In the best prints the decoration of the dress fits in with the scheme of the picture. M. de Goncourt says: “If the figures are represented out of doors, flowers seem to be shed upon the dresses, as if the wearer passed beneath blossoming trees. If the artist paints butterflies on a costume, they harmonize with the background. If peonies are used he alternates their whiteness with a purple tint. And how admirable is their use of relief! Upon a blue or mauve gown, how charming is the white relief of an embossed cherry petal, and so marvellously executed is this goffering, that many of the oldest impressions retain the impression as perfectly as if only printed yesterday.” Utamaro at first equalled Kiyonaga in the majesty of his figures, later he lost beauty and strength in exaggeration. Yeishi shows a striking resemblance to Utamaro, and he, too, followed after Kiyonaga: his studies of women are noted for their refined elegance. Yeisen compares with Utamaro in the grace with which he portrays women, and Yeizan’s lines are stronger, but show a marked similarity. Hartmann says: “The linear beauties of the representations of Yeizan, Yeishi, Yeisen, impress one like a Nautch, like some languid oriental dance in which the bodies undulate with an almost imperceptible vibration. The Japanese see in a woman, a glorification of all beautiful things—they even study the natural grace of the willow, plum and cherry trees, to find the correct expression of her movements.” Toyokuni was the master of mimetic art. In his actor faces he runs the gamut of emotion,—jealousy, passion, fiendish fury and concentrated cunning, rush at us from his prints. Toyokuni, the Marionette maker, forced life into the forms of his puppets, and later the same power is shown in his designs for the block. Like many of the Ukiyo-ye artists, he employs caricature, but his figures are living, sentient. M. de Goncourt says: “In comparing two books by Utamaro, and Toyokuni, illustrating the occupations of the women of the Yoshiwara Toyokuni, often the equal of Utamaro in his triptychs is beaten by his rival. His women have not the elegance, the willowy grace, the figures of Utamaro possess, nor their resplendent personality. His pictures lack the spirit, the life, the ‘trick’ of voluptuousness of the women of the ‘Flower Quarter.’ Then the comic note which Toyokuni sought for in representing these scenes, adds triviality to his work. In short, to judge between the rival painters, one has only to place side by side a woman painted by Utamaro and one by Toyokuni. The first is a little marvel, the second only a commonplace print.” Kunisada followed in the footsteps of his master Toyokuni, adding charming backgrounds, which he borrowed from Hiroshige; in fact, the Hiroshige are said to have supplied many backgrounds to the prints of Kunisada and Kuniyoshi.