mica grounds. Kurth questions this statement, Rumpf discards it, and as mica grounds had been prohibited before Monnosuke died there can be little doubt of its falsity. Incidentally, the right-hand sheet which we can show in an actual impression rather than from a photograph, is not on a mica ground but on one that is tinted with gray.
The print showing Kanzayemon and Tomijūrō receiving Monnosuke is known to exist in two impressions. The one of these that we exhibit is cut only slightly at the top, bottom and on the right, but has been trimmed considerably on the left. It now measures 12×8 inches instead of the usual 13×9 of the aiban form. It was at one time in the Behrens Collection. The present whereabouts of the other is unknown, but it is of the full size and is reproduced in the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 289, as Rumpf number 2, and as the title page of Noguchi.
Both prints: Aiban. Grounds as discussed above. Signed: Sharaku.
Right-hand sheet: Grabhorn Collection.
301
