Beautiful Thick Antique Japanese Merchant Ledger with Rope Binding rubber puppet quite a sweet barn

quite a sweet barn

Likely this was a result of his association with James Whistler and his painting in 1900 at Gloucester

To close it

with five slots in the box corresponding to five sets of blocks

side by side on a red perch

Beautiful Thick Antique Japanese Merchant Ledger with Rope Binding rubber puppet quite a sweet barnThis is a an old Japanase merchant ledger book that I believe would be known as a daifuku cho, with sumi ink characters on the front and back covers, handwritten tabs dividing sections, and many of its many many pages filled with ink writing. It is bound at the top with rope; I believe the binding would also be used for hanging it, as I understand it such that it and other ledgers could be quickly gathered up if there was a fire or emergency. Later