Pictured is a very nice Japanese Woodblock print from Tale of the Genji illustrated by Utagawa Kunisada (1823-1880). The novel was by Murasaki Shikibu. According to what I can find, this woodblock would date to around 1857. This would fall in the Edo Period in Japan. According to what I can find, this might be the first woodblock plate in this graphic novel. The plate measures approx. 10" by 12 3/4".
Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese: 歌川 国貞; 1786 – 12 January 1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III (三代 歌川 豊国, Sandai Otagawa Toyokuni), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He is considered the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan. In his own time, his reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.
Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部, 'Lady Murasaki'; c. 973 – c. 1014 or 1025) was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012. Murasaki Shikibu is a descriptive name; her personal name is unknown, but she may have been Fujiwara no Kaoriko (藤原香子), who was mentioned in a 1007 court diary as an imperial lady-in-waiting.
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Japanese Art, Woodblock print, Edo Period, 1857, Graphic Novel,