桜姫曙草紙 : 絵本 巻之3
This is a Japanese woodblock picture book (ehon) from the Edo period, volume 3 of a Sakurahime story, written by Santō Kyōden and illustrated by Utagawa Toyokuni for the publisher Okada Mohei. The four pictures show a landscape with a walking figure and a gate, a seated man on a verandah beside a ladder, a river with rapids and willows, and armoured warriors fighting in churning water, with speech text in columns above the scenes. A designer can take from them the flowing line of water rendered as repeated curved strokes, the contrast of dense black ink against open white ground, and the compact framing of narrative scenes with text panels.
