People of Yamato (Japan) Picture Album (Yamato jinbutsu gafu) : [volume 2]

Yamaguchi, Soken, 1759-1818 · 1799 · Japan : [producer not identified] · 3 pictures

This is a Japanese woodblock-printed picture album of ordinary people of Yamato, the old name for the Nara region, made by the artist Yamaguchi Soken and published around 1799 for a general audience. Its pages show townsfolk and workers in simple black outline with light blue wash, sketched with quick, economical lines. A designer could take from them the clean contour line, sparse figure placement, and the way small washes of colour sit loosely beside the ink.

Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art · No known copyright restrictions · More from this library