Shinbi taikan
Shinbi taikan is a Japanese art-history portfolio compiled by Shiichi Tajima and published in Kyoto in 1899 by the Nippon Bukkyō Shinbi Kyōkai, presenting Buddhist painting and sculpture as photographic plates. The grey monochrome photographs show faded hanging scrolls and paired panels, with crowded figure groups, deities with halos, and calligraphy columns; a designer might take from them the rhythm of dense figures arranged in tiers and the worn, tonal texture of aged silk.
