Japanese Woodblock Print Book

She lifts a woven hat with one hand and leans in to see who is there.

This woodblock print book, Samurai Stories, E-Hon Format, is from Japan and dates to the Meiji Period. It is ink, by an unknown artist. Picture books like this drew on popular fiction and kabuki, and their covers and frontispieces often featured striking full-length figures. A woman in a rose kimono with large roundels leans between two wooden stands, a pole across her shoulder and a dark collar at her neck. Waves and hanging willow fill the blue ground behind her. A green column at right carries the title. It is 4.7 inches wide and 7 high.

Caught mid-errand, and not at all flustered.