The Publisher and Artist
Woodblock prints were almost always initiated by a collaboration between an artist (who is now, by convention, credited with the print, even though other people played almost equally important parts) and a publisher. The latter oversaw the commercial aspect of the operation, and either employed all the skilled personnel who actually produced the prints, or contracted out some stages of the operation to specialist establishments. The relationship between artist and publisher was usually a fairly straightforward contractual one, in which the artist was paid an agreed sum per design.
In general, the publisher would have an idea for a project, either a single
print or a series, and approach an artist to see if they would undertake it.
Some artists worked almost exclusively for a single publisher, such as the
relationship between
Utamaro
and Tsutaya (in some cases, the publisher was the one who discovered the
artist and made them popular); other artists worked with a large number of
different publishers.
The artist would start by producing a preparatory sketch (gako), with
the most detail in areas like faces, etc. He (and it was usually a 'he',
although a few female woodblock artists are known from the
pre-Meiji
period) would make alterations and corrections by gluing new paper over the
desired areas.
The artist would then pass this drawing to a block-copyist, who then made an
elaborated final copy, a very fine black and white paper drawing, the
hanshita-e
('under-drawing', sometimes given as shita-e) on very thin mino
paper, which showed the (usually black) lines which outlined everything in
the image. (This copying process explains why so many original sketches for
prints are still extant, since the hanshita-e was destroyed in the
process of creating the blocks, as we will see.)
The completed drawing would then be shown to the official censors, and after
being passed, it would go to a carver, who specialized in carving the blocks
used to produce the print.
The carver would start with a block of single-petaled white mountain cherry
wood, usually carefully aged and selected to prevent warping. (The size of
the blocks used for the printing of woodblock prints was limited, precisely
to reduce the likelihood of warping. Larger images were produced by linking
together multiple independently printed images, in diptychs [both horizontal
and vertical, the latter called
kakemono],
triptcyhs, occasionally pentaptcyhs - and even an occasional rare hexaptych
for large scenes, with the prints arranged in two rows of three. In addition,
larger prints were usually not produced in the summer, when higher humidity
affected the dimensional stability of both the paper and the wooden blocks.)
He (again, usually this was a male occupation) would paste the original
drawing to the block, face-down. The paper would then be made transparent by
either treating with oil, or peeling off a thin layer of paper with the flat
of the finger, thus revealing the reverse of the lines which the block had to
produce.
He would then outline the areas which were desired to print with a sharp
knife; during the
Edo
period, outlines were cut following the original direction of the brush
stroke. All outlines were cut at a slightly inward sloping side, to prevent
chipping of the wood. The carver would then carve away the material where no
ink was to be printed, using a large set of chisels specially made for this
task. (Although a wide variety of tools was available, most work was done
with just a few.) This would produce the block to print the black lines,
called the
"key block".
A number of prints were then printed using just this one block, and the
artist indicated, on one copy for each color, which areas should be in which
colors. These copies were in turn pasted to blocks, and used to guide the
carvers in making additional blocks for the colored areas, one block per
color. It was not uncommon for prints to contain as many as 15 or so colors.
Apparently a complete set of average blocks could be carved in as little as
three days, and even complex sets only took a couple of weeks. Detailed areas
would be done by a master carver (atama-bori, or 'head carver'), and
the rest left to a trainee (do-bori, or 'body carver').
Also critical, of course, was the ability to re-register the image for each
color printed, so that the colors lined up. This registration was done with
registration devices, called
kento.
One was raised "L" shape (called the kagi) on one corner of the block,
into which one corner of the paper fitted; the other was a raised bar (called
the hikitsuke) out along one of the sides (generally the long one)
that went into that corner.
The set on the key block were carved before producing the first prints used
to indicate colored areas. The registration devices were easy to carve on the
color blocks, since they were printed on the sheets used to produce the color
blocks. Discrepancies which appeared as blocks changed shape over time were
fixed by plugging thin slivers of wood into the block, next to the
kento.
Once printing had begun, alterations or addition to the blocks were made by
plugging areas with new pieces of wood. This often happened where the names
of actors or titles were changed, or in the head and hands of
bijin,
where the fine lines of the drawing showed wear the most.
The grinding of pigments was one of the steps traineee printers had to
master; each was kept in its own porcelain bowl, and before use a few
drops of water would be added to produce exactly the right consistency.
Also, a stack of one of two kinds of mulberry (kozo) paper would
be slightly moistened, and laid ready to hand.
The printing was done in fairly straightforward fashion; ink was applied to
the block, which was face up, using brushes (hake) made from a
horse's mane. Rice-starch was sometimes added to the block, to give better
adhesion and color depth. The paper was then laid down on the block, using
the kento to line it up, and the ink was rubbed onto the paper
using a circular or semi-circular motion. The rubbing was done using a
baren,
a large circular flat pad, usually made of a bamboo sheath wrapped around a
lacquered cover over a flat coil of straw and/or bamboo fiber, or some
similar material; the strands of the coiled fiber produced an uneven surface
which was important in pressing the ink into the paper.
