Gekijō manroku / Mokumoku Gyoin cho
Gekijō manroku is a Japanese woodblock-printed book on kabuki theatre compiled by Kimura Mokurō and published in 1829 in Kyoto and Edo by the Kikuya publishing house. Its pages mix dense columns of handwritten-style kana and kanji text with framed prints of costumed actors in bold black-and-white outline. A designer might take from them the flat graphic economy of Edo-period actor prints, with heavy calligraphic contour lines, crests set in roundels, and text panels framing a single figure.
