A master artist of old Japan: Katsukawa Shunshō, 1726-1793 : a review of his life and works

Uittreksel

"This book is the outcome of intensive study, during many years, of a large number of Shunshō's colour-prints, book illustrations and paintings. It's not a biography, material for that does not exist. The little that is known about his life is put before the reader, and an effort has been made to present a fairly comprehensive view of the range, the extent and the quality of his achievements, and, in a general way, to indicate the conditions under which he lived and worked. In such details as dates probabilities have had to be offered instead of definitely ascertained facts, in regretably many instances. Care has been taken, however, to state all probabilities as such, and to put them forward only when they seem to be reasonably well founded. Since Shunshō specialized in portraits of actors in character, most of his works can be dated definitely or approximately; and thus it has been found possible to arrange in chronological order most of the illustrations which are here presented."-- Preface.