Picture Book: Mount Asaka (Ehon Asakayama 絵本浅香山)
Ehon Asakayama is a 1739 Japanese picture book by Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1751), published in Kyoto by Kikuya Kihei and aimed at general readers interested in women's fashion and daily life in Kyoto and Osaka. Its pages are monochrome woodblock prints of elegantly dressed women standing or walking in pairs across each spread, with finely drawn kimono patterns, hairstyles, and accessories. A designer could draw on the flowing linework, the repeated floral and geometric textile motifs, and the simple spacious page layouts with framed borders.
