Michigan
Oriental Art Society
Sunday, September 14, 2014
St John Hospital-Oakland Education Center, 27351 Dequindre Rd, Madison Heights
(between 11 Mile and 12 Mile Rds)
Social Time at 1:30 pm, Meeting at 2:00
pm.
Demonstration of the Art of Woodblock Printing
By Nobuko Yamasaki
In the Tokugawa period
(1615-1868), the process of producing ukiyo-e, traditional Japanese woodblock
prints, was developed and refined by artists such as Hokusai, Sharaku and
Utamaro. Typically the process involves multiple people: an ukiyo-e master
paints a picture, a second craftsman carves the image into cherry woodblocks
(usually one for each color), still another craftsman applies the inks to the
woodblocks and produces the prints, and finally a company sells the prints.
Nobuko Yamasaki, our speaker for today, will show us how she carries out all of
these tasks by herself using plywood boards, watercolors, special traditional
tools and glue for fixation.
Multiple copies of ukiyo-e can be
produced from one set of woodblocks and the copies are usually numbered.
Sometimes original woodblocks are destroyed after a run to prevent
proliferation of “originals”. Also, copies of “originals” can exist with small
differences in hues and colors because of differences in each “batch” run.
Nobuko Yamasaki studied design at
Seika University in Kyoto, Japan where she learned woodblock print making from
a teacher named Hiroshige. After she graduated, Richard Steiner, a noted
woodblock print artist and teacher, recognized her talent and this led to her
training as an apprentice in his Kyoto studio for five years. She has taught
woodblock printing since January 2009. She is passionate and dedicated to her
work and hopes to share her love for printmaking with others as well.
The MOAS program for October will
feature Natsu Oyobe, Assistant Curator of Asian Art, at the University of
Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor.
