The negative areas of the drawing (white areas) are then carved out with gouges.
In most cases this is done by transferring an image onto a printing block such as a piece of wood or linoleum and redrawing the image on the block so that it is as close in appearance to the finished piece. The printing process’ greatest development took place in the 15th and 16th century in Europe and in the 18th and 19th century in Japan which can be seen through a comparison and contrast of the style, technique, and use of color in the prints from two well-known artists from key regions in these countries.įor those who are not aware, Relief printing is a printmaking process in which the image area that is transferred on paper is the area on the highest level of the printing block. The process was developed independently in many parts of the world with minor cases of direct influence between different areas. Woodblock printing is one of many Relief printmaking processes that have developed for thousands of years. īrowse thumbnail pages of various selections from the catalogue. The lettering at left is 'Tsuchimochi Shinji'Īs always with this designer, he likes to 'hide' small characters here and there in the image. The lettering reads: Night Views of Tokyo : Evening at Nihonbashi None of these prints are numbered in any way. Miyakodori commissioned Yamamoto-san the printer to do a first batch of 50 sheets, but once those are sold, more will of course be made. Note: there seems to be some confusion in the marketplace - based on unclear wording on some Japanese websites that discuss the Miyakodori prints - that this is a 'limited edition' of only 50 prints. That teahouse was named Miyakodori, and Kashiwagi-san wanted to invoke the memory of his great-grandfather as he embarks on his own printmaking venture 100 years later. Kashiwagi-san's great-grandfather ran a teahouse on the Sumida River in Tokyo, where he also worked as a printer for Ukiyo-e and Shin-hanga prints about a century ago. The publisher's name Miyakodori (都鳥 - Bird of the Capital) also has a backstory. For these new Reiwa Shin-hanga prints, an updated version of that system has been used, with the outlines being cut by an industrial laser engraver, and the wider clearing being done by hand. This system gave them exact replication of the designer's drawn lines, without interpretation by a carver. In the early days of the shin-hanga the famous Yoshida family pioneered a method of creating metal key blocks for their complex prints, and nearly all of their work over the years was produced this way - with a metal key block created by photo-mechanical methods from the designer's drawing, paired with cherry blocks for the colours. In the tradition of publishers of old Shin-hanga prints, who were not afraid to use new technologies to make beautiful prints, Kashiwagi-san has done something new as well. The carving on this print is an interesting story.
He has entitled it 'Reiwa Shin-hanga', taking his cue from the name of the new era that began in 2019 with the accession of a new emperor. Designer Tsuchimochi-san has taken a bit of a liberty with this though, by 'erasing' the freeway that passes above the bridge (jumping both into the past, when there was no such freeway, and into the future another ten years, by which time - planned, anyway - it will be gone).įollowing in the footsteps of Shin-hanga designers of the early 1900s, the young publisher Takashi Kashiwagi has sought to reinvigorate the mokuhanga world with a new concept. This was the place from which all measurements of distance were (and still are) taken. It depicts the most famous location in old Edo - the bridge at Nihonbashi. Paper size: 25.5cm by 36cm | Enlargement | Currency: $ / £ / €ĭescription: This design is the second in a new movement in woodblock printmaking. Designer: Shinji Tsuchimochi | Publisher: Miyakodori Publishing | Date: 2020
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