Woodblock printing in Japan
Woodblock printing in Japan (木版画, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the
History
Early, to 13th century
Woodblock printing was invented in China under the
By the eleventh century, Buddhist temples in Japan produced printed books of sutras, mandalas, and other Buddhist texts and images. For centuries, printing was mainly restricted to the Buddhist sphere, as it was too expensive for mass production, and did not have a receptive, literate public as a market. However, an important set of fans of the late Heian period (12th century), containing painted images and Buddhist sutras, reveal from loss of paint that the underdrawing for the paintings was printed from blocks.[4] In the Kamakura period from the 12th century to the 13th century, many books were printed and published by woodblock printing at Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Kamakura.[3]
Early Edo period
A Western-style
The great pioneers in applying the movable type printing press to the creation of artistic books, and in preceding mass production for general consumption, were
Despite the appeal of moveable type, however, craftsmen soon decided that the semi-cursive and cursive script style of Japanese writings was better reproduced using woodblocks. By 1640 woodblocks were once again used for nearly all purposes.[11] After the 1640s, movable type printing declined, and books were mass-produced by conventional woodblock printing during most of the Edo period.[3][12]
Later Edo period
The mass production of woodblock prints in the
From the 17th century to the 19th century,
Many publishing houses arose and grew, publishing both books and single-sheet prints. One of the most famous and successful was Tsuta-ya. A publisher's ownership of the physical woodblocks used to print a given text or image constituted the closest equivalent to a concept of "copyright" that existed at this time. Publishers or individuals could buy woodblocks from one another, and thus take over the production of certain texts, but beyond the ownership of a given set of blocks (and thus a very particular representation of a given subject), there was no legal conception of the ownership of ideas. Plays were adopted by competing theaters, and either reproduced wholesale, or individual plot elements or characters might be adapted; this activity was considered legitimate and routine at the time.[20]
From Meiji on
After the decline of ukiyo-e and introduction of modern printing technologies, woodblock printing continued as a method for printing texts as well as for producing art, both within traditional modes such as ukiyo-e and in a variety of more radical or Western forms that might be construed as modern art. In the early 20th century, shin-hanga that fused the tradition of ukiyo-e with the techniques of Western paintings became popular, and the works of Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida gained international popularity.[21][22] Institutes such as the "Adachi Institute of Woodblock Prints" and "Takezasado" continue to produce ukiyo-e prints with the same materials and methods as used in the past.[23][24]
With the entry into modernity, in Japan there was a renewal of woodblock printmaking, the hanga. After the death of Hiroshige in 1858, the ukiyo-e practically disappeared. Its last manifestations correspond to
Technique
This section includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2023) |
The technique for printing texts and images was generally similar. The obvious differences were the volume produced when working with texts (many pages for a single work), and the complexity of multiple colors in some images. Images in books were almost always in monochrome (black ink only), and for a time art prints were likewise monochrome or done in only two or three colors.
The text or image is first drawn onto thin washi (Japanese paper), called gampi, then glued face-down onto a plank of close-grained wood, usually a block of smooth cherry. Oil could be used to make the lines of the image more visible. An incision is made along both sides of each line or area. Wood is then chiseled away, based on the drawing outlines. The block is inked using a brush and then a flat hand-held tool called a baren is used to press the paper against the woodblock to apply the ink to the paper. The traditional baren is made in three parts: it consists of an inner core made from bamboo leaves twisted into a rope of varying thicknesses, the nodules thus created being what ultimately applies the pressure to the print. This coil is contained in a disk called an "ategawa" made from layers of very thin paper which is glued together and wrapped in a dampened bamboo leaf, the ends of which are then tied to create a handle. Modern printmakers have adapted this tool, and today barens made of aluminum with ball bearings to apply the pressure are used, as well as less expensive plastic versions.
