Hokusai used all methods, acknowledged no school. His lines flowing out of the prescribed limits hint at vast stretches of country. Swirls of waves foam up in the impressions, supplying an alphabet of motion. In Mang-wa is blent sweetness and power, structure and the fundamental vital motive, underlying all art. When working for the engraver he was concise, rapid and impulsive, but when contemplating nature he sketched in freedom,—his execution became fairylike. [Illustration: An Actor in the Miyako Dance. By Shunko, pupil of Shunsho, nicknamed Ko-tsubo, or “The Little Jar,” from the seal used by his master.] The landscape of Hiroshige, though confined to the narrow range of the wood-cut, have all the qualities of Impressionism, the details are subordinated, only the salient points of the scene being represented, but the atmosphere supplies what is lacking, and this incommunicable, subtle gift, the birthright of the artists, enabled them to conjure living pictures from the hard medium of the wooden block. The following suggestive comparisons between the masters of Ukiyo-ye, kindly volunteered by Mr. Morgan Shepard, are full of value to the student, as the individual opinion of a refined amateur and art critic. Of Harunobu he says: “Though from the point of proportion his figures seem to lack technic, the naïve artlessness of his lines perfectly satisfies us. In this purpose of simplicity they almost suggest the qualities of the fresco work by the early Tuscan masters, when the spirit was striving for expression and working out individuality along its own spiritual lines. The vigour of his stroke impresses one as being untraditional. “In the figure of the Dancer by Shunko, the pupil of Shunsho, we observe that, although through training and tradition the pupil has gained a greater facility, yet the simplicity of the master is lost in an excess of elaboration. The lines resemble those of Shunsho, though there is more uniformity of stroke, with a greater delicacy, but the simplicity of the first artist is merged in decorative purpose. Shunsho is distinctly simple and his lines have a blended quality of relation, giving a sense of repose which in the pupil is obscured by the tendency to elaborate. “In epitomizing the cardinal qualities expressed in the Utamaro prints, the most marked is the suggestion of subjective, unconscious skill that gives no impress of the objective. Each line seems to come directly from the fountain-head of the man’s spiritual or soul nature, though this very soul nature expresses itself often along sensual lines. Indeed, were the artist less of a spiritual genius, he would often become revoltingly sensual. To the casual observer the lines of Utamaro show wonderful facility, and still greater delicacy, yet we cannot but observe underlying all his art, especially in its later phases, this subtle sensuality. The lower draperies of the Utamaro figures have an almost insinuating fullness.