#History of moku hanga archive

The fact is that the print at top of this post is only my sixth moku hanga print!! What can I say? As soon as I tried my first moku hanga print I loved the possibilities that I was now seeing first hand. If you read this I imagine you will know who you are.īack to why the title might be misleading though. So I first should say thanks to both the artist and the family.

The family bought a large number of my works in late 2016 and it was the proceeds of those sales which helped to fund most of my early moku hanga supplies. I'm not naming names here, more for privacy reasons than anything else, of that artist or of another family that was also instrumental in my deciding to try moku hanga. His colors in particular seemed to offer something richer than what I was getting in my previous linocuts and woodcuts. I did that largely because I'd seen the prints of one wildlife artist in particular who used and still uses moku hanga to make brilliantly colored, quite creative prints. I did make my first moku hanga print at the beginning of 2017. The title is true and accurate but it's possibly misleading. Edition not complete as of 02.10.19 but it will be between 20 and 25. This website is developed as a part of the world's largest public domain archive, PICRYL.Purple Finch and Hairy Woodpecker. law and are therefore in the public domain. The Library provides Congress, the federal government and the American people with a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge to inform, inspire and engage them and support their intellectual and creative endeavors.ĭisclaimer: A work of the Library of Congress is 'a work prepared by an officer or employee' of the federal government 'as part of that person's official duties.' In general, under section 105 of the Copyright Act, such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under U.S.

#History of moku hanga archive

The objects in this archive are from Library of Congress - the nation’s first established cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with millions of items including books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. Woodblock prints were provided by the Library of Congress and cover the period from 1600 to 1980. From 1915: Shin-hanga 'New Prints' school, including Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida From 1904: Sōsaku-hanga, 'Creative Prints' movement From 1842: Utagawa school, including the artists Kunisada and Hiroshige From 1794: Kitagawa school, including the artists Utamaro I, Kikumaro I and II From 1786: Hokusai school, including the artists Hokusai, Hokuei and Gakutei From 1725: Kawamata school including the artists Suzuki Harunobu and Koryusai From 1720s: Katasukawa school, including the artists Shunsho and Shuntei This collection describes Japanese printmaking different schools and movements. That is why those prints had colors so vivid, as well as glazes, and transparency. Its original name is ‘moku-hanga’ and it has a wide usage in artistic genre of ‘ukiyo-e’.Īs opposed to western tradition, where artists used oil-based inks for woodcuts, moku-hanga technique uses water-based inks. This technique originated from China, where it was used to print books for many centuries. Woodblock printing appeared in Japan at the beginning of Edo period, when Tokugawa shogunate was ruled by the Japanese society. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). Woodblock printing in Japan (木版画, moku-hanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period.