The pupils,—notably one, who, among other names, signed Shigenobu, until after his master’s death, when he took the title of Hiroshige the Second, gradually assuming his full _nom-de-pinceau_, Hiroshige Ichiryusai,—faithfully imitated his style, also amplifying the multitudinous designs and sketches made by the master, yet the genius of the great artist is stamped upon his work, and as a clever critic tersely says: “Everything he touched was his autograph.” Mr. John S. Happer, an indefatigable student of Ukiyo-ye and collector of nishiki-ye gems, during diligent research, discovered a clew that leads, beyond controversy, to the right attribution of the prints signed Hiroshige, and which he intends later to make public. Nearly all the important vertical sets, he says, most of which have been ascribed to the second Hiroshige, are by the first artist, although doubtless his pupils assisted him in his work, rendering their aid, as did the pupils of Hokusai in the preparation of the Mang-wa. Hiroshige also associated himself at times with other artists, one set of the Kisokaido, for example, being in part the work of Keisai Yeisen, and he supplied many backgrounds to the prints of Kunisada and Kuniyoshi. In the catalogue of the “Collection Hayashi” only two prints are assigned to pupils of Hiroshige, one of them bearing the signature of Shigenobu. The masterpieces signed Hiroshige are all by one great genius, the Apostle of Impressionism. “Hiro, Hiro, Hiroshige, great is Hiroshige,” cries Mr. Happer, in an outburst of enthusiasm. “Before Hiroshige there was no Japanese landscape master,—after him there is none.” In the “Happer” Collection is a memorial portrait of Hiroshige by Kunisada (Toyokuni), the inscription upon which is of especial interest, confirming, as it does, the date of his death and proving that the “Meisho Yedo Hiak’kei,” the vertical set of Yedo views, so often ascribed to his successor, were by the master. The inscription is thus quaintly interpreted by a Japanese student: “Ryusai Hiroshige is a distinguished follower of Toyohiro, who was a follower of Toyoharu, the founder of the Utagawa School. At the present time, Hiroshige, Toyokuni and Kuniyoshi are considered the three great masters of Ukiyo-ye,—no others equal them. Hiroshige was especially noted for landscape. In the Ansei era, 1854-1859, he published the ‘Meisho Yedo Hiak’kei’ (‘Hundred Views of Yedo’), which vividly present the scenery of Yedo to the multitude of admirers.