16 June 2011

Mokuhanga Conference Part 2

The conference began on a Tuesday evening with an opening party where I spent the evening peering at name tags. There were over 100 participants from 20+ countries, and I met so many people whose names I already knew -- Richard Steiner of KIWA, artists Ralph Kiggell, Paul Furneaux, Elizabeth Forrest and Tanja Softic, Susan Rostow from Akua Ink Company, my Cullom Gallery mates Eva Pietzcker and Tyler Starr. I was also delighted to meet many artists I already "knew" from the online group The Baren Forum, including Andrew Stone, Jan Telfer, Margot Rocklen, George Jarvis, Mary Brodbeck, Preston Lawing and the previously mentioned Linda Beeman. Everything was running smoothly thanks to the hard work done by conference organizers Tuula Moilanen, Kari Laitinen, Karen Kunc and April Vollmer.

The next morning the heart and soul of the conference began with demonstrations and workshops offered from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. I'll take you through the demos I saw over the next several blog posts.

Canal
I walked over this little canal every morning on the way to Kyoto Kaikan where the conference sessions took place

The first demonstration I attended was a printing demo by Keizo Sato. Sato San (san is a way of saying "Mr." or "Ms.") is a 2nd generation master woodblock printer who runs a studio in Kyoto with three apprentices. Sato Studio makes ukiyo-e reproductions, Nihonga reproductions, and original prints based on works by various living artists. Sato San is Deputy Vice President of the Association for the Preservation of Japanese Traditional Woodblock Printmaking Techniques.

SatoSan
Above is Sato san preparing his materials for the demonstration. Seated to the left is Bill Mathie and, right, Andrew Stone and George Jarvis is standing behind them.

SatoOriginal
Sato San demonstrated printing gofun, a white pigment made of ground shells, on one design from an early 20th century compilation of textile prints called Aya Nishiki depicting twill and damask brocades in 11 volumes. These prints were originally created for Kyoto Nishijin Museum with the dual purpose of supporting woodblock artists and displaying examples of textiles considered too fragile for actual display. Above is the original page that Sato San was reproducing from the volume.

SatoBlock2
Sato San was using the original blocks to work on his reproduction. Here's a beautiful block that looks like a textile in itself.

SatoKento
And a beautiful kento!

SatoBlock1
This is the block that Sato San was printing from during the demonstration.

SatoInProgress
As the demo progressed, it became clear that the white of the print was being built up very slowly with many overprints of gofun. This slow and painterly approach is said to be a hallmark of Kyoto-style mokuhanga. Essentially, Sato San was creating many tiny bokashi blends on the block.

SatoPounce2
In one instance, Sato San used quite a bit of water and a pouncing device to ink the block.

SatoPounce
He said that the screen inside his pouncing tampon was made of human hair.

SatoInProgress
It was difficult to see the effect of this single pass: the pounced layer on top of the white that had already been laid down.

SatoTestPrint
Sato San printed the pounced layer alone on the edge of one of the prints so we could see what it looked like by itself. It was a very delicate application that added texture and depth.

SatoPaste
Someone asked how the gold in the print was made, so Sato San did a quick demonstration for us. He uses a powdered brass to simulate gold. He said that he usually rolls on a transparent oil base and prints it to hold the powder, but since he didn't have any of the oil base with him he brushed on nikawa (animal glue).

SatoGold1
SatoGold2
After printing the glue just as one would print ink, Sato San used a soft brush to apply the powdered brass.

SatoTranslate
Woodblock scholar Claire Cuccio did an excellent job translating. Next to Claire is Seiichiro Miida, an artist and professor at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Andrew
Andrew Stone taking a close look at Sato San's work.

KuncNoda
Karen Kunc and Tetsuya Noda watching Sato San's demonstration. Left of Karen is Kari Laitinen, artist and conference organizer. There was a professional film crew there taping Sato San's demo.

LindaNotes
Linda Beeman taking careful notes at Sato San's demonstration.

10 comments:

Nicole Raisin Stern said...

Wonderful!

Jan said...

Thanks for those great photos, much appreciated.

dewatobay said...

fascinating! Thank you for the photos and good description.

Andrew Stone said...

Oh, the danger of the new media.....

My work thinks I was at a MEDICAL meeting! I hope these photos don't get picked up by my local paper.

It was a great meeting and I came home brimming over with some new ideas and techniques to try out.

Thanks for the photos, it's hard to believe I was really there.

Annie B said...

Ummmm, right, I forgot about that Andrew! Would you like me to make any changes here? Maybe refer to you as Andrew S.tone?

betsy best-spadaro said...

very interesting! Your pictures and descriptions are the next best thing to being there. sort of. well, not really, but they are educational nonetheless! thank you annie!

Diane Cutter said...

Thanks, Annie, for making this come alive for the rest of us. How inspiring!

mizu designs said...

I'm so happy to see Sato-san is still printing! I had the very big privilege of spending half a day in his working studio in Kyoto quite a few years ago. Amazing skill! And a lovely, generous man.

Thanks for posting Annie.

Rick Finn said...

Wow, what a beautiful print! And thanks for sharing such great photos of this technique!

Kim Rosen said...

Wow!! Completely inspiring!