I mentioned last month that we would have a 'Heisei' print this time, and - as you might expect - that means a living designer. Japanese viewers will instantly recognize the topic of this image - it is the story of Urashima Tarō, a young fisherman who is transported by a sea turtle to a fantasy land under the ocean. It is taken from a large set of images depicting folk tales, designed by the young illustrator/artist Kaori Seki.

She and I made this print in exactly the same fashion that the prints of old were made; she supplied me with a sen-gaki containing the outlines of the design, and when I had carved that, she gave me instructions on the colour distribution. And that brings us to another very important point about traditional Japanese print production, one that is unfortunately not readily visible to the typical viewer.

Three different green tones appear in the finished print, but I used no green pigment at all. Purple is there also, as is orange, but again, neither of those tones appeared anywhere in my mixing bowls. Our colours are all transparent, and thus create blends when overprinted. The bright yellow of the tropical fish in this picture is also printed in other areas - in the sea grasses and the orange fish. Blue also printed on the grass thus creates a green tone, while pink printed on the fish turns it orange.

Combining colours in this way does save some time by reducing the number of blocks required, but that's not really why we do it. Colours created in this way - blended in place right in the paper, rather than being mixed separately in bowls and then applied side by side - have a wonderful harmony and 'coherence'. This is one of the least-known 'secrets' of the old prints, and is the single most important factor contributing to their visual appeal.

Seki-san told publisher Dave basically what she wanted. Carver Dave then worked out how to cut blocks to give that result, and printer Dave - using his brushes and barens - then actually made it happen. Collaboration. Yet another of the secrets of the old days! Bringing together the accumulated experience of a number of skilled people, the traditional Japanese print has layers of depth that 'one-man' work simply cannot approach.

Seki-san's portfolios are stuffed with interesting designs - many of them with much more 'meat' than the fairly simple one we produced this month - and I hope we will have more chances to work together!

David

February 2010