Shūko jisshu
A Japanese woodblock-printed book of 1800 by Matsudaira Sadanobu, a Tokugawa-era statesman and calligrapher, issued as a model collection of calligraphy for practice and connoisseurs. Its pages show large white characters carved and printed as reversed relief on dark ink-black grounds, mounted on cream paper with rubbed-ink texture. A designer might take the bold figure-ground contrast, the vertical columns of brushed strokes, and the rough texture of ink-rubbed stone-rubbing surfaces for lettering and layout.
