the 18th and the earlier of the 19th century saw a vast increase of books illustrated by this process. The subjects also now include a new series of landscapes and views drawn as seen by the designers, and not reproductions of the work of other men; and also sketches of scenes and characters of everyday life and of the folk-lore in which Japan is so rich. Among the artists of this period, as of all others in Japan, Hokusai (1760-1849) is absolutely pre-eminent. His greatest production in book-illustration was the _Mangwa_, a collection of sketches which cover the whole ground of Japanese life and legend, art and handicraft. It consists of fifteen volumes, which appeared at intervals from 1812 to 1875, twelve being published during his life and the others from material left by him. Among his many other works may be mentioned the _Azuma Asobi_ (_Walks round Yedo_, 1799). Of his pupils, Hokkei (1780-1856) and Kyosai were the greatest. Most of the artists, whose main work was the designing of broadsheets, produced elaborately illustrated books; and this series includes specimens of printing in colours from wood-blocks, which for technique have never been excelled. Among them should be mentioned Shunsho (_Seiro bijin awase kagami_, 1776); Utamaro (_Seiro nenjyu gyoji_, 1804); Toyokuni I. (_Yakusha kono teikishiwa_, 1801); as well as Harunobu Yeishi (_Onna sanjyu rokkasen_, 1798), Kitao Masanobu and Tachibana Minko, each of whom produced beautiful work of the same nature. In the period next following, the chief artists were Keisai Yeisen (_Keisai so-gwa_, 1832) and Kikuchi Yosai (_Zenken kojitsu_), the latter of whom ranks perhaps as highly as any of the artists who confined their work to black and white. The books produced in the period 1880-1908 in Japan are still of high technical excellence. The colours are, unfortunately, of cheap European manufacture; and the design, although quite characteristic and often beautiful, is as a rule merely pretty. The engraving is as good as ever. Among the book-illustrators of our own generation must be again mentioned Kyosai; Kono Bairei (d. 1895), whose books of birds--the _Bairei hyakucho gwafu_ (1881 and 1884) and _Yuaka-no-tsuki_ (1889)--are unequalled of their kind; Imao Keinen, who also issued a beautiful set of illustrations of birds and flowers (_Keinen kwacho gwafu_), engraved by Tanaka Jirokichi and printed by Miki Nisaburo (1891-1892); and Watanabe Seitei, whose studies of similar subjects have appeared in _Seitei kwacho gwafu_ (1890-1891) and the _Bijutsu sekai_ (1894), engraved by Goto Tokujiro. Mention should also be made of several charming series of fairy tales, of which that published in English by the _Kobunsha_ in Tokyo in 1885 is perhaps the best. In their adaptation of modern processes of illustration the Japanese are entirely abreast of Western nations, the