絵本柳荒美談
This Japanese picture book (ehon), published in 1889 by Eisendo, uses woodblock-style line illustrations to present a set of narrative scenes for a general readership. The pictures show seated and standing samurai figures against patterned screens and backgrounds scattered with round crest-like roundels, with printed kanji captions beside the figures. A designer could take from them the bold contrast of solid black costume areas against open white ground, the textured hatching on armour and fabric, and the use of repeated circular motifs as a decorative field.
