It is a sentiment, an emotion, a dream--as much an abstraction as a musical composition. In the lines of the dress, in the poise of the head, in the limpid tones of the whole picture, is secreted the dwelling-place of a peace, a solemnity, an awe never to be forgotten. It is reminiscent of the grandeur of the Primitives, but more etherialized; and there lingers about it still, persisting from earlier times, the penumbra of that hierarchal purity and spirituality peculiar to archaic art. Like those strange and memorable archaic statues of the Priestesses in the Museum of the Akropolis at Athens, like the frescoes of Giotto at Assisi, it holds the secret of an untainted beauty that is lost to later artists. [Illustration: HARUNOBU: SHIRAI GOMPACHI DISGUISED AS A KOMUSO. Size 27 × 4½. Signed _Susuki Harunobu ga_. HARUNOBU: GIRL PLAYING WITH KITTEN. Size 26 × 4½. Signed _Susuki Harunobu ga_. _Plate 15._] The second pillar-print is one which, following the opinion of Professor Fenollosa and Mr. Gookin, may be regarded as one of the supreme triumphs of Harunobu's career, and one of the greatest prints we know. It represents Shirai Gompachi, the white-robed lover of the beautiful Komurasaki, wandering in disguise with the basket-hat and flute of a _komuso_ or dishonoured Samurai. There is no background; against the clear white paper the long lines of the tall figure flow in curves of jet black and purple-grey, with here and there lights of orange and white. By a simplicity of selection that is more than Greek, Harunobu has woven from these few curves an effect that is like an incantation. It has in it the power to reach into the secret storehouses of the spectator's emotion and awaken echoes from those intimations of eternal perfection which haunt every heart. Fenollosa writes: "There is something unearthly about its line themes, orchestrated in black and ghost-tints, which lifts one to the infinities of Beethoven's purest melodies. The dreamy clarinet-player seems to droop and melt away into regions of sublimity where no earthly ear shall follow his dying chords. Thus indeed we are glad at last to have Harunobu pass, transfigured, from our vision." _Pillar Print by Harunobu._ From an infinite distance, the ghostly music! Few and slender the tones, of delicate silver, As stars are broidered on the veil of evening.... He passes by, the flute and the dreaming player-- Slow are his steps, his eyes are gravely downcast; His pale robes sway in long folds with his passing. Out of the infinite distance, a ghostly music Returns--in slender tones of delicate silver, As stars are broidered on the veil of evening. Certain puzzles for the collector and student arise in connection with Harunobu.