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But this method of colouring proved too expensive, and about 1742, the invention was made of separate blocks for filling in the spaces between the lines with printed colour. At first, two colours only were used, generally rose and pale green.
About 1758, a three-colour block was introduced, and it became possible now to use the three blocks for three primary colours, which, by suffusion, could be made to produce secondary tones.
In 1765, Harunobu, one of the greatest designers in the styles of two and three colours, conceived the design to use as many coloured blocks as he required tints, and to use these for filling in the spaces of sky, landscape distance and foreground. This was the beginning of full polychromatic colour printing.
Harunobu and his pupils developed this rich means to express all kinds of pictorial subjects until about 1780, when Kiyonaga, by devoting himself to selecting the exact values of figures seen against landscape backgrounds, added atmosphere to beauty of colour, and thus produced complete pictorial relief in compositions of outdoor figures. His work about 1786 reached the high-water mark of excellence in Japanese colour prints.
From about 1792, three men, Utamaro, Toyokuni and Yeishi,