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| The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai |
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper.
The block of wood is carefully prepared as a relief matrix, which means the areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. To make the print, the raised surface areas of the block are inked and firmly brought into contact, either through rubbing or stamping, with the paper or fabric. With the stamping method, the inked wood block is pressed down on top of the paper or fabric. The reverse is the case with the rubbing method where the block is on the bottom and the paper or fabric on top and the block rubbed against to create the printed image. The art of Japanese woodblock printing is known as Ukiyo-e (pronounced ookee-oh-yeh) literally translates to translated mean “pictures of the floating world”. The Japanese concept of Ukiyo came from Buddhism which taught that worldly pleasures joys are transient and that detachment from desire and craving would lead to enlightenment.
Thus, the first Japanese woodblock prints were made at Buddhist temples and given free to devotees. These prints were generally images of deities or sections of sacred sutras. In the home or shop, these prints took the place of paintings and calligraphy which were too expensive for the common people.
During the Edo Period, the concept of the “floating world” was twisted around to be that if material joys were fleeting why not enjoy them to the fullest. Thus, the primary subjects of Japanese woodblock print, produced during the Edo Period, were lovers or famous courtesans or kabuki actors. These Edo Period woodblock prints still tend to be favored by art collectors and historians over all others.
Ukiyo-e prints are made using the following technique:
· First, the artist produces a master drawing in ink.
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| South Wind, Clear Sky (also known as Red Fuji) by Katsushika Hokusai |
· A tracing (hanshita) is then created of the master drawing.
· The hanshita is glued, right side down, to a block of wood.
· Areas where the pattern is to be left white are then chiseled away, leaving the drawing in reverse, as a relief print on the block.
· The block is then inked and the first print given to the artist for a final check.
· For multicolor prints, additional wood blocks are prepared in the same manner as above except that the areas of the design which are to be printed in a particular color are left in relief.
· To create the final multicolor print, the set of woodblocks are inked in different colors and sequentially impressed onto paper.
The Ukiyo-e print that opens this blog posting is the most famous of all Japanese woodblock prints. It was produced by Katsushika Hokusai in 1831 and shows Mount Fuji as seen from the open sea off mainland Kanagawa. It is the third print in a series of 36 Ukiyo-e prints by Hokusai known as the “36 Views of Mount Fuji”. Each of the 36 prints in Hokusai’s series show Mount Fuji as it would be viewed from different locations around the mountain and at different times of the day and year. No two views of the mountain are the same.
When Hokusai (1760-1849) started this series in 1830 he was seventy years old and at the peak of his creativity and artistic vigor. Each of the designs show the sacred Mount Fuji - either very visible or sometimes as a small detail in the background. The series is a landmark in Japanese woodblock printmaking of the 19th century.
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| The Plum Orchard at Kameido by Ando Hiroshige |
Another admired Ukiyo-e artist is Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) who produced his own series of prints called "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo". The collection can be viewed in the Brooklyn Museum.
Ukiyo-e saw its end during the Meiji Restoration Period when Japan became open to imports from the West, including photography, which largely replaced ukiyo-e. In fact, ukiyo-e fell so far out of fashion that the prints, now practically worthless, were used as packing material for trade goods. But when Europeans saw the beautiful prints, they became a major source of inspiration for Impressionist, Cubist, and Post-Impressionist artists including Vincent van Gogh who painted his version of Hiroshige's famous woodblock print.
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| Japonaiserie Flowering Plum Tree After Hiroshige by Vincent Van Gogh |
This new genre of Japanese woodblock inspired Impressionism was called Japonisme.
Comparing the two versions, I have to admit that I prefer Hiroshige's original over Van Gogh's Japonisme version which is missing the delicate touch of the woodblock print which is much more difficult to produce.
