Workshop Moku Hanga - Japanese Waterbase Woodcut

HANGA WOODCUT is the traditional waterbase woodcut technique used by the Japanese ukiyo-e masters. It offers precise registration with luminous, lightfast color and requires no press or solvents. In this intensive weeklong workshop April Vollmer will provide a broad historical overview of the medium, and demonstrate how this technique can be useful to today's artists by helping participants design, cut and print their own edition. The workshop includes instruction on the use and maintenance of tools, the kento registration system, printing with a baren and the use of water-based pigments.

APRIL VOLLMER is an artist who lives and works on the lower east side of Manhattan. She received her MFA in printmaking from Hunter College in 1982. Focusing primarily on Japanese woodcut, she also works in the computer, often combining traditional and contemporary techniques. She has taught workshops at Japan Society, the Lower East Side Printshop, Pyramid Atlantic and Dieu Donne Papermill. Her prints been exhibited at AIR Gallery, the Islip Art Museum, Henry Street Settlement, and internationally. For more information about the artist and the technique go to: www.aprilvollmer.com

Date: 17. - 21.03.03, 10 - 17 h

Workshop Fee: 300 € incl. material and MwSt

Course Description

This class is an introduction to traditional Japanese woodblock printing for contemporary artists. To familiarize printmakers with this non-toxic technique the class centers on creating prints. Each participant will cut and print a small edition of an original color woodblock. Moku hanga provides precise registration and unmatched control over color, as well as a connection to one of the most important chapters in the history of printmaking.

Historical Background: 18th century Ukiyo-e (floating world pictures) by masters like Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro, were created using the technique of moku hanga. Hanga simply means printing, and moku specifies wood. The development of sophisticated color printing is intimately tied to the rise of popular culture in Edo period Japan, where prints were made by groups of skilled craftsmen. Contemporary artists print with essentially the same technique to create modern prints. In the first part of the class we will compare examples of contemporary artist-made prints with traditionally made ukiyo-e prints.

Overview of Materials: types of wood, handmade paper, cutting tools, sharpening stones, application brushes, barens, color. Japanese papers and supplies are now more easily available, we will review a list of sources to locate various tools, papers and other hanga supplies.

Planning a Color Print: conception, color separation, methods for transferring a drawing (including registration) to the block, including the ukiyo-e method of hanshita/kyogo (preliminary prints on thin paper glued to the block) and the alternative modern transfer methods using carbon paper or solvents.

Kento Registration: planning and cutting, use of the kentonomi chisel, kagi and hikitsuke registration cuts.

Cutting Tools: the families of tools: hangi-to knife, the small aisuki and large soainomi bullnose chisels, and the V and U-gouges. The traditional Japanese cutting sequence, beginning with the hangi-to, medium U gouge, larger clearing tools, and finally the aisuki.

Sharpening and maintenance: Japanese water stones, varieties, how to sharpen tools.

Block Cutting: the difference in cutting between blocks to be printed waterbase and oil base; the sequence of tools used in hanga woodcut, multi-block, reduction and double reduction blocks.

Washi: traditional Japanese paper has its own craft tradition and history. Made from kozo, mitsumata or gampi this long fibered paper withstands repeated printing while damp. The quality of paper is a key part of a finished print, as each paper shows its character clearly in printing.

Printing: posture and balance as well as the placement of tools and equipment are carefully considered for maximum efficiency in printing.

The Baren: varieties of "hand press" and how they are made, another Japanese craft tradition.

Color: use of watercolor, gouache and sumi ink; making color from pigment, binder, and additives. Paste is a conditioner (not a binder) that allows the printing of smooth even areas.

Application brushes: various types and sizes of deer and horse hair brushes for printing different size color areas.

Printing Techniques: color overprinting, textural goma printing and color gradation bokashi printing

Closing Discussion: the relation of eastern and western approaches to woodcut, the elements of art and craft that make a good print, the meaning of original in the context of printmaking, and the place of hand made prints in the age of computer reproduction.

More about the technique of Moku Hanga

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