Page:A history of Japanese colour-prints by Woldemar von Seidlitz.djvu/393

Rh Kano master and then turned to the Shijo school. His principal work is the Zenken Kojitsu, the illustrated biography of the great men of the past, a work of 20 vols., 8vo, with prints in black and white, which appeared in 1836; to this, three supplementary volumes were added. Some have been disposed to rank him even above Hokusai, whose vigour, however, in spite of all his good taste, he was not able to reach. Reproductions in Anderson, Japanese Wood-Engraving, fig. 29; Brinckmann, page 212 f. He died in 1878, at the age of ninety-one.

More unassuming, but at the same time of more ability and of greater significance for his time, was Keisai Yeisen, also called Ikada, Yeizan's best pupil. Born in 1792 in Yedo, the son of a Kano painter, he lived to see the last phase of the great evolution, and then from about 1820-40 developed an independent activity, particularly in the field of landscape, as well as in delicate and tasteful surimonos. In his landscapes he achieves a very clear effect with a few broad strokes of the brush (reproduction in Gonse, i. 296). He died in 1848.

Of his single sheets the following may be cited:—

A temple in Yedo; large.

Laden cows led in the rain; large.

Snow landscape with pines; large.

A carp leaping up a waterfall; very large (according to Fenollosa, No. 410, about 1840).

A cat watching goldfish.

A series of waterfalls.

12 sheets, the history of the Ronin, obl. fol., his best work.

Anderson cites from him, among other works, the following:—


 * Jingi Andon, sketches, in collaboration with other artists, 5 vols. 8vo, about 1825.