SHIBA KOKAN has already been mentioned as the forger of Harunobu's work.
His ability needs no further recommendation when we admit that we cannot
with certainty tell his prints from Harunobu's. This is his chief title
to fame. He was born in 1747 and died in 1818. During his life he signed
many names to his work and attempted many manners. From the Dutch at
Nagasaki he learned something of the rules of European perspective, and
tried, in the eighties, with success but without much beauty, to carry
them over into Japanese art. In addition, he introduced shadows into
some of his compositions--a device alien to the whole spirit of Chinese
and Japanese painting. He was the first Japanese artist to attempt
copper-plate engraving. Queer renderings of European scenes by him
remain to us. In a hundred different spheres of art, invention, and
speculation he tried his hand. His intellectual curiosity in every field
reminds one of Leonardo da Vinci. He remains one of the most interesting
and puzzling figures of his time--an adventurer, a restless
experimenter, a forger and a man of extraordinary though chaotic genius.
A poem written when he was dying has a curious vibrancy: "Kokan now
dies, for he is very old; to the passing world he leaves a picture of
the world that passes."
KOMAI YOSHINOBU did work in the style of Harunobu during the seventies.
He furnishes another example of the obscurity that covers so much of
Japanese print history; for it is not known whether he was an
independent artist, or identical with Yamamoto Yoshinobu, who produced
two-colour prints in the fifties, or worse yet, an early signature of
Koriusai. The first theory is the most probable. His work is rare,
beautiful in colour, and well worthy of further research.
[Illustration: MASUNOBU.]
MASUNOBU, the second of that name, whose work, in clear, delicate colour
and charming arrangement, generally follows Harunobu's closely, is also
not definitely located. He appears to have been originally a pupil of
Shigenobu and Shigenaga. Most writers erroneously regard him as the same
man who, under the name of Sanseido Tanaka Masunobu, produced
two-colour prints in the forties, and hand coloured prints still
earlier.
One of the Second Masunobu's pillar-prints, representing a girl with an
open umbrella jumping from a balcony to meet a waiting lover, has a
unique and most charming individuality of poise and colouring. His
pillar-prints, of which about ten are known, are particularly fine.
UJIMASA, KAMEGAKI HOŌRIU, MURANOBU, TACHIBANA MINKO, BANTO, CHIRYU,
RYUSHI, KISEN, and SUIYO are rare men who worked contemporaneously with
Harunobu. The Hayashi Catalogue also names SHOHA, SOAN, SOGIKU, KOGAN
and SEIKO.
KUNINOBU is an artist of extreme rarity, whose few surviving prints show
distinction of line, based on the Harunobu manner. His work, done about
1775, stands out from the work of Harunobu's horde of followers; he was
evidently a noteworthy artist, of whom one wishes we knew more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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