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Ayumi has rejoined our printers upstairs after taking a break to spend time with her new daughter. For the first time in a long time, we had four printers all working simultaneously on Wednesday! She has jumped straight back into printing, and is currently working on a batch of our new year print, which we will be sending out to supporters of our work, suppliers, friends, and family around the world.

Here you can see her grabbing her baren and getting started.

Now that another printer has joined the team, we hope to keep more of our prints in stock!

After getting a couple shots of Ayumi, we decided to get a picture of everyone all together, too. They had many ideas for how they would like to pose...

The one above this is the one I think came out the best, but right after taking it they all burst into laughter!

We're glad to have such a fun group of people here with us at Mokuhankan.

-Cameron

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Fabiola Gil is a mokuhanga printmaker based in Zaragoza, Spain. You can find out more about her and her work on her website, though most of the information is Spanish, which unfortunately may be a limiting factor for many of the readers of this blog.

She makes interesting work, which you can find in her shop or other pages around her website as well as on Facebook and Instagram, where she is regularly posting about her time here at Mokuhankan. She is spending this time here at Mokuhankan not as an apprentice or intern, but instead as an independent printmaker observing how things are done here, and pursuing her own work.

Fabiola brought with her many new designs, planning to turn one of them into a woodblock print during her time here. She got started right away and this first photo was taken early in her time here at Mokuhankan, just as she began carving the key block for her new design.

Not long after, initial carving was done!

Before applying the pigment the first time, she prepared carbon paper and some thin washi paper to make a first impression. Doing initial impressions is important in order to double-check that the key lines are carved the way she wants and that she did not miss any spots in the design. Once the key lines are ready, these impressions will also be used to prepare all the subsequent color blocks.

In the below photo you can see her attach the white paper she uses for the first impression directly to the woodblock itself using a few pieces of tape. She then slides the carbon paper with the carbon side up between the block and paper.

Then Fabiola uses the baren and prints, being careful to keep the thin white paper from tearing.

Finally, she compares the printed impression to the original design and makes any necessary adjustments to the carved block.

While carbon paper is not a tool I have seen used by other printers here at Mokuhankan, it is definitely one more technique you can put to use if you start making your own prints!

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The other day I sat down with a stack of the completed certificates. Each one gets a number - the only prints we have ever issued that get numbered!

After numbering, I date each one and then sign it ...

These were all posted this afternoon, so if you are one of the waiting Patreons, please hang on just a bit longer, and you'll have it soon!

Thanks so much to all those who are helping us with our work this way!

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Video alert! Update time … I’ve finally got the first update on the Eight Views of Cats project ready for you, including a selection of interesting designs received so far!

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Video alert! Update time … I’ve finally got the first update on the Eight Views of Cats project ready for you, including a selection of interesting designs received so far!

Please note that the schedule for accepting submissions has been extended, and there is still lots of time to get involved. More details on the Eight Views website ...

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The next David's Choice video is ready ...

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Video alert! The next David’s Choice episode is ready! This special episode has a ‘double punch’ - not only will you learn about a beautiful set of old Meiji-era woodblock books, but an important part of those books has come to life for you to use here in the modern day - we have recreated the original Hasegawa font!

After watching the video, please visit the font page!

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Video alert! You didn’t expect this one so soon, I’m sure ... We have something ‘a little bit different’ for you today - a short little video that will show you how to discover some hidden Easter Eggs in our Ukiyo-e Heroes Portraits prints!

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Video alert! You didn’t expect this one so soon, I’m sure ... We have something ‘a little bit different’ for you today - a short little video that will show you how to discover some hidden Easter Eggs in our Ukiyo-e Heroes Portraits prints!

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The next in our David’s Choice video series has just ...

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The next in our David’s Choice video series has just been uploaded to YouTube. Viewers of our Twitch livestream had a ‘sneak peek’ at this one around ten hours ago, because this morning’s stream was a ‘candid' view of Dave doing the recording from his desk in the Asakusa shop.

The content? The famous crepe paper books published by the Hasegawa Company in the Meiji era ...

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Announcing a new series of prints ... 'Eight Views of Cats'!

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Video alert! … AND … New Series alert! … AND … collaboration chance alert! Can you design a new woodblock print for us to publish? Watch the video and learn more!

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Suga-san has printed one of the most difficult prints in the Mystique of the Japanese Print subscription series.

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Suga-san keeps taking on harder and harder projects, and she has just finished her first batch of one of the most difficult prints in the Mystique of the Japanese Print series, 'Classical Beauty'.

The Mystique of the Japanese Print series of woodblock prints was originally put together by Dave in order to demonstrate various techniques and unique qualities of Japanese printmaking, while also challenging himself as a carver and a printer. This means he made the prints difficult for future printers who would use his blocks. Suga-san did not let that deter her, and she has just wonderfully demonstrated her skills by printing a lovely batch of 'Classical Beauty' - print #15 in the series.

In the above picture, you can see the pearl powder reflected in a spider web design around the collar of the woman's kimono. Applying pearl was a new process for Suga-san, so it took some practice. Once she became accustomed to using it, though, the results were gorgeous!

Above is a full view in which the pearl is less obvious, but you can see the effect of the deeply embossed border, which had not yet been pressed into the paper when I took the previous photo.

