Beautiful Thick Antique Japanese Merchant Ledger with Rope Binding hand-painted valenting There is a little paint

There is a little paint loss:  the central bird on the blue ball has lost a little paint on the wing (which one could I think pretty easily touch up if desired)

There's a warm patina on the brass

Like the old hand-drawn Parcheesi game board I just listed

I just love the stoic expression of the face of this little carved man

with what looks like red here veering more toward an orange (the first image is the closest

Beautiful Thick Antique Japanese Merchant Ledger with Rope Binding hand-painted valenting There is a little paintThis 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