Studio: international art (3.1894)

Woodcut Printing in Water-Colours

is used as a board on which to moisten the leaves
one by one, and thus to prepare them to readily
receive his colour. With the block before him,
and his little pots and cups of the necessary pig-
ments by his side, he proceeds to spread the colour
on the parts of the wood left in relief by the en-

FROM A WOODCUT AFTER YOSHI SONO

graver. For this purpose he uses most generally a
fairly stiff brush, and part of the cunning of his art
consists in his manipulation of this. By taking up
colour on one side of it, and dipping the other in
water, he is able, for instance, to obtain the gra-
dated tint I have just mentioned. He also further
uses, for laying the colour on the block, a simple
little tool consisting of a piece of muslin stretched
upon a wooden hoop with a handle. This enables

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him to distribute rthe colour more equally than
with the brush, though the latter is more frequently
employed."

" And for the next part of the process—the
actual printing. Does the simple pressure of the
worker's fingers upon the paper when laid in posi-
tion suffice to make it absorb the colour as de-
sired ? "

" Hardly. For this purpose the printer employs
what we call tampons, or ' barens.' With these he
presses, smooths, and pats the paper as it lies on
the block, and herein (as you may easily see) lies
the chance for the craftsman to use his mind as well
as his hand, and to show himself the artist and
not only the workman."

" Much of the charm (I always think) of such
prints as we are talking about is due to the wonder-
ful care and exactitude of their execution. The
' register,' for instance, is so absolutely preserved,
that even the magnifying-glass fails to reveal any
cases where one colour-block has, in printing, been
allowed to overlap another. But I think one of
the chief glories of Japanese coloured prints is the
fascinating brilliance of the colouring. Is there
any special process that makes for this ? "

" Well, as a rule, the colours (which are pulver-
ised just before using in small mortars) are mixed
with cold water (except the violet, by-the-by, which
requires boiling water), to which a small amount of
alum and some glue are added. A very effective
way of producing the brilliant effects you speak of
is by passing each time a light wash of rice paste
upon the wood-block before spreading the colours.
I need scarcely say that the artist has supreme
control and direction of the printer during the
whole of this process. The colours they both rely
upon to produce their results are the following :—
Clear yellow, dark chestnut, red-brown, clear
orange, mastic white, silver-white, vermilion, bril-
liant violet, black, and brown lacquer. As regards
the last colour it is, as is so frequently the case in
Japan—that country of trade secrets—a pigment,
the method of preparing which is known only to
the inventor." Fin-de-ville.

II.—An Official Statement of Facts.

Although the conversation with an expert, re-
ported above, supplies as much information con-
cerning the production of Japanese colour-prints
as may suffice to satisfy the average collector, in
view of certain experiments in the craft now
occupying the attention of many artists both in
England and on the Continent, a brief summary of