chō Gwayei" (3 vols., 1772), and the rare "Yeirin Gwakyō” (3 vols., 1773); all containing, mixed in with the serious work, most amusing sketches done with characteristic dash and freedom. A close contemporary of Itchō's was the Buddhist priest, Meiyo Kokan, who lived between 1653 and 1717. From Koriyama, near Nara, where he had been a priest in the temple of Saigan-ji, he went to Ōsaka, and finally toward the latter part of his life was made Abbot of Hoön-ji in Kyōto. He studied painting under Kanō Yeino, and some kakemono of enormous size which he made of mythical subjects became very famous. A delightful painted scroll in sumi from his brush, representing the rebuilding of the Daibutsu-den in Nara is one of the temple treasures of Todai-ji in that city. After Kokan's death a book of very clever caricatures by him was printed by his followers. These of Hōgen by the Shōgunate: He was largely self-taught, and formed his style on close study of the old Kanō work. In early eighteenth-century art in Japan his was an important name, not only locally but throughout the country. In time he headed what came to be known as the Dokuritsu or Independent School, and left numerous followers to carry on his work. He dipped into many things in an art way; copying famous old classic paintings by early Chi From the Kishi Empu (1803), by Aoi Sōkyū. drawings appeared anonymously in the "Ruise Sogwa" (3 vols.), in 1724. This early edition was printed on the fine Chinese paper known as toshi, and is excessively rare. In 1735, and again in the Hōreki period, these books were reprinted under the title of "Jimbutsu Sogwa," and Kokan's name, as the artist, is given on the title-page. Religious subjects, priests at their devotions, temple scenes, etc., are all caricatured by this rollicking old monk, and the big, dashing technic of the drawings might have come from Paris last year. Three contemporary artists, Oöka Shunboku, Hasegawa Mitsunobu, and Heizaburo Nichōsai, were all working in Ōsaka toward the middle of the eighteenth century. Shunboku was an aristocrat, Mitsunobu had leanings toward the Ukiyo-ye style, and Nichōsai was just frankly of the proletariat and frankly vulgar and funny. Shunboku (1688-1772) was first of all a great painter, having been given the degree nese and Japanese masters, illustrating old legends and historical subjects, making drawings of flowers and birds (in the "Meika Jūni-shū”), and producing charming designs for carvers in his "Ramma Dzushiki,” a series of three rare books, signed Oöka Haito, and published in 1734. His experiments in color-printing form perhaps the most interesting artistic adventures in his career, for the beautiful and excessively rare "Minchō Seido Gwayen," published in two volumes in Enkyō 3 (1746), is one of the very early examples of full polychrome work in Japan. Shunboku had lighter moments in which dignity was thrown aside, when he indulged in the toba-ye which were just then the rage in the Ōsaka studios. Three famous sets of books of caricatures, although variously attributed at different times to Hasegawa Mitsunobu and Nichōsai, having appeared anonymously in the original editions, are now known to have been Shunboku's work. These are the From the first volume of the Keihitsu Toba-guruma (1720), by Oöka Shunboku. "Keihitsu Toba-guruma" (3 vols., 1720); the "Toba-ye Sango-kushi" ("Comic Sketches of Three Cities"-Spring in Kyōto, Evening in Yedo, and Autumn in Osaka-3 vols., 1752); and the "Toba-ye Ögi-noMato" (caricatures of people at different pastimes-3 vols., Hōreki period, and again in 1788 when the earlier books were also republished). Just why Shunboku allowed these clever books to appear unsigned is not known. Probably his position in the art world of the day and the fact that he was known as a follower of the classic methods, and had been given the rank or degree of Hōgen, made it seem beneath his dignity to produce the laughtercompelling if not over-nice sketches in the above volumes. Even if the secret had not been out, however, when the 1788 editions of these books appeared, naming Shunboku as the artist in their advertising pages, it might easily enough have been guessed by the examples of toba-ye in the last volume of the "Wakan Meihitsu Ehon Te-kagami." This famous and delightful book, signed Hōgen Ichiō Shunboku, appeared in six folios in 1720, and although chiefly given up to descriptions and copies of classical work, in it the revived popularity of the toba-ye is spoken of, and examples of it are given on the 13th, 14th, and 15th pages of the last volume. The technic in these drawings is identical