History of moku hanga1/17/2024 What's mokuhanga, you ask? It's a method developed in Japan that was used to print images that are probably familiar to you, like Hokusai's Great Wave. Woodblock printing in Japan (木版画, moku-hanga) 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.In Platemark s3e29, host Ann Shafer speaks with April Vollmer, an artist working in mokuhanga (Japanese color woodblock printing), who also wrote the indispensable guide to that form: Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop (Berkeley: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2015). Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). Woodblock printing appeared in Japan at the beginning of Edo period, when Tokugawa shogunate was ruled by the Japanese society. This technique originated from China, where it was used to print books for many centuries. Its original name is ‘moku-hanga’ and it has a wide usage in artistic genre of ‘ukiyo-e’.Īs opposed to western tradition, where artists used oil-based inks for woodcuts, moku-hanga technique uses water-based inks. That is why those prints had colors so vivid, as well as glazes, and transparency. Woodblock prints were provided by the Library of Congress and cover the period from 1600 to 1980.įrom 1915: Shin-hanga "New Prints" school, including Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida From 1904: Sōsaku-hanga, "Creative Prints" movement From 1842: Utagawa school, including the artists Kunisada and Hiroshige From 1794: Kitagawa school, including the artists Utamaro I, Kikumaro I and II From 1786: Hokusai school, including the artists Hokusai, Hokuei and Gakuteiįrom 1725: Kawamata school including the artists Suzuki Harunobu and Koryusai From 1720s: Katasukawa school, including the artists Shunsho and Shuntei This collection describes Japanese printmaking different schools and movements. The objects in this archive are from Library of Congress - the nation’s first established cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with millions of items including books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library provides Congress, the federal government and the American people with a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge to inform, inspire and engage them and support their intellectual and creative endeavors.ĭisclaimer: A work of the Library of Congress is "a work prepared by an officer or employee" of the federal government "as part of that person's official duties." In general, under section 105 of the Copyright Act, such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under U.S. law and are therefore in the public domain. This website is developed as a part of the world's largest public domain archive, PICRYL.Unlike Japanese techniques, Western methods utilize viscose, tacky inks (historically oil based) applied to blocks with rubber-like rollers, called brayers. The image from the carved block may be transferred to the paper by pressures as varied as rubbing the back of the paper with a wooden spoon to using a mechanical press. Mostly referred to as ‘woodcut’, attention in the West is typically focused on the drawing-like cut lines in the wood – versus the flat, shadowless shapes of layered colors in the Japanese approach. In Europe, this medium was developed to an extraordinary degree during the Renaissance (notably, German artist Albrecht Dürer). In sum, because water and oil based inks have such different looks (and behaviors), the contrast between Japanese and Western processes may be compared to the distinction between watercolor and oil painting. The two processes simply have different aesthetics. With watercolor, the colors become luminous through their transparency – the light of the paper shines through the colors. With oil, the pigments are much weightier. The meaning of Japanese woodblock print terms And most significant for artists, are the markedly different handling experiences between the two. What’s important is how art makes you feel. Yet, words and historical context can give the viewer a richer understanding.
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