Evolution of printing techniques
The first prints were simply one-color (
Advancements in color printing
While, again, text was nearly always monochrome, as were images in books, the growth of the popularity of ukiyo-e brought with it demand for ever increasing numbers of colors and complexity of techniques. The stages of this development follow:
- Sumizuri-e (墨摺り絵, "ink printed pictures")—monochrome printing using only black ink
- Beni-e (紅絵)—monochrome prints usually printed in pink[26]
- Benizuri-e (紅摺り絵, "crimson printed pictures")—red ink details or highlights added by hand after the printing process; green was sometimes used as well
- Tan-e (丹絵)—orange highlights using a red pigment called tan
- Aizuri-e (藍摺り絵, "indigo printed pictures"), Murasaki-e (紫絵, "purple pictures"), and other styles in which a single color was used in addition to, or instead of, black ink
- Urushi-e (漆絵)—a method that thickened the ink with glue, emboldening the image. Printers often used gold, mica, and other substances to enhance the image further. Urushi-e can also refer to paintings using lacquer instead of paint. Lacquer was rarely, if ever, used on prints.
- Nishiki-e (錦絵, "brocade pictures")—a method of using multiple blocks for separate portions of the image, using a number of colors to achieve complex and detailed images. A separate block was carved to apply only the part of the image designated for a single color. Registration marks called kentō (見当) were used to ensure correspondence between the application of each block.
Schools and movements
Japanese printmaking, as with many other features of Japanese art, tended to organize itself into schools and movements. The most notable schools (see also schools of ukiyo-e artists) and, later, movements of moku-hanga were:
- Torii school, from 1700
- Kaigetsudō school, from 1700 to 1714
- Koryusai[27]
- Hokusai school, from about 1786, including the artists Hokusai, Hokuei and Gakutei[27]
- Kitagawa school, from about 1794, including the artists Utamaro I, Kikumaro I and II[27]
- Utagawa school, from 1842, including the artists Kunisada and Hiroshige[27]
- Sōsaku-hanga, "Creative Prints" movement, from 1904
- Shin-hanga "New Prints" movement, from 1915, including Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida[28]
Other artists, such as Sharaku, Kabukidō Enkyō, Sugakudo, and Shibata Zesshin, are considered independent artists, free of school associations, and presumably, without the resulting associated benefits from publishers, who might be less inclined to produce prints by an unaffiliated artist. However, many of the surviving examples speak to the contrary. The earliest examples by these artists are among the most desirable, valuable, and rarest of all ukiyo-e. Additionally, many examples exhibit very fine printing, using expensive mica (kirazuri), premium inks and the highest quality papers.[27]
Print sizes
Following are common Tokugawa-period print sizes. Sizes varied depending on the period, and those given are approximate; they are based on the pre-printing paper sizes, and paper was often trimmed after printing.[29]
name | trans. | cm (in) | ref |
---|---|---|---|
koban (小判) | small about 1⁄4 the size of ōban |
19.5 × 13 (7.7 × 5.1) | |
aiban (合判) | intermediate | 34 × 22.5 (13.4 × 8.9) | [29] |
bai-ōban (倍大判) | intermediate | 45.7 × 34.5 (18.0 × 13.6) | [30] |
chūban (中判) | medium | 26 × 19 (10.2 × 7.5) | [29] |
hashira-e (柱絵) | pillar print | 73 × 12 (28.7 × 4.7) | [29] |
hosoban (細判) or hoso-e (細絵)[30] |
narrow | 33 × 14.5 (13.0 × 5.7) | [29] |
39 × 17 (15.4 × 6.7) | [29] | ||
kakemono-e (掛物絵) | hanging scroll | 76.5 × 23 (30.1 × 9.1) | [29] |
nagaban (長判) | long | 50 × 20 (19.7 × 7.9) | [29] |
ōban (大判) | large | 38 × 25.5 (15.0 × 10.0) | [29] |
58 × 32 (23 × 13) | [29] | ||
ō-tanzaku (大短冊判) | large poem card | 38 × 17 (15.0 × 6.7) | [29] |
chū-tanzaku (中短冊判) | medium poem card | 38 × 13 (15.0 × 5.1) | [29] |
surimono (刷物) | 35 × 20 (13.8 × 7.9) | [29] | |
12 × 9 (4.7 × 3.5) – 19 × 13 (7.5 × 5.1) |
[29] |
The Japanese terms for vertical (portrait) and horizontal (landscape) formats for images are tate-e (立て絵) and yoko-e (横絵), respectively.
See also
Notes
- ^ Asian Art, Department of. "Art of the Pleasure Quarters and the Ukiyo-e Style". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2023-07-23. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h The Past, Present and Future of Printing in Japan. Izumi Munemura. (2010). The Surface Finishing Society of Japan.