with that in the three sets of books of caricatures spoken of, although even now these books are frequently attributed to Mitsunobu and in the "Hayashi Catalogue" were listed as by Nichōsai. This mistake is difficult to understand, because even a superficial comparison of work by the three men reveals such fundamental differences in the style as to prove the drawings to certainly not have been by either Mitsunobu or Nichōsai, whoever else's work they may have been. Of the life of Hasegawa Mitsunobu almost nothing of any importance is known. He used as other signatures the names Nagaharu, Baiōken, and Hasegawa Shō From the Ehon Jugen (1751), reproductions of Hanabusa Itchō's drawings by Ippō. ཞཁ suiken, and we know that he was working which are extremely rare. His "Ehon in the Kyōhō period, since a well-known Mizuka-Sora" (2 vols., 1780), containing book of caricatures, the "Toba-ye Fude caricatures of actors; the "E-banashi Byōshi" (3 vols.) appeared in the ninth Nichōsai" (4 vols., 1782) with its anecdotes year of that period (1724), and a rare set of and drawings of authors and artists during books of kimono designs, in which he collab- the four seasons; the "Katsura Kasane" orated with Tachibana Morikuni, followed (1 folio, colors, 1803); and the "Ehon in 1727. His most interesting book is an Kotsu Dzue" (3 vols., 1805), are practically undated kubari-hon or gift book, of one never to be found now in the original edihundred poems and toba-ye drawings of arti- tions. The "Katsura Kasane" was resans, entitled the "Haikai Futawarai"; a printed under the title of "Saiji Mepokai," lelightfully humorous folio and excessively but even this reprint is rare. The immense rare. From the Yamato Jimbutsu Gwafu, by Yamaguchi Soken (1804). The "Toba-ye Fude Byōshi" is known chiefly through reprints, the original edition having become practically extinct. The third member of this Ōsaka group of caricaturists was Haizaburo Nichōsai,* a sake brewer, who, in his leisure hours, was given to writing novels, reciting Jōruri ballads, and drawing caricatures, and who later in life became a dealer in curios. His drawings of actors and wrestlers were almost as popular as his comic sketches, and he, himself, was so well known for his witty stories and queer pranks that he was called by a nickname that might be translated as the "crank of Osaka." Other names used by him in his work were Matsuya Heitazaemon and Matsuhei. There are about a dozen books illustrated by Nichōsai, all of •Sometimes incorrectly spelled and pronounced Jichōsai. ly clever caricatures in this book are beautifully printed in colors on a white ground. It is one of the rarest of the toba-ye books and commands a high price when it comes up for sale. All of these men left followers who produced toba-ye books along with their more serious work. Takahara Shunchōsai, chiefly known as an illustrator of meisho-ki or guide-books, produced one set of amusing toba-ye books. This is the "Toba-ye Akubi-dome" ("Comical Sketches to Prevent Yawning"), published in three volumes in 1793. In Kyōto several of the Shijō-Maruyama and Bunjingwa artists produced delightfully amusing drawings done in a dashing style that would seem ultramodern, did not the dates in the books go back to a century and more ago. Yamaguchi Soken, one of Ōkyo's famous pupils, in his two sets of the "Yamato Jimbutsu Gwafu" (3 vols., each 1799 and 1804), produced some very clever work; Nishimura Nantei also; while Aoi Sōkyū, generally known as Kishi Sudo, another follower of the Maruyama School who later lived in Osaka, was guilty of perhaps the most amazing of all the books of caricatures. This excessively rare work, the "Kishi Empu," appeared first in 1803. In the "Gillot Catalogue" the mistake is made of attributing it to Kishi Chikudo. The book is in three volumes and contains grotesque but richly colored double-page plates of the Ōsaka courtesans. In 1815 the book was reprinted, and in 1903 Yamada of Kyōto reproduced twelve of the plates in a gwajo under the title of "Kakuchu Empu." Edward Strange, in his "Japanese Colour Prints," says in the chapter devoted to subjects of illustration, that "comic scenes and caricatures are not common, and rarely well executed." This is true to some extent of the prints, but in the old illustrated books-long before the time of Hokusaithere is found an immense amount of comic work done in a dashing style that reminds one of Steinlen's, Forain's, and Abel Faivre's cartoons that were daily features of the Paris papers some years ago. That these books have been favorites is proved by. their extreme rarity and the