. Chats on Japanese prints. es of birth and beautiful spots of black which are importantelements in the majoi-ity of his compositions arehandled with a keen sense of contrast that not evenKiyonagas surpassed. His brushwork is firm anddelicate, but not so sparkling with vitality as that ofsome of his predecessors. His colours are soft, hisfigures wonderfully graceful; the impression heproduces upon one is that of a subtle and beauty-hungry spirit, detached from the mob by a refine-ment beyond their comprehension, driven on by aconsuming passion, devoted to the quest of a per-fectio
. Chats on Japanese prints. es of birth and beautiful spots of black which are importantelements in the majoi-ity of his compositions arehandled with a keen sense of contrast that not evenKiyonagas surpassed. His brushwork is firm anddelicate, but not so sparkling with vitality as that ofsome of his predecessors. His colours are soft, hisfigures wonderfully graceful; the impression heproduces upon one is that of a subtle and beauty-hungry spirit, detached from the mob by a refine-ment beyond their comprehension, driven on by aconsuming passion, devoted to the quest of a per-fection he was able to project but not to realize. In style, he draws considerably upon Toyokunisearly Utamaro manner; but in spirit he is nearerto Yeishi and Utamaro himself, both of whom musthave influenced him somewhat. Not even the workof Yeishi is so saturated with the wistfulness forbeauty, the sense of vanishing loveliness, the home-sickness for regions of otherwhere. One of histriptychs, the Daimyos Kite Party, reproduced. 341 FOURTH PERIOD: THE DECADENCE 343 in Plate 48, so embodies these qualities that it isworthy of special attention. In a landscape of green hills, where a circle of lowslopes encloses a space of level ground, stands, onthe rising edge of that natural amphitheatre, a groupof noble ladies and children in the soft brightnessof festal attire—richly decorated pink, black, white,translucent heliotrope. Below and behind themboys are manoeuvring a kite, and older men directbriskly. The ladies for whom this simple andcharming pastime is arranged do not seem whollyintent upon it. Their tall slender figures move asif in abstraction, an isolated group in the grey cherry-tree, with gnarled branches etchedagainst a clear sky, stands in their midst, bare exceptfor the pink of earliest blossoms; and the pale greenof the more distant encircling hills is here and theretouched with the same luminous flowers. Across this landscape the slender figures movein s
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