The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 2]
The Tale of Bunshō, volume 2, is a woodblock-printed Japanese illustrated narrative published in Osaka in 1685 by Yamamoto Kuemon, with pictures attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu (c. 1618–1694) and aimed at a general reading public. Its facing pages show courtly and domestic scenes in Japanese interiors: robed figures seated on veranda floors, a mounted procession with palanquin and attendants, and a banquet, all drawn in bold black outlines with sparse hatched shading and rendered in an orderly, diagonal-framed layout a designer could take as a model for compositional rhythm and clean linear pattern.
![Picture 1 of 4 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 2] (1685), leaf 4](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1183-4-1.webp)
![Picture 2 of 4 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 2] (1685), leaf 9](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1183-9-1.webp)
![Picture 3 of 4 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 2] (1685), leaf 14](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1183-14-1.webp)
![Picture 4 of 4 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 2] (1685), leaf 18](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1183-18-1.webp)