As described in an entry over in our Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking, a treasure trove of Meiji-era woodblocks has become available to us. Our friend print dealer Shingo Ueda had originally planned to sell those blocks, but - under pretty strong pressure from us! - has decided to change his plans and keep them in his personal collection. We think these blocks should not be separated and strewn around all over the place, but should be kept as a single collection, and - of course - used for printing!

So that's what we are doing. Ueda-san is passing them over to us, group by group, and we are cleaning them up and taking nice clean impressions. There is another page in the Encyclopedia, showing some of these first impressions.

We are using a variety of fine handmade papers to make these prints (gampi, hodomura, and our usual echizen hosho), selecting the one most suitable for each particular block. (Some of the carving is extremely fine, requiring a smoothly calendared surface to show all the detail.)

We weren't quite ready to add more than 2,000 individual items to our catalogue, so have decided to make them available a la carte, printing them in batches as we get time for it. On the following page, you will see a display of thumbnails of the prints ready so far, and you can make your own selection of them, in groups of six, for $ 25.00£ 20.25€ 23.00 each pack.

Some of these blocks require much more care and attention in the printing, not to mention larger sheets of paper, so we have sorted them into three groups. One pack of six prints must be made up of one Type 'A', 2 from Type 'B', and 3 from Type 'C'.

We hope you will find these little prints interesting, and that you will place an order for some of them!