絵本通俗三国志 3編 巻之8
This is a Japanese woodblock picture book, the third installment of an illustrated popular Three Kingdoms romance, drawn by Katsushika Taito and published by Okada Mohei in Edo during the nineteenth century for general readers. Its pictures show armoured warriors on horseback fighting in dense battle scenes, with dramatic diagonal rushes of spears, swords and bodies across crowded compositions. A designer might take from them the energy of hatched and stippled line work, the use of tangled foliage and bridges as framing, and the bold black-and-white contrast of crowded action.