You can truly see the mark of a great printer here in this close-up shot of some hair on the woman's forehead. By applying just the right amount of pigment and pressure, Suga-san made the hairs dark enough to be seen, without any 'tamari' - where the pigment pools in places where it's not supposed to be. Each line on the ruler marks 1 mm of distance, so she was working with some very fine details.

Wonderful work, Suga-san! Some of you reading this may be waiting for this print to be delivered since it was on back-order for a little while. It's on the way out to waiting subscribers now, and I believe it will have been well worth the wait.

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Yet another video upload ... It's getting to be a habit!

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We have a new supplementary video, adding more images and information to the previous video featuring ‘8 Views’. In this one, the focus is on the famous set of woodblock prints designed by Suzuki Harunobu in the 1760s - 'Zashiki Hakkei' (Eight Views in the Home). It’s mostly just a simple slideshow featuring the prints quite close-up, but there is a bit of commentary here and there …

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The next in our David’s Choice video series has just been uploaded to YouTube.

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The next in our David’s Choice video series has just been uploaded to YouTube. This episode shows and discusses woodblock prints related to the theme of Hakkei - or ‘8 Views’, centering on the iconic ‘Omi Hakkei’ (Eight Views of Omi) by Hiroshige. Don’t miss the ‘slow’ slideshow at the end, where you can get a wonderful close-up view of a full set of the prints.

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We are reaching Peak Party!

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Our Asakusa shop is now well into its fifth year of operation, having opened in the autumn of 2014. Over that time, we have enjoyed a nice steady growth in the number of people who come to the shop. There certainly weren't many visitors in the early months, but these days the story is very different ...

Here are a couple of screenshots from our Management System - the page that shows reservations made for our Print Parties. These are for March and April this spring (as of this afternoon). The red numbers are the reservations for each time slot:

Starting around the middle of March and extending right through next week or so, we are basically booked solid.

And even as I write this - on the 14th - we are booked almost totally solid for the next week, with more reservations coming in every day. It seems as though we have reached 'Peak Party'.

So what next? Where do we go from here? Well, this is the spring tourist season, so it should begin to taper off in a few weeks. But even so, the trend is clear - demand for our Print Parties has pretty much reached the limit of our abilities to provide the service.

The only way forward is to get more staff members into the rotation, and open up more slots (8:30am, 16:00pm, 18:00pm), but just where such people will come from is not so clear. Previously, I have always instantly refused work requests from foreigners living here in Japan (their husband is here working for a bank for a couple of years, etc. etc.) because it just didn't seem worthwhile to spend all the time training them, just to have them disappear after a relatively short time. In desperation though, a few weeks back, I relented on this policy, and we now have a couple of these people on board to help out. I think we can perhaps explore this a bit further, by taking the time to set up an actual training plan (perhaps to take place on our nominal closing day of Tuesdays), where some of our experienced staffers can train these people, who would then be available to fit into the rotation a couple of days each week. If we can build up a 'pool' of such new members, then it wouldn't be particularly crippling each time one of them left.

And I guess that means we have to create a training manual, set up a kind of curriculum, and organize regular practice sessions, all to teach people how to teach people how to make prints!

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Neighborhood observations from a visitor

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Everyone at Mokuhankan is busy now - there are lots of customers, lots of print parties, and lots of subscription prints being carved and printed - so it's Karen filling in again as a guest blogger. Today, I thought I'd write about the shop itself and its environs.

Here's a portrait of the building in the early hours, with its brand new blue sign that was put up last week:

Mokuhankan is close to a large temple district. Sensō-ji is one of Toyko's oldest and most important temples. When approaching the temple from the south, one enters through Kaminarimon, aka the "Thunder Gate":

Statues of the Shinto gods of wind and thunder, Fūjin and Raijin, are displayed in alcoves on left and right. Beyond the gate are a series of shops, currently closed in this picture because it's early in the morning. Later in the day, it's almost too crowded to walk past the shops! If you walk on down, turning left before entering the temple grounds proper, you'll be looking down Denpōin-dori:

As this street curves to the right, you'll find yourself on Rokku-dori, which is Mokuhankan's street. Here's a sign past the shop at the end of the street that makes it look much larger than it is, showing all the shops. If you zoom in and look carefully, you might see Mokuhankan - 木版館 - on the far side of the street to the left.

OK, imagine you are standing in the intersection at the map's green end of the street. Here you can sight along Rokku-dori to the left, and Hoppy-dori to the right. Mokuhankan is the 6th door on the left, on Rokku-dori.

Hoppy-dori is full of bars. In the morning it is pretty deserted -

... but at night, the bars roll out their awnings and set up picnic tables. Revelers abound!

Right now there is a pear tree on Rokku-dori that just burst into bloom:

... and across from Mokuhankan, there is an alcove with a small statue of Jizo, the bodhisattva who looks after children and travelers.

Those of you who watch Dave's live stream on twitch.tv sometimes hear an interesting sound, and this is the source - it happens right outside, as ice is delivered to the restaurant next door a couple of times a week.

Many of these photos were shot in the morning when not many people are out, but it gets very busy during the day, and especially on the weekends. From the roof of Mokuhankan on a late Saturday afternoon, one can see the lively street, with people shopping, walking around in kimono, standing in line for dinner, and enjoying the weather.

It's really a very interesting neighborhood! I hope I've been able to give you a taste of that.

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