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This scroll, which has seven illustrations, including two contiguous
pictures, is another version of the folk tale of Urashima Tarō. The story
progresses as the scroll is unrolled, from right to left. It is an example of
illustrated manuscript material that continued to appear even as the development
of popular printed book publications began to expand. The combination of text
and illustration has a long history in Japan, with popular books of the Edo
period (1600-1868) developing integrated text and picture to a high degree-the
forerunner of today's manga, or cartoon books.
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