(Transmitted from the Gods) Ippitsu Picture Book ((Denshin kaishu) Ippitsu gafu)

(Transmitted from the Gods) Ippitsu Picture Book ((Denshin kaishu) Ippitsu gafu) is a print or book leaf by Katsushika Taito II dated 1823 and held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The title invokes the convention of ippitsu-ga, or single-brush painting—the practice of drawing a complete figure or scene with one continuous brush stroke, an exercise valued in Japanese painting pedagogy for the demonstration of mastery it implied. The framing phrase Denshin kaishu suggests that the book presents work transmitted from a divine or authoritative source, a common rhetorical move in Edo-period instructional and aesthetic texts. Taito II's contribution to the ippitsu picture-book tradition shows him engaged with a broader Japanese discussion of painting technique that included not only practical manuals but also more conceptually framed picture books. The Victoria and Albert Museum's holding documents the international distribution of Taito II's work—important examples reached European museums during the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century waves of Japanese print collecting, expanding the geographic record of his publishing career.