no polychrome prints by Kiyomitsu are known; a few exist and are very
beautiful. He did little work after 1765, and is to be regarded as most
characteristically an artist of the Primitive Period--in fact one of the
greatest. Certainly between 1755 and 1764, no one but Toyonobu could
rival him; and these two may be ranked the supreme designers of the
three-colour epoch.
The outstanding feature of Kiyomitsu's work is its formalism. Whatever
he touches is compressed to a pattern, and rendered into bold
hieroglyphics of sweeping curves. His line is simple, powerfully
dominated by a circular movement that is singularly and inexplicably
delightful. His colours, even while they remain only two or three in
number, never lack variety and strong decorative effect. The slightness
of the use which he makes of black is noteworthy; he compensates for its
absence by choosing heavy opaque colours of rich tone. Some authorities
regard him as the first to employ a third colour-block.
Kiyomitsu's work is markedly stylistic--even dominated by a certain
mannerism; one comes to recognize almost infallibly the formula he uses,
and to regard as an old friend that peculiar swirl of drapery, swing of
body, and artificial poise of head which appear, as in Plate 9, like an
accepted convention throughout the larger number of his designs. The
convention is an agreeable and highly æsthetic one, based on fundamental
curves of great beauty. But the invariability with which he employs this
formula gives Dr. Kurth some excuse for regarding him as a monotonous
and over-estimated artist. Had we only Kiyomitsu's _hoso-ye_ prints, it
might be possible to agree with Dr. Kurth; for these figures, enchanting
and full of elegance as they are, certainly are dominated by a sameness
of manner such as one finds in no other series of _hoso-ye_. But the
truth of Dr. Kurth's depreciations must be questioned if one turns to
the pillar-prints, which constitute the real glory of Kiyomitsu's
career. The two reproduced in Plate 10 exhibit his power. Kiyomitsu may
be regarded as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of the
pillar-print shape of composition. Much of his finest work is in this
form. Here his somewhat tight curves lengthen out into flowing beauty;
and the dignity always inherent in his drawing appears at its best.
[Illustration: KIYOMITSU: WOMAN WITH BASKET HAT.
Black and three colours. Size 28 × 4. Signed _Torii Kiyomitsu ga_.
KIYOMITSU: WOMAN COMING FROM BATH.
Black and three colours. Size 27 × 4. Signed _Torii Kiyomitsu ga_.
_Plate 10._]
Kiyomitsu's rare nudes take a place close beside those of Toyonobu. They
have a keen poetic charm; and though their vigour is less marked than
that of Toyonobu's, their grace and elegance of movement is at least as
striking.
The collector may find it useful to remember that long after Kiyomitsu's
death, Kiyomine and Kiyofusa sometimes used the great name of Kiyomitsu
as a signature to their own works. Only an inexperienced observer could
mistake these late and decadent productions for the work of the original
master.
KIYOHIRO.
Torii Kiyohiro has been rated by some writers as more highly gifted than
Kiyomitsu. This praise appears absurdly extravagant; yet in disputing
such a claim, one must admit the great charm of Kiyohiro's work. He is
said to have been a pupil of Kiyonobu II; his career runs parallel with
that of Kiyomitsu, and he seems frequently to imitate that artist. The
period of his greatest prominence was between 1745 and 1758; his work is
all in two or three colours. A delicate draughtsman, his figures have
marked grace of poise and firmness of design. His mannerism is less
stereotyped than Kiyomitsu's; some of his prints have great beauty, but
he never reaches certain heights which Kiyomitsu attained. Prints by him
are uncommon.
[Illustration: TORII KIYOHIRO.]
KIYOTSUNE.
Torii Kiyotsune produced delicate and distinguished prints in two or
three colours, much like those of Kiyomitsu. Most of his figures are
characterized by a curious slenderness and exquisiteness; but they are
somewhat lacking in vigour. After 1764 he fell under the influence of
Harunobu and adopted full-colour printing, still retaining, however,
that very individual type of face--a little scornful, a little
fastidious in expression--which marks his designs. His work is rare.
PUPILS OF KIYOMITSU AND TOYONOBU.
Among the pupils of Kiyomitsu may be noted Torii Kiyosato, Torii
Kiyoharu, Morotada, Kiyotoshi, Torii Kiyomoto, and Torii Kiyohide. Their
work was almost contemporaneous with that of the master.
Amano Toyonaga, Ishikawa Toyomasu, and Ishikawa Toyokuma were probably
pupils of Toyonobu.
IV
THE SECOND
PERIOD:
THE EARLY
POLYCHROME
MASTERS
FROM THE INVENTION
OF POLYCHROME PRINTING
TO THE RETIREMENT
OF SHUNSHO
(1764-80)