- ^ Paine, 136
- ISBN 1-56852-481-1.
- ISBN 9780521601153.
- ^ Kotobank Saga Books. Archived 2021-02-25 at the Wayback Machine The Asahi Shimbun.
- ^ 嵯峨本『伊勢物語』 (in Japanese). Printing Museum, Tokyo. Archived from the original on 29 September 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
- ^ Kazuo Mori. 嵯峨本と角倉素庵。 (in Japanese). Letterpress Labo. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
- ^ Noriyuki Kasai. "About the Japanese and Composition, the reconstruction of history and future" (in Japanese). Japan Science and Technology Agency. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
- ^ Sansom, George (1961). A History of Japan: 1334–1615. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- ^ History of printing. Archived 2021-12-08 at the Wayback Machine The Japan Federation of Printing Industries.
- ^ a b Edo Picture Books and the Edo Period. National Diet Library.
- ^ 第6回 和本の楽しみ方4 江戸の草紙. Konosuke Hashiguchi. (2013) Seikei University.
- ^ Nihonbashi. Mitsui Fdosan.
- ISBN 978-4800312556
- ^ Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadent/the Last Master of Ukiyo-E . Archived 2022-02-10 at the Wayback Machine Shinichi Segi.
- ^ One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. The Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum "Nagoya Touken World"
- ^ 浮世絵の購入・売却 (in Japanese). Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World. Archived from the original on February 23, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
- ^ 北斎・広重-浮世絵木版画出版から探る- 江戸時代における知的財産戦略. Satoshi Kobayashi. (2007) Hitotsubashi University.
- ^ Shin hanga bringing ukiyo-e back to life. Archived 2021-05-02 at the Wayback Machine The Japan Times.
- ISBN 978-4808711016
- ^ "浮世絵・木版画のアダチ版画研究所". Archived from the original on 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ^ "木版印刷・伝統木版画工房 竹笹堂". Archived from the original on 2014-02-26. Retrieved 2014-11-07.
- ^ Gutiérrez, Fernando G. (1967). Summa Artis XXI. El arte del Japón (in Spanish). Madrid: Espasa Calpe. pp. 512–513.
- ^ "JAANUS / beni-e 紅絵". www.aisf.or.jp. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f The Prints of Japan, Frank A. Turk, October House Inc ,1966, Lib Congress catalog Card no. 66-25524
- ISBN 0935172513
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Faulkner & Robinson 1999, p. 40.
- ^ a b Harris 2011, p. 31.
References
- Faulkner, Rupert; ISBN 978-4-7700-2387-2. Archivedfrom the original on 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2015-10-18.
- Forrer, Matthi, Willem R. van Gulik, Jack Hillier A Sheaf of Japanese Papers, The Hague, ISBN 90-70265-71-0
- Harris, Frederick (2011). Ukiyo-e: The Art of the Japanese Print. ISBN 978-4-8053-1098-4.
- Kaempfer, H. M. (ed.), Ukiyo-e Studies and Pleasures, A Collection of Essays on the Art of Japanese Prints, The Hague, ISBN 90-70216-01-9
- Keyes, Roger S. The Male Journey in Japanese Prints. University of California Press, 1989.
- Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge:
- Friese, Gordon (2007). "Hori-shi. 249 facsimiles of different seals from 96 Japanese engravers." Unna, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Verlag im bücherzentrun.
- ISBN 9780192114471; OCLC 5246796
- Paine, Robert Treat, in: Paine, R. T. & Soper A, "The Art and Architecture of Japan", Pelican History of Art, 3rd ed 1981, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), ISBN 0140561080.
- Sansom, George (1961). "A History of Japan: 1334–1615." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- Rikardson, Anders (1978). "Japanese Woodblock Prints" Malmö: Antik & Auktion.
Further reading
- Whitmore, Paul M.; Cass, Glen R. (February 1988). "The Ozone Fading of Traditional Japanese Colorants". Studies in Conservation. 33 (1). Maney Publishing on behalf of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works: 29–40. JSTOR 1506238.
- David Bell (2020). "A new vision: modern Japanese prints from the Heriot collection". Tuhinga: Records of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. 31. Wikidata Q106839641.
External links
- Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking by David Bull
- Creating a Woodblock Print From Start to Finish Video (42 mins)
- Ukiyo-e.org Japanese Woodblock print search engine