percent—who are the buyers of contemporary Japanese graphic art. Therefore, it is counterproductive for an artist to title his work in Japanese since most of his potential audience may not be able to read it.
Contemporary Japanese prints are still being bought on the international level by private collectors, museums, and galleries as fine examples of the most creative and sophisticated graphic art being produced today. But where are the Japanese buyers? There are a few, of course, who are aware of and appreciate what present-day artists are doing. They are among those whom one would call confident and knowledegable, and they deserve praise for having the courage of their convictions. Unfortunately there are not many of them. The average Japanese may be reluctant to say what he really likes for fear of being laughed at. He would rather go with world opinion for the tried-and-true masters because that view avoids embarrassment.
Great publicity in recent years has been given to those Japanese who have rushed to the various famous auction houses to buy Impressionist paintings at outrageously inflated prices. At the same time another group of Japanese, enjoying their affluence during the "bubble economy," also dashed off to the same auction houses in Europe and the U.S. to buy and bring back their own ukiyo-e prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, prints that had long charmed the West and had won a loving and appreciative audience there but had been scorned by the Japanese art establishment in the past.
Suddenly these very same prints, which allegedly had once been used as wrapping paper for shipping Japanese porcelain abroad—this story may be true, since the works were produced in enormous quantities—were commanding unheard-of prices in all the art "marts." The Japanese were out there buying everything and bringing it back home.
Printing Techniques
Today's prints are a far cry from the ukiyo-e of yore. The diverse and high-tech choices available to printmakers now are almost without limit. An artist can combine any number of other processes with the woodblock, lithograph, silkscreen, and etching techniques, which are the basic types of printmaking media, to produce what is termed a mixed-media print. He can experiment with photographic techniques, lasers, computer graphics, collages of diverse materials built up on a matrix and then printed (collagraphy). In short, the latest scientific printing breakthroughs are the Modern print artist's dream. Young Japanese artists enjoy blending all of the new processes with those from their own ancient woodblock and stencil heritage, thereby creating something new and uniquely Japanese.
Each artist responds to the multitude of techniques available in an individualistic way because each technique conveys a different feeling on paper. Artists do not choose printing techniques at random. They use one form or another because it is emotionally or technically satisfying for what they wish to portray: the texture of handmade paper and wood grain in a woodblock print; the painterly effects achievable in a lithograph; the purity of solid color and hard edges characteristic of a silkscreen; the exquisite detail possible in an etching.
Despite the numerous variations available, print techniques can be reduced to some basic forms. We do not want to write a book about the numerous techniques because that information is widely available, but we would like to provide some rudimentary information as a guideline for the general reader.
The relief print includes woodblocks, wood engravings, linocuts, and collagraphs. Knives, gouges, scoops, or chisels are used to cut away the part of the material that will not be included in the image. The raised surface is inked and printed, with a separate carving, inking, and printing of each block for a multicolored print. Since a separate block is used to print each color, the placement of the paper in the exact same spot on the inked block is required for precise color registration throughout the whole printing process. To insure that the color prints in the same place each time, the Japanese artist uses a kentō (a small groove about the thickness of the paper that is notched into the block, generally on the lower right corner and along the edge of the left side). The artists slides the paper into the kentō notching, thereby insuring that it does not move and that the color registers consistently in the exact area to be printed.
Woodcut print artists almost always use washi (handmade Japanese paper), which is dampened, put face down on the inked block to be printed, and then rubbed on the back in a circular motion with a baren (a handmade disk of tightly coiled rope within a bamboo sheath). Many woodblock artists make their own baren to fit their hand and their personal touch.
Woodblocks are especially suited for delineating strong lines and broad areas of color, and the grain of the wood plank itself can often be found as part of the texture in the final print. If one looks at the reverse side of a woodblock work, the circular rubbing strokes of the baren will be apparent where the ink has been absorbed into the paper. In the old days of ukiyo-e, cherry wood was employed, a wood that restricted the size of the final print. Today the woodblock artist has access to other choices, including plywood, so woodblock prints can be made in much larger sizes than ever before.
A wood engraving is different from a woodblock because the wood used is taken from the end grain of the block, and the tools used are those of an engraver, allowing the artist to achieve the fine lines and detail of an etching. Wood engraving is a less spontaneous process than woodblock printing and demands contemplation and patience.
The lithographic method of printing images from a flat surface (the planographic process) was invented by a German, Alois Senefelder, in 1798, and is based on the fact that grease and water do not mix. Lithographs are made on a specially ground and polished stone, zinc, or aluminum plate upon which the artist draws his image with a greasy crayon, pencil, or special oily ink. The plate is then chemically "set" with gum arabic and nitric or phosphoric acid. When the plate is dampened and inked for printing, the ink will adhere only to the greasy particles and will be rejected in the undrawn portions.
Lithographs require a press with a sliding bed that moves under a wood and leather scraper that applies the pressure to transfer the image to the paper. A separate plate is made for each color used. Because the artist can draw directly on the plate, he can enjoy spontaneity of gesture and can experiment freely. Sometimes the images resemble paintings, since many textures and tonalities can be achieved, depending on the skill of the artist.
Silkscreen printing (serigraphy) is basically a stencil process requiring a silk, nylon, polyester, or fine wire-mesh screen. The screen is tightly stretched across a wooden or aluminum frame and the areas not to be printed are blocked out by a material like paper, glue, or specially prepared lacquer film. The ink is forced through the screen with a rubber squeegee onto the paper below, where it appears to be lying on the paper's surface. One of the great advantages of silkscreen printing is that the image created on the screen does not have to be prepared in reverse by the artist, as is necessary in all of the other printing processes.
This printing method has its origins in primitive and prehistoric art, probably having been used even as a way of tattooing. In the Orient it has long been employed to create fabric designs. In Japan, as far back as the eleventh century, it was used to decorate samurai leather armor and horse trappings. Today, along with being a method for fine-art printing, silkscreen printing is widely used commercially since it can be applied to just about any surface—paper, vinyl, glass, cloth, ad infinitum.
A unique stencil technique employed in Japan is kappazuri, which requires a special matrix made by laminating together several sheets of washi with kakishibu (persimmon tannin), then smoke-drying the laminated sheet to produce a highly water-resistant and durable stencil. This method has been used for ages for dyeing Okinawan bingata textiles, for printing family crests on kimono, and as a supplementary technique in the making of ukiyo-e.
The artist affixes his rough sketch to the stencil paper and then cuts away his "key" impression with a small, sharp knife. From this "key" he will proceed to cut individual stencils for each color to be printed. Prior to the printing, a dye-resist paste is applied to the portions of the design to be left blank. Each color process requires an application of
