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Bart moku hanga
Bart moku hanga













To make a print, the block’s surface is saturated with water color and nori paste, and then slightly dampened paper is laid down and pressed with a buren. The image, a type of relief print, is produced by carving away everything except the lines to be printed. In modern times the images may have changed, but the process remains much the same, and its simplicity is very appealing, requiring not much more than a block of wood, a cutting tool (gouge), ink, and paper. Climbing a narrow staircase to the third floor of the Mokuhankan print shop in Asakusa takes me to a studio where a printmaker is at work.Moku hanga is a traditional Japanese form of woodblock printmaking notable for black outlines, vibrant colors, and angled perspectives (think of Hokusai and Hirosada). She is halfway through adding black outlines to a batch of 99 prints.

#BART MOKU HANGA MANUAL#

The highly manual process of the art form she’s employing means that consistency takes time to master but, with her level of skill, each print is revealed as a perfect replica of the last.

bart moku hanga

Her specially designed workstation is overflowing with handmade paper, various tools and bowls of brightly colored pigments. All of these materials are coming together to be used in a process known as woodblock printing, or mokuhanga. Mokuhanga is a traditional printing technique once used commercially in Japan to mass produce images such as Katsushika Hokusai’s famous “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” The multi-step process begins with the carving of wooden blocks. Any areas of the image where color should not appear must be cut away from the block, resulting in something that looks like a wooden stamp. The artist then rubs color into the wood and presses the paper onto the surface which, when removed, reveals the carved image. Whilst the art has a rich history, it is now being recognized for having unique characteristics that are appealing to modern artists around the world. Well, mokuhanga is today being recognised as an accessible and environmentally friendly art form, meeting the needs of contemporary artists. Despite having a history that’s strongly connected to Japanese culture, mokuhanga’s future is appearing to be increasingly international, showing its potential to connect artists from around the world and offering exciting opportunities for cultural exchange. Having developed alongside publishing and not high art, mokuhanga is an unpretentious technique that invites us to not only create art but also reconnect with nature – two basic pleasures that are all too often missing from our modern lives. So who’s using the art form overseas?įor one, printmaker Mara Cozzolino has been practicing mokuhanga from her art studio in northern Italy since 2011.

bart moku hanga

Before discovering mokuhanga, Mara worked as an illustrator practicing another printing technique known as etching, however it became increasingly difficult for her to justify its use of toxic chemicals and the impact they were having on both the environment and her health.

bart moku hanga

Whilst some etching artists have managed to make their work processes more sustainable, Mara decided to take the opportunity to switch to an altogether different technique. Her search for a more eco-friendly printing process is what led her to mokuhanga. Despite being unchanged for centuries, mokuhanga happens to be an environmentally-friendly, water-based printing process, requiring only simple materials and no toxic chemicals.













Bart moku hanga