Yūsai Picture Album (Yūsai gafu 融齋畫譜)
The Yūsai Picture Album, a Japanese painting manual by Nakabayashi Chikutō, published in 1831, offers a model book of flowers and birds for artists and students of Japanese ink painting. The pictures are brush paintings in ink and soft colour on plain paper, with loose, economical strokes and seals and inscriptions placed in the margins. A designer might take the spare composition, the washes of muted blue and pink, and the open negative space that leaves room for text.
