水戸黄門仁徳録 : 絵本実録
This is a Japanese illustrated ehon picture book, published in 1887 by Ogawa Shinsuke, retelling the legendary exploits of the Mito lord Mitsukuni in woodblock-printed pages. The four pictures show a samurai figure descending through clouds, a bearded warrior standing on a cloud over a mountain, a noble in black robes at a veranda, and a seated courtier beside a lantern, each with dense columns of vertical text. A designer could take the strong black silhouettes, the rhythm of text blocks beside images, and the compositional use of cloud shapes as graphic devices.
