Japanese? Folk Woodblock

Trying to ID the artist. No matches on google images.

 

Your work appears to be neither Japanese nor a woodblock. Likely a little souvenir painting from the Middle East because it features a string instrument, perhaps a simsimiyya or kinura, that is popular in that region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simsimiyya



Debora

 

It is Ethiopian. The figure with the begenna harp could be King David.
Ethiopian harp or begenna:

 

Thank you, Any Jewelry.

Debora

 

Sniped by Any. There's a legend that the Hashemite kings of Ethiopia were descendants of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, called Makeba in the stories. There's also a legend that the Ark of the Covenant is buried/hidden in Ethiopia. How much of that is true I haven't the faintest.

 

It is based on the old relationship between the Horn of Africa and Yemen. The region around Sana'a in Yemen was called Sheba or Saba in former times. There was a pre-historic Sabaean kingdom, centred around Saba, which also occupied the region of Aksum in present-day northern Ethiopia.
There is only a small stretch of water between the two countries, and people, culture, and stories went back and forth. Many people from either side have ancestors from the other side.



In Sheba, now Yemen, the emphasis of the story is on attaining wisdom.
The coming together of the more spiritual wisdom of the queen of Sheba and the earthly common sense of king Solomon makes for a complete package, the kind of wisdom that will make you a better person. It will also bring enlightenment in earthly and spiritual matters, and get you to heaven.
This is symbolised by Yemeni Solomon and Sheba gate jewellery like this antique pendant with the two doors or gateways:



In neighbouring Ethiopia the emphasis of the story is on a Solomonic royal bloodline which came to Ethiopia. For centuries it served to empower the Ethiopian imperial family and the Ethiopian church.
The Yoruba in West Africa also claim descent from Solomon and the queen of Sheba.

The emperors of Ethiopia were not Hashemites, btw. The confusion could stem from the words Hashemite and Semite. The emperors were Semitic, like the Hashemite kings, and like most people in the Middle East and many in the Horn of Africa.
The Hashemite kings were the kings of Jordan, Syria and Iraq. They were all descendants of Hashim, the great-grandfather of the prophet Muhammad, through Muhammad's daughter Fatima.
The only Hashemite king that is left is the king of Jordan, who is also head of the extended Hashemite family.

 

@i need help not finding something made me curious and I found this similar, but smaller instrument: https://omeka1.grinnell.edu/MusicalInstruments/items/show/582

I don't know the subject, just googling.

 

Yep. My brain spazzed. I was trying to remember the proper name for the Ethiopian royal line and came up with the Jordanian one instead.