Picture Book of the Evergreens (Ehon tokiwagusa)
Picture Book of the Evergreens is an illustrated woodblock book printed in 1731 in Osaka by Morita Shōtarō and drawn by Nishikawa Sukenobu, probably for a general Japanese readership of the period. Its double-page spreads show courtly and domestic scenes of elegantly dressed women indoors and on verandas, with sparse, confident ink contours, patterned kimono, and open architectural framing. A designer could take from them the economy of line, the layered textile patterning, and the use of interior space and cropped screens to organise a composition.
