A Compendium of Small Birds (Kotori rui shū 小鳥類集)
A Compendium of Small Birds, a Japanese illustrated album by the painter Nantō, dated 1836, presenting small songbirds on paper with accompanying poems in Japanese script. The pictures show birds perched on branches, pine, bamboo, maple and flowering vines, painted in soft muted washes with fine ink outlines. A designer could take from them the restrained palette of warm beige ground, rose and grey-blue accents, and the economical use of negative space around single perched figures.
