business, or workshop than academic institution where any person may apply and learn the trade. Many practices flourished during the Edo period, imploring different understandings of Japanese customs and Chinese artistic learning. Each school's practice was a closely guarded secret traditionally passed down orally or in short written documents from master to student. Unfortunately due to a multitude of circumstances many of these documents being lost or destroyed, there exists a limited wealth of written documentation. What little scattered and incomplete documentation that still exists is in the form of personal diaries, nikki, lists, letters, and inscriptions on artworks themselves. For many art workshops, labor would be divided based on seniority and skill, with the head of the workshop acting as a quasi-middleman between the aristocratic commissioner and the various craftsmen employed by the workshop; fulfilling the role of commissioner, preservationist and restorationist, appraiser, and official channel of communications. After Death The later Tosa style of the eighteenth century showed very little strength or promise due to loss of patrons and overshadowing from the Kanō school. The school was affected by the growing popularity of the study of Japanese history and the rise of the imperial family. Around the nineteenth century, there was a distinct revival under two artist named Tanaka Totsugen and Reizei Tamechika who specialized in repeating Mitsuoki's work. Their work reaffirmed the Japanese spirit of Yamato-e, which they made many copies. Their art reflected political philosophy and sometimes had a historical connecting because several of the artists were also faithful to the imperial cause. The two artists were revivalists, and got so caught up in painting historical figures, that they overlooked the special greatness of the early artists who specialized in movement and realism. The most successful successors invented their own artistic style but kept the predecessors tradition of painting in strong color with an intense feeling of natural beauty. Style Mitsuoki reinvigorated the Yamato-e(大和絵) style of classical Japanese painting. Yamato-e originated from interest in reproducing early Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) paintings, and was later reinvented and further refined to fit Japanese cultural perceptions in the late Heian period (794-1185). Yamato-e, sometimes referred to as wa-e or kazu-e (和絵) had become synonymous with the Tosa-ha by the Muromachi period as a way for Japanese artist to distinguish their works from those of mainland Chinese paintings, kara-e (唐絵). Yamato-e incorporated various visual and literary techniques for establishing narrative.