“The compositions of Yeishi, upon superficial study, suggest marked facility and even some originality in line composition, with here and there an eccentricity which gives character to his treatment. The lines seem to be invariably broad and openly expressed. They lack the strong personality and vigorous treatment of Hokusai, the suggestive delicacy and voluptuousness of Utamaro, but seem to embody the vigorous calligraphic stroke of Kiyonaga. We can place Yeishi upon a plane of individuality because of his sensitive temperament which seemed to be influenced by his environment and his master teacher. This varied individuality was accompanied by a tendency towards imitation, yet a generous discrimination would concede to him facility, technic, refinement and rare judgment. “The lines of Toyokuni show technical skill, and his calligraphic stroke is simple and vigorous, yet he lacks the spiritual and suggestive delicacy of Utamaro, giving the impression that externalities influenced him, rather than the finer shades of artistic interpretation. [Illustration: The Snowstorm. By Kitugawa Yeizan.] His best work is histrionic and is full of individuality, breaking through the traditional stage attitudes, which impressed the artists who developed along his lines. “Yeizan’s treatment is peculiarly his own, having a simplicity almost amounting to awkwardness expressed in a reserve of treatment. The casual observer is impressed by a sense of incompleteness, but this is overcome when the simple harmony of the lines is noted. Yeizan invariably breaks loose from his first reserve. Beginning very carefully he gradually loses his constraint, and the lower part of his drapery shows greater impulse of treatment. “The work of Yeisen, showing much of Utamaro’s facility, with a touch of the vigour of Kiyonaga, is yet distinctly conceived along traditional lines. It bears the strong impress of decorative sense, but nevertheless the lines, though simple and well controlled, show rather the finished master of technic than the originative mind. In Yeisen we are less conscious of that emanating quality of originality and forceful personality that we feel in Harunobu, Hokusai and Utamaro.”