![]() However, western printing-press were discontinued after the ban on Christianity in 1614. Western style movable type printing-press was brought to Japan by Tenshō embassy in 1590, and was first printed in Kazusa, Nagasaki in 1591. ![]() The Saga-bon is one of the earliest works produced on a movable type press in Japan. Saga-bon ( 嵯峨本, Saga Books): libretto for the Noh play Katsuragi by Hon'ami Kōetsu. 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. 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. 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. īy the eleventh century, Buddhist temples in Japan produced printed books of sutras, mandalas, and other Buddhist texts and images. These are the earliest examples of woodblock printing known, or documented, from Japan. These were distributed to temples around the country as thanks for the suppression of the Emi Rebellion of 764. ![]() In 764 the Empress Kōken commissioned one million small wooden pagodas, each containing a small woodblock scroll printed with a Buddhist text ( Hyakumantō Darani). The Japanese water-based inks provide a wide range of vivid colors, glazes, and transparency. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868) and similar to woodcut in Western printmaking in some regards, the mokuhanga technique differs in that it uses water-based inks-as opposed to western woodcut, which typically uses oil-based inks. ![]() Woodblock printing in Japan ( 木版画, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. What kind of wood makes good prints? What kind of wood is pleasant to carve? What kind of paper makes good prints? What kind of inexpensive paper will do? How do you go about inking and printing the blocks? How wet is too wet? How dry is too dry? What level of wetness/dryness is best for which papers? How do you handle the paper? How do you handle really thin and floppy paper? How do you make a decent damp pack? These are all relevant questions, some of which I have (perhaps tentatively) answered, and some of which I haven’t.The Great Wave off Kanagawa ( 神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa-oki nami-ura) print by Hokusai So I didn’t touch it again for two and a half years.īut now I’m taking a moku hanga class at the Lawrence Arts Center, and getting good instruction from Yuko Ito, and it’s a whole other endeavor.īut it’s still a pretty steep learning curve. I think my paper was too thin, and I didn’t know how to handle it, and despite my kento marks, I wasn’t registering it properly, and all-in-all it just seemed like too much trouble for the results. I was totally inspired, bought the book Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop by April Vollmer and a few supplies, and gave it a quick whirl at home, producing this not-very-adequate print. Several years ago, in 2016 at the Southern Graphics Print Council’s conference in Portland, OR, I sat in the front row for an afternoon of demonstrations for moku hanga.
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