Japanese Woodblock Prints

Kathleen Doster

Japanese woodblock prints, with their bright colors and instantly recognizable designs (who hasn’t seen Hiroshige’s “Great Wave” curving around Mount Fuji in the distance) are one of the most popular Japanese art forms. Woodblock prints were dispersed rapidly around the world upon the opening of Japan at the end of the Edo era, and introduced the West to the unique beauty of Japanese culture. The prints continue to be avidly collected and prized today as distinctively Japanese works of art. The most valued prints, those from the Edo period, are known as ukiyo-e and can be found both online and in specialty shops in Tokyo, Kyoto and other Japanese cities.

Printing made from carved, inked, wooden blocks were introduced to Japan from China around the 8th century AD, and were initially used only for written texts, then, beginning from the 11th century, for black line drawings of Buddhist pictures. Still later, these line drawings were sometimes colored in by hand to produce colored pictures but colored printing wasn’t developed until the early 18th century.

The stability and prosperity of the Edo period led to the rise of a literate and sophisticated merchant class with more secular tastes in art. This gave birth to ukiyo-e, literally, pictures of the ukiyo, or “floating world”, a lovely euphemism for the pleasure quarters, whose teahouses, courtesans, and kabuki actors were popular topics of paintings, drawings and woodblock prints. By 1744, new printing techniques allowed printers to stamp a single sheet of paper using multiple woodblocks, one for each of up to 20 colors, leading to the richly multicolored prints known as nishiki-e (brocade pictures).

The Japanese print artists, who often started as painters, worked with a team of craftsmen to produce woodblock prints. After the artist completed the original drawing, a copyist would outline the drawing onto a thin sheet of paper. The engraver then pasted this to a block of cherry wood and carved down the surface everywhere except the outlines; this became the key block. Another block would be carved for every color. The printer would then place ink on the remaining raised pattern of the block and press washi paper, made from mulberry bark, onto the inked blocks, rubbing the back of the paper to press it evenly into the ink.

The first print run, usually a couple hundred prints, was the best quality, with crisp lines and visible wood grain seen in the print. Post printing treatments were often added, like graduated washes of color that were hand brushed onto the block (bokashi), hand burnishing certain colors to produce a high gloss, applying drops of gofun (crushed oyster shell) to simulate snow, application of mica, silver or gold, and embossing of patterns into the washi.

As the blocks wore down with successive printings, lines would become broken or thicker, sometimes colors were slightly out of register, some color blocks might be discarded due to damage or loss, and the woodgrain pattern would be less visible; fewer premium treatments were added to these later printings, which were less valuable. For especially popular designs, new blocks might be cut; these are considered reproductions rather than originals and are of little value. except in rare cases (such as when the new blocks were cut under the original artist’s supervision).

Common subjects of woodblock prints included: beautiful women (bijin-ga), kabuki actors in role (yakusha-e), warriors (musha-e), sumo wrestlers, landscapes and animals. Sometimes multiple sheets would be used (diptychs, triptychs, or more) to create large scenes, such as battlefields or kabuki scenes. There were also a large number of erotic prints (shunga) which were often unsigned to avoid trouble with censors. Certain topics or characters might be taboo, so artists would use indirect portrayals of kabuki plays or novels to get around the censors. Sometimes, they were insufficiently indirect, and both the artists and publishers were imprisoned. Partly due to censorship, and partly due to the sophistication of the public, ukiyo-e were often full of complicated puns, references and inside jokes. Mitate, a Japanese word that doesn’t translate well, are a cross between allegories, comparisons and parodies, and were common in woodblock prints.

If you decide to explore the delightful and exotic world of ukiyo-e, be careful; they are highly addictive, and you could become a collector before you realize it. If so, please protect your prints by keeping them in acid-free portfolios, where you can enjoy looking at them for years. Do not be tempted to frame them and display them on your walls, because the delicate colors (largely from vegetable dyes) will fade over time with exposure to light.

Kathleen Doster is a retired physician and avid collector of Japanese woodblock prints. She writes frequently on medical issues and Japanese art.