Original artwork of Keno Bairei (also written Kōno Bairei, 1844–1895), a Japanese painter and illustrator linked with the Maruyama-Shijō tradition in Kyoto. He is known for bird-and-flower subjects, illustrated albums, and figure studies in Japanese painting formats.
A half-length portrait of an older man turned slightly toward the viewer’s left. His face fills much of the composition. He has thick black eyebrows that angle outward, narrow eyes, a broad nose, and small red lips. His expression appears stern and reserved.
He has dark facial hair along the cheeks, jaw, and chin, with a sparse mustache. The beard area looks uneven, with ink-like brush shading rather than a smooth fill. His skin is rendered with pale peach, cream, and light tan tones, with darker contour lines around the nose, eyes, neck, and cheekbones.
The man wears a hood or head covering in orange and muted salmon tones. The hood drapes over the top of his head and down the right side of the image. Dark outline strokes define folds and edges in the cloth. The garment across his shoulders and chest uses the same orange range, with black contour marks indicating creases and structure.
His right ear is visible and carries a large circular earring. The earring has a ring form with an inner curl and a small hanging element below it. This detail stands out as one of the clearest accessories in the design.
At the lower center edge of the visible artwork, there is part of a pale rounded form with curved linework. Only a portion appears in the image, so it is not fully identifiable from the visible area alone. It sits in front of the figure’s chest and is cut off by the bottom edge.
The background inside the chart area is plain and light, mostly cream or off-white, with faint scattered speckling toward the upper right. There are no landscape elements, furniture pieces, text, symbols, or decorative motifs inside the main picture field. The composition focuses on the single figure.
This chart contains 74 colors and is 283x195 stitches.
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