Japanese woodblock print
伝統木版画
Term · object type
The woodblock print of Japan as made from the 17th century: designed by an artist, carved and printed by craftsmen with water-based ink on strong mulberry paper, rubbed by hand — from the 1760s in many colours, one block for each. The great print artists were designers: they drew the images, which the printer’s workmen then carved into a wooden block, inked and printed on paper1. The design, transferred to a thin, semi-transparent paper, was pasted face down on the block — for traditional prints usually cherry wood — and the surface cut away to leave raised lines and areas; the printer inked them, laid a sheet over them and rubbed its back with a baren. Early prints used black ink only; by the 1760s up to twenty colours could be printed, a separate block for each, aligned on the black outlines by the kentō cut into the edge of every block. The paper had to be strong and absorbent — traditionally hōsho, from the inner bark of the mulberry (japan paper) — and its stock sizes named the formats: ōban (large, about 38 × 26 cm), chūban (medium), hosoban (narrow) and the tall hashira-e “pillar print”2. Its forms: nishiki-e, the full-colour print, first made for the New Year calendars of Suzuki Harunobu’s circle3, and surimono, privately commissioned editions4. In the 20th century shin-hanga kept the old division of labour, while the artists of sōsaku hanga carved and printed their own blocks5. Mason 2005, pp. 280–281. ↩ Ebd., pp. 282–283. ↩ Ebd., pp. 280–281. ↩ Ebd., pp. 290–293. ↩ Wikipedia, Woodcut, “In Japan, this movement was called sōsaku-hanga (創作版画, creative prints), as opposed to shin-hanga (新版画, new prints), a movement that retained traditional methods.”. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005. Wikipedia, Woodcut: Anon., Woodcut, in: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodcut (zuletzt abgerufen am 30.10.2026).