Footnote from original book:

There is considerable variation in the statements found in books concerning the oldest specimens of Japanese color-printing. From Dr. Justus Brinckmann's Kunst und Handwerk in Japan (Berlin, 1889, p. 222), we learn that these specimens, according to a Japanese author, Sakakiwara, date from the year 1695, although on p. 237 of the same book it is stated that Torii Kiyonobu, who was not born until 1688, was the first painter who had his designs reproduced by color-printing. According to Theodore Duret (see Chronik fur vervielfaltigende Kunst, 1889, No. 6), the first color-prints with two or three tints were produced between 1710 and 1720. Finally, according to Dr. Wm. Anderson, the author of the Catalogue of Prints and Books illustrating the History of Engraving in Japan, issued by the Burlington Fine Arts. Club in 1888, the date is about the year 1700 (see p. xvii of the catalogue named). Prof. Fenollosa, however, is of opinion that these earlier specimens were not colorprints, but colored prints, i.e., prints tinted by hand.