The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 1]
The Tale of Bunshō is a woodblock-printed Japanese illustrated storybook, volume 1, made by Hishikawa Moronobu and published in Osaka in 1685 by Yamamoto Kuemon for a general reading public. Its double-page spreads show interior rooms with raised floors and sliding screens, figures in conversation and at work, and outdoor scenes with pine trees and mountains, drawn in clean black outlines with occasional hand-applied red. A designer might take its simple linear figure drawing, tiered architectural perspective, and sparse colour accents as a model for economical line-based illustration.
![Picture 1 of 3 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 1] (1685), leaf 3](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1162-3-1.webp)
![Picture 2 of 3 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 1] (1685), leaf 7](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1162-7-1.webp)
![Picture 3 of 3 from The Tale of Bunshō (Bunshō monogatari ぶん志やう物語) : [volume 1] (1685), leaf 15](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/met-p16028coll7_1162-15-1.webp)