Perhaps some day a heart shall come, Like me half-blind, like me half-dumb, Like me contentless with the clear Sunlighted beauties men hold dear. Perhaps he will more greatly prize My faltered whispers from afar Than all the Master's pageantries And confident pomp and press and jar. Yet, well or ill, how shall I change The measure doled, the nature given? Mine is the thirst for far and strange Echoes of a forgotten heaven. I listen for the ghosts of sound; Remote, I watch life's eager stream; Through wastes afar, through gulfs profound, I, Toyohiro, seek my dream. Utagawa Toyokuni was born in 1768, and early began his apprenticeship as a pupil of Toyoharu. From this master he learned the rules of European perspective--a device which he soon abandoned for the true Japanese convention. He may have studied under Shunyei for a short time. Though he was later to become a fertile producer of actor-prints, he inaugurated his work with the figures of women. His first works imitate the type of face and figure made famous by Shunsho's and Shigemasa's book, "Mirror of the Beautiful Women of the Yoshiwara." Before 1790 he gave up this type for one copied from Kiyonaga, who was at this time at the height of his fame. But Toyokuni was no such draughtsman as Kiyonaga, and his figures in this manner are generally poorly drawn and awkward. At this time he frequently adopted colour-schemes from Shunman. After Kiyonaga's retirement Toyokuni began to use the delicate type made popular by the rising genius of Choki; but after a short interval he went over to Utamaro, who was then coming into supreme mastery. [Illustration: TOYOKUNI.]