A Collection of Witty Poems on Michinoku Paper (Michinoku-gami kyōka awase 陸奥紙狂歌合)
A late eighteenth-century Japanese illustrated book of kyoka comic verse, printed in Edo in 1793 by Takasu Soshichi and Fuyodo, with Utagawa Toyohiro as artist. Its pictures are full-colour woodblock portraits of seated poets, each framed by calligraphic poem columns on a warm cream ground. A designer might take the spare figure poses, the patterned striped and checked robes, and the way handwritten verse is set as graphic texture beside the figures.
