Japanese prints are, till this day, produced from engraved wood blocks.

The process employed to create Japanese prints is also called "wood engraving" or "woodcut printing".

The original 4-step process:

The realization of Japanese woodblock prints requires the partnership of several different tradesmen / artists:

#1. That of the designer: during the time of traditional engraving, the designer would draw a black outline on white paper so as to give an indication of the final picture to the colour printer.

From the 20th century, the designer usually paints a watercolor picture. Then he gives this to the engraver and printer. It is usually the name of the designer that history of art remembers (eg. Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshige and so forth, these were all designers of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints).

#2. That of the carver: he carves, sculpts rather, blocks of timber, every block for a different color to be used in the final printing process.

#3. That of the printer: he applies the colors on the blocks and then presses each block successively on to the special Japanese paper. He creates the various colour gradients, which were notably virtuosic in the "Shin-hanga" images. These gradients are called "Bokashi" in Japanese.

#4. The publisher: this is the "leader". He discovers the talents required to create these artworks; the designers, engravers, and printers. Then he places them under contract and coordinates them so as to produce the engraved work. The publisher's name is known to us only when the works are pieces of great cartoonists (eg. Tsutaya, publisher of Utamaro).

Presently, the process of creating a hand-crafted print remains as detailed above. However the 20th century saw the birth of a new technique, in which the artist / designer creates his own prints. This process is now known as the "Sosaku-Hanga" (Creative Engraving).

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