The Screen-Maiden 



SAYS the old Japanese author, Hakubai-En 

 Rosui : 1 



" In Chinese and in Japanese books there 

 are related many stories, both of ancient and 

 of modern times, about pictures that were so 

 beautiful as to exercise a magical influence upon 

 the beholder. And concerning such beautiful 

 pictures, whether pictures of flowers or of birds 

 or of people, painted by famous artists, it is 

 further told that the shapes of the creatures or 



i He died in the eighteenth year of Kyoho (1733). The 

 painter to whom he refers better known to collectors as 

 Hishigawa Kichibei Moronobu flourished during the 

 latter part of the seventeenth century. Beginning his 

 career as a dyer's apprentice, he won his reputation as an 

 artist about 1680, when he may be said to have founded 

 the Ukiyo-ye school of illustration. Hishigawa was especially 

 a delineator of what are called furyU, (" elegant manners "), 

 the aspects of life among the upper classes of society. 



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