Japanese Woodblock Print Book

Blue covers, a handwritten label, and inside, a crowd of people behaving badly in ink.

This woodblock print book, Comical Sketches in Toba-E Style, is from Japan, late Edo period (mid-19th century), in ink on paper, by an artist unknown. Toba-e takes its name from the 12th century monk Toba Sojo, traditionally credited with comic animal scrolls, and the style became a byword for lively, exaggerated caricature in Edo woodblock books. The book is bound Japanese style with stitched thread along the right edge. Its covers are a mottled blue paper with a faint embossed pattern, and a slip label carries the title in brushed calligraphy. Edges show soft wear. It is 7.1 inches wide and 10.1 high.

The cover keeps a straight face. The pages do not.