Following on from Thursday's post, which highlighted two unusual media used in Heat 5 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2025, this post is about Mokuhanga - Japanese woodblock printing.
The other new media was alcohol inks which was covered in yesterday's post Alcohol Inks - information and WARNINGS about use!
Mokuhanga - Japanese woodblock printing
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| Image of tools used in the production of Japanese Woodblock printing courtesy The Japanese Gallery article about woodblock printing |
What's different about Mokuhanga
- best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets
- widely used for text as well as images
- various woods can be used, but the preferred wood is cherry wood
- uses water-based inks and Nori Starch paste, rather than oil based inks (which are typically used for woodblock printing in the West)
- inking is done with a brush rather than a roller.
- the baren used to press the ink into the paper is made from bamboo leaf and paper
- it produces more subtle prints rather than the bold coloured prints associated with oils
A team of people were usually involved in the production of japanese woodblock prints. These were:
- the publisher (who usually had overall control of the process),
- the designer/artist,
- the block cutter and
- the printer.
The V&A has a section on Japanese ukiyo- prints
How does it work?
I managed to translate one word - baren! ;)
Essentially, the process is....
