JAPANESE WOOD-CUTTING AND WOOD-CUT PRINTING. 237 



they made up for their later appearance in the field by a prodigious ac 

 tivity and a superb facility of execution — within the limitations of their 

 art — that far outstripped t lie isolated achievements of their earlier Euro- 

 pean colleagues. 



We have seen that, according to Mr. Tokuuo, the highesl aim of 

 Japanese ckromoxylography is the imitation of the original, even to 

 the sweep of the brush, so close that an inexperienced eye shall tind it 

 difficult to tell the printed counterfeit from the painting made by the 

 hand of the artist, and it must be admitted that the wood cutters and 

 pri nters of Japan have been wonderfully successful in their efforts, not 

 only in the reproduction of black- and- whites, for which, also, several 

 printings are generally used, but quite as much with designs in color. 

 It is true, certainly, that Japanese painting lends itself more easily to 

 deceptive imitation than European painting; but there is still another 

 cause to be assigned for the success of Japanese color-printing in this 

 respect, and that is the method of printing practiced by the Japanese, 

 or, more correctly speaking, their method of charging ("inking") the 

 block.* 



of the same book it is stated that Torii Kiyonobu, who was not horn until 1688, wa3 

 the first painter who had his designs reproduced by color-printing'. According to 

 Theodore Duret (see ChronikfurvervielfaltigendeKunst, 1889, No. 6), the first color- 

 prints with two or three tints were produced between 1710 and 1720. Finally, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Win. Anderson, the author of the Catalogue of Prints and Books 

 illustrating the History of Engraving in Japan, issued by the Burlington Fine Arts 

 Club in 1888, the date is about the year 1700 (see p. XVII of the catalogue named). 

 Prof. Fenollosa, however, is of opinion that these earlier specimens were not color- 

 prints, but colored prints, i. e., prints tinted by hand. 



* Dr. Brinekmauu, p. 230 of the book previously quoted, says that in Japan "we 

 look in vain for the painted types of the color-prints, since the artist who work j 

 for color-printing creates independent works of art by its means," while, on the con- 

 trary, he says of us that we claim triumphantly to have reached our aim in repro- 

 duction "when it becomes impossible to tell the original from the copy without 

 close investigation." Dr. Brinckmann, indeed, contradicts himself, when, on p. 288, 

 he speaks of the publication of the paintings of Korin and of his brother Ken/.an, a 

 celebrated ceramic artist, by Hoitsu, about a century after the death of these artists, 

 and Mr. Tokuno's statement that the highest aim of Japanese printing " is to pro- 

 duce impressions which an inexperienced eye can hardly distinguish from the origi- 

 nal," certainly shows that the first statement made by the author named, however 

 broadly it may apply to certain kinds of printing, is not true absolutely. More- 

 over, among the specimens sent to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Tokuno, there 

 are several reproductions of paintings, including a book in two volumes, "Shu bi g\\ a 

 kan.'or reduced copies of pictures drawn by eminent old artists of the Kioto or Shijo 

 school. 



Color-prints made without painted originals to work from are also found among 

 our own productions, although they are of a subordinate rank and do not aspire to 

 rival the brilliant productions of the Japanese color-printers. Sketches in color are 

 rarely made for the colored pictures in the comic journals like "Puck." These pic- 

 tures are printed from four stones, one giving the design and modelling in black or 

 brown, the other three supplying the coloring by means of Iris tints, two running 

 in one direction, the third at right angles to it. and these Iris tints are mostly ad- 

 justed on the press under the direction of the designer, without an original by 