Generally the printer would do a number of sheets with one color, and then
the process would be repeated with the next color. There was no need to wait
between colors for the previous color to dry, as the pigments are actually
embedded into the paper by the pressure of the baren, so there is no
concern with smearing. In general, a fixed sequence of colors was always
followed, with light colors first, then dark colors, then finally dense
blacks (which often needed several printings). Note that the keyblock was
often not printed first; any dark colors can obliterate the thin black lines,
and it is not uncommon to find prints in which it has been printed after the
dark colors were.
The shading (called bokashi) is produced by a number of different
techniques, such as:
A single sheet took around 15 to 25 seconds to produce, on a particular
block, depending on whether or not bokashi was needed.
Ironically, it appears that this technique appeared in response to sumptuary
regulations passed by the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Tempo Reforms of the
early 1840's, which limited the number of blocks which could be used in
making prints!
You can see this technique being used in many prints, especially ones that
show sky or water; in the middle or the edge of the water, which is generally
light blue, there will be a band of dark blue water. This whole area would
have originally been printed in the light blue ground color, and then that
part overprinted in the deeper blue.
It can get even more complex, though. It is fairly common to take a block
which is used to print a basic sky color (e.g. light blue-grey), and
overprint with it twice after the initial printing; the first time
with a one accent color (e.g. deeper blue) along the lower edge, and the
second with another accent color (e.g. a black) along the upper edge.
Even so, a complete print can use a large number of blocks.
The most common was blind-printing (called "gauffrage" in the West), or
karazuri.
This did not use any ink at all - rather, a pattern was impressed into the
paper. The process involved lightly dampening the paper, and then using any
one of a number of implements (a piece of ivory, or the edge of a
baren,
or even the printer's elbow) to produce three-dimensional effects in the
paper. It was especially suited to depicting white-on-white, such as egret
feathers, or clouds. Mesh patterns would be created by using two separate
blocks, cut at right angles to each other.
Related to blind-printing is a rarer process called
nunomezuri,
wherein a piece of muslin or silk fabric was wrapped around an un-inked
block; when printed, it left the pattern of the fabric embossed into the
paper.
Also relatively common was a process whereby black areas could be surface
polished, in the
shomenzuri
technique (but with the block behind the paper, and the rubbing from the
front of the paper, instead of the opposite process used with
karazuri) to give the impression of lacquer, or areas of woven
effects on cloth.
In a related but rarer process, known as
tsuyazuri,
glue was applied to areas of finished prints to produce a sheen; it was most
often used on animals' eyes, and areas of blood.
Occasionally seen is a process called
itame-mokuhan,
which was used for areas of unfinished woodwork portrayed in the print; it
used a densely grained woodblock which had been soaked in water, in order to
emphasize the pattern of the grain in the block.
The printing process could be finished off with applications of ground mica,
called
kirazuri,
to make the picture sparkle, or give a glowing ground. Mica was sometimes
used in the entire background of deluxe
bijin
and actor prints, but this was banned early on by sumptuary laws, after which
it was often seen as an overlay on areas of color.
Runs were not limited through cancellation of the blocks, though, at least in
the classic period. The blocks for popular series would be printed again and
again, being recut as needed if they became worn. There is some indication
that total runs of up to twenty thousand were made for popular prints.
Note that in a number of stages, a block which was used in a previous stage
is used again, to overprint an accent color, always using bokashi to
grade it in. Even with the repeat printing, the little book used 10 blocks,
with two being overprinted twice, for a total of 14 separate printing stages.
The process starts with the key block (note that for this, as well as all the
images below, you can get a larger image by clicking on the image):
Now we add the rest of the blocks:
The Block Carvers
The job of the block carver was a very important one, and it was reckoned
that it took 10 years to become a good block carver. Artists would in general
have some idea of the process, but they were not in general skilled
block-carvers themselves, although it was not unknown;
Hokusai
spent several years learning to carve blocks while apprenticed to a
wood-carver.
The Printers
The third set of artisans were the printers, skilled in making the inks (both
vegetable and mineral inks were used), and applying them, especially to get
the shading (called
bokashi).
One thing to note is that the printer will often vary the amount of bokashi
in a single run - it is not at all uncommon to find two impression of a print
which are completely different, so different is the amount and location of
the shading.
Repeat Printing
Actually, sometimes a block would get used more than once, as partial (i.e.
the block is not completely inked, but only in one area, with a shading out
to no ink on other parts of the block) overprints of an emphasis color.
Special Effects
A large number of special techniques were used to produce various unusual
effects. The list is too long to cover completely here - interested readers
may consult:
Amy Newland, Chris Uhlenbeck, "Ukiyo-E to Shin hanga",
Mallard Press, 1990
which contains an extensive section by Richard Kruml on print-making
techniques, for more details.
Editions
Apparently, the average print run was two hundred copies or so, although the
number could run into the thousands for a popular design. Running a number of
smaller editions allowed the blocks to 'rest' between editions, as taking too
many impressions at one time increased the wear on the blocks, and caused the
blocks to become saturated with color, producing uneven color transfer.
The Creation of a Woodblock Print
There is wonderful little book called "The Process of Color-Block Printing",
published by Watanabe (the famous publisher of shin-hange - the "new
prints" of the 20th Century) which consists of alternate leaves, one showing
each stage of the process as an individual printing (i.e. by itself, on a
fresh sheet of paper), and the facing page showing the "accumulated" effect
of all the blocks so far. This sequence is reproduced below.
