In the early years of the seventeenth century a style of colouring known as _tan-yé_ (from the predominant use of a red-lead pigment known as tan) came into vogue. A little later prints were sold with more elaborate hand-colouring. Lacquer was mixed with the pigments to give them brilliancy, and the prints were known as _urushi-yé,_ or lacquer prints. In or about the year 1742 Okumura Masanobu began to make the first true colour-prints. For these he used only two colours, green and a soft red called _beni,_ and the prints were known as _beni-yé._ For some years difficulties connected with the printing prevented the use of more than two colour-blocks, and not until 1764 was a method discovered which made it possible to use as many blocks as might be required. Suzuki Harunobu was the first artist to take advantage of the discovery. The prints designed by him during the next six years are among the finest works of the school. Under his guidance and that of Katsukawa Shunsho, the art of colour-printing was brought to perfection. Then followed a period when many prints of precious quality were produced. The culmination was reached during the seventeen hundred and eighties, when Torii Kiyonaga turned out his marvellous single sheets, diptychs, and triptychs. Many splendid prints were designed in the next decade. It was then that Eishi made his delightful triptychs, that Sharaku stirred the people of Yedo with his wonderful caricature portraits of popular actors, and that Utamaro gained wide fame by the products of his facile brush. It was, however, a period of decadence, and by the end of the century a considerable distance had been travelled upon the downward path. The prints made in the nineteenth century were, for the most part, coarse and gaudy, the chief exceptions being those designed by Hokusai and Hiroshige. These men, though classed as of the Ukiyoé school, in reality represent what may more properly be termed another “movement” growing out of, but distinct from, the Ukiyoé art that reached its apogee under Kiyonaga. While the present exhibition includes specimens of most of the different kinds of prints—some of them, more especially the earlier ones, of extreme rarity—historical completeness has not been attempted. The aim has been rather to show such prints of exceptional quality and beauty as are available in New York. FREDERICK W. GOOKIN CATALOGUE HISHIKAWA MORONOBU Moronobu, who was born probably in 1625 and died in 1695, was the first important Japanese artist to design prints. As a painter he is highly renowned. He illustrated many books and made a considerable number of single-sheet prints, which were all either in plain black or coloured by hand. His works are now very rare.(6) LENT BY THE ESTATE OF FRANCIS LATHROP, DECEASED