soiled and generally poor condition in which they are almost invariably found when they do occasionally turn up in old bookshops and at the Japanese auctions. Comic work is no less popular in modern Japanese illustration, and the newspapers and magazines are constantly printing extremely clever work done with admirable technic. A number of modern books have also appeared within the last few years containing delightful drawings of this kind. The traveller from the Occident doesn't escape the facile brush of these humorists, and if the foreigners who come to Japan imagine that they impress the Japanese with their superiority, some of these modern books of caricatures depicting their foibles might be distressingly disillusionizing to them. Not having been on the immediate scene and watched the development of our tricks and our manners, the Japanese cartoonist brings, in addition to a perennial sense of fun, a pair of fresh eyes to the latest vagaries of the West in hats, clothes, and manners, and in his exquisitely funny drawings gives us a hint as to the manner in which we appear when "others see us." But foreigners do not often see these books. in the Situation GERMANY'S PAYMENT AND THE ECONOMIC FUTURE BY ALEXANDER DANA NOYES T the moment when the financial community's sentiment had drifted to belief that nothing was in sight to check the course of reaction and depression, the situation suddenly passed into a new phase. It was not A Change readily recognized by the markets as an altered situation; it was reflected at the start only feebly, if at all, even on the Stock Exchange, and it left plenty of grave financial problems behind it. Nevertheless, it did not require any large experience to see that in very large measure the surrounding and controlling circumstances had changed. A few months ago it was pointed out in these sketches of the financial situation that the economic world had passed, since the armistice, through two distinct chapters of events, each of which had in turn been definitely ended, and that it had subsequently been groping its way through the third chapter, whose end could not clearly be seen at the time by any one. The first period of after-war reaction and declining prices had lasted from November, 1918, to the ensuing spring. The period which followed-marked by rising prices, by wild speculation, by rapid enhancement of production costs, including labor, and by world-wide currency inflation-had continued from the spring of 1919 to the spring of 1920. It had been followed by the spectacular fall of prices in every market of the world, by the hard times and the effort at economic readjustment, the date and manner of whose completion had been impossible to predict. These three economic chapters had closely followed the shifting phases of the political situation, which, first, in the few months following the armistice, had been governed by the struggle for subjection of Central and Western Europe to anarchy of the Bolshevist sort, whose second period had covered the defeat of that undertaking and the period of political recovery, but which, after entering the third period a year ago, had been continuously confronted with the grim problem of settling the terms of peace, enforcing indemnity payments, and effecting the seemingly impossible restoration of normal relationships between the European states. During at least twelve months this problem, like the problem of bringing into a sound position the markets, the international trade and the relations between producers and consumers, had seemed to be insoluble. Within a month it has apparently been solved, and with its solution economic and political conditions have both entered a new chapter. P to the month of May, 1921, Ger When Germany Refused Payment many had simply refused to conform to the terms of reparation, set forth by the Allied Commission in accordance with the agreement signed by Germany at the armistice and in the Treaty of Versailles. One of the payments thus imposed had been fixed for May 1. It was not met. The German Government professed inability to pay the total amount assessed against it. It made counter-proposals on a very much smaller scale, rejected the modified proposals of the Allied premiers, and showed plain signs of having found encouragement, first in such sympathetic denunciation of the treaty as that of Mr. Maynard Keynes, and, second, in what seemed to be Germany's inference that the defeat of President Wilson's candidate at the polls last November meant not only a new United States Government which would reject Mr. Wilson's international policies, but an |