Kan'ei Picture Album (Kan'ei gafu 完瑛画譜)
Kan'ei Picture Album is a Japanese woodblock-printed album of flower and bird studies by Nishiyama Ken'ichirō, published in Osaka in 1886 by Maekawa Zenbei for artists and students of painting. Its plates are delicate and uncluttered, with single birds perched on bare or leafy branches and flowering sprays set against empty cream paper, and designers can take from them the economy of negative space, the soft tonal shading of feathers and petals, and the placement of a small red seal as a graphic accent.
