絵本呉越軍談
This is an 1884 Japanese ehon picture book, Ehon Goetsu gunDan, written by Ikeda Tōri and published by Yamamoto Hideo, a woodblock-style illustrated war tale set in ancient China's Wu and Yue kingdoms. The pictures show courtly interiors with tiled floors, painted screens, patterned silk robes, and seated figures in tense exchanges, drawn in bold black outlines with sparse hatching. A designer could take from them the strong contrast of black linework on white, the flat patterned fabrics, and the stage-like framing of architecture around figures.
