For this second of my Hanga Treasure Chest print sets I have come back yet again to an oft-used 'opening' theme in my work - Mt. Fuji. There can be no more auspicious starting place than this! The design - taken from a fan print - is attributed to Hiroshige, and dates from the time when he was using the art name Ichiryūsai, which is the reading of the seal in the image. I have done exactly the same thing as the publisher of the original drawing, and freely adapted it in a way that I find appropriate.

Our theme for this series will be 'The Mystique of the Japanese Print', and it will thus be my job to try and demonstrate for you just where the beauty in these objects comes from. When you opened the package a moment ago, many of you probably said to yourself, "Aha, I get it! David’s topic for this first print is karazuri (embossing)," but actually, I have something else in mind to which I would like to draw your attention - the mist at the base of the mountain.

A person with no experience of these prints would presumably assume that this mist is done with an application of some kind of white pigment, but this is not the case. In the traditional technique, white is never applied to the paper, but is always represented by the paper itself. I 'printed' that mist simply by avoiding that part of the mountainside - letting the dark grey pigment run out in a much lighter tone.

The same sort of thing is happening in the water area. The deep blue at the bottom and the paler blue of the water itself are exactly the same pigment, from the same bowl. But the lighter one has been mixed with white - not a white pigment, but the white of the paper.

The 'lightness' that results from this use of transparency is perhaps the most important feature of Japanese printmaking. The paper is not a mere carrier of the pigments, but is the main actor.

So there we are ... up and running! Thank you for joining my project this year - I hope you enjoy the trip together!

David

April 1, 2010