ABSTRACT
The same animals which denote the years are also assigned to the twelve months of the year and to the hours of the day, which is divided into twelve periods of two hours each. When the activity of an artist extended over a long period, as was the case with Hokusai, the exact dating of a print becomes almost impossible, apart from other evidence, when only the year is indicated. “Aratame” may also be translated “changing to,” as when an artist is on the point of adopting another name and signs himself “Kunisada aratame ni sei Toyokuni”. The Handbook to the Print Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, gives a table of all the Japanese periods from the year 1688 down to the present day, with the equivalent years a.d., and will be found useful in identifying the dates on prints.
