Gifts from the Ebb-Tide (The Shell Book) (Shiohi no tsuto 潮干のつと)
Gifts from the Ebb-Tide, also called The Shell Book, is a Japanese illustrated book of 1789 by Kitagawa Utamaro, printed for a Tokyo readership of poetry and collecting enthusiasts. Its pictures show shells, tidal shoreline figures and interiors, drawn in soft colour with fine outline. A designer might take its loose, naturalistic arrangement of shells and its tinted paper ground as models for botanical-style pattern and layout.
