Kuchi-e

[2] They usually portrayed women and were bound to the book's spine or inserted into literary magazines to give readers a sense of what type of stories were to unfold.

The first mass-produced publication to regularly feature kuchi-e designs popular literary magazine Bungei Kurabu, with over 230 individual inserted from 1895 to 1914.

Artists who designed kuchi-e include Hirezaki Eiho, Ikeda Shoen, Kaburagi Kiyokata, Kajita Hanko, Mishima Shoso, Mizuno Toshikata, Odake Kokkan, Ogata Gekko, Suzuki Kason, Takeuchi Keishu, Terasaki Kogyo, Tomioka Eisen, Tsutsui Toshimine, Utagawa Kunimatsu, Watanabe Seitei, and Yamada Keichu.

[2] However, kuchi (口) may also mean "opening", as it does in the compound words iri-guchi (入口, entrance) and de-guchi (出口, exit).

In this way, the translation "entrance picture" more clearly communicates the intended function of a kuchi-e as a frontispiece in a literary work.

A kuchi-e lithograph by Kitani Chigusa . Note the creases where the print was folded into a magazine.