Of his contemporaries the most noteworthy was Koriusai. Less delicate and refined than Harunobu, he worked in a bolder style, his drawing being particularly vigorous. His bird studies are very fine; and South Kensington Museum contains some excellent examples of his work—notably one, a clever contrast of a crow and a white heron against a grey-green background.

Reflecting Harunobu more decidedly is Shunsho, who became the master of the great Hokusai. His studies of female figures are particularly graceful and of charming colour, and his prints of theatrical subjects vigorous and striking. He died in 1790, at the age of sixty-seven.

Contemporary with Shunsho was Torii Kiyonaga, an artist who not only did fine work himself but exercised a great influence on the artists who followed him. Working with fuller colour than his predecessors he increased the number of blocks considerably, and his charming drawings of the gorgeously-dressed beauties of the Yoshiwara set the fashion afterwards so largely followed.

We now come to one of the chief of the colour print artists—Kitagawa Utamaro, next to Hokusai the most famous of all. His female studies were something quite new and distinctive, superb in line and composition, the heavy masses of black being used with consummate ease and mastery. There is an exquisite quality in his drawing, too; the features are delineated with the utmost fineness and delicacy. Indeed, to distinguish a forgery from a genuine Utamaro, one has only to examine the drawing of the hands and the face. His colour is delightful, and beautifully subtle—lavender, pink, green, and grey—but always saved from weakness by the dexterous use of the masses of solid black. Besides his female figures we have a few landscapes and flower studies, and a particularly fine little volume of insect drawings. It is related by his father in the preface of this book that, when a child, Utamaro was continually catching and examining insects, till he was afraid that the boy might acquire a habit of killing the harmless creatures. The book, however, is not entirely devoted to harmless insects, one of the drawings being a masterly study of a snake. A touch of mica used in the printing gives it a slimy sheen, and the long, coiling body, every inch of it alive and moving, is a wonderful piece of drawing. To rival it one would require to turn to the work of another Japanese artist—the netsuké carver.

Yeishi, Yeizan, and Kiyomine, who followed immediately after, adopted his style and followed his methods closely; but rich though their effects are, and full of detail, they lack the dignity and simplicity of the earlier workers.

One of the most characteristic of all the great artists, and worthy to rank with Harunobu and Utamaro, is Toyokuni I., born in 1769. His work also was at first affected by the ornate style of Kiyonaga; and among his earlier prints are studies of gorgeously-dressed ladies, a riot of rich colour and elaborate detail, but later he turned his attention to theatrical prints, and evolved the style, distinctively his own, which became afterwards the recognised method of treating such subjects. In his lines the grace and suavity of the earlier masters become hardened to a certain severity, but what was lost in grace was gained in strength. The violent action in some of his prints is an illustration of the forcible manner in which the truth can be conveyed by a judicious exaggeration; and again, in repose, his figures have a dignity which is monumental. This effect is heightened, too, by the reticence and restraint with which he uses colour—full, strong tints, but few, and laid on in broad masses. Breadth of effect was what he aimed at and secured. In Japan he was more popular than any of his contemporaries, Utamaro not excepted; and, whereas their followers were limited to a few immediate successors, he was the founder of a regular school. Of these the best is Kunisada, known as Toyokuni II., whose early work especially was almost worthy to rank with that of his master.

But the greatest master of all the colour print artists, and one who by European critics has been acclaimed as worthy to rank with the great artists of the world, was Hokusai. It is a mark of the power of his personality that, though he lived and died in poverty and obscurity, the facts of his life are recorded with some degree of fulness; while, as a rule, little record is left of his contemporaries but their work. Born in 1760, he was apprenticed at the age of eighteen to Shunsho, but was too original in his methods, and too independent, to remain in that position long. For some years he drifted about, being reduced at one time to hawking red pepper, calendars, and other small wares in the streets of Yedo, but all the time he was getting more and more command over his art.