Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/340

 characterization is worthy of Sharaku and the quality of suggestive line in every detail of the mask makes one remember print after print in which character and theatrical verisimilitude were accented by just such exaggerations. The face, we admit, seems too old for a man of 34, but soon after 1800 Toyokuni himself may have suffered as rapid and as sad a decline as his art did; and it must not be forgotten that the earliest references to Sharaku mention his habit of exaggeration to which we have once again called attention just above. Of course the identification is tentative; but does not the complimentary presence in the picture of a print signed “Toyokuni” give a definite clue as to the portrait?

Our catalogue ends as any catalogue which deals with so difficult a subject should end, with a question mark; and we have only to add that those who have compiled it will wait with genuine interest to learn what corrections and additions will be made by those who follow down the path for which we have helped to clear the way.

The fan is signed Sharaku and bears beneath the signature his kakihan or written seal.