A Calligraphy Book (Naniwazu)
A calligraphy primer printed in Kyoto in 1714 under the name of Hasegawa Myōtei, a seventeenth-century calligrapher, and issued by the publisher Okamoto Hanshichi for students and practitioners of cursive kana writing. The pictures are double-page spreads of loose, flowing brushstrokes in black ink on cream paper, with columns of kana rising and falling in irregular rhythms, showing a designer how bold ink gestures can be balanced against sparse, open ground.
