PASTEXPERIENCE HISTORY

Honnō-ji. Edo. Pompeii. Where will you go?

Interactive episodes

Around 1830 · Edo · Publishers and workshops in Edo

Before a print reaches the shop

Haru, an apprentice printer

Follow one landscape print from drawing to shop counter.

An artist’s lines need other craftspeople before colours meet on paper.

Begin the story

Preparing your story…

Explore the diagram: How separate colours become one print
Explore how it works

How separate colours become one print

Why does placing one sheet on different blocks require guides?

A keyblock transfers mountain and sun contours to paper. The carved design reverses on transfer.
01Print the lines
Line blockWashi paperRegistration guides

Contours appear; the colour blocks have not yet been used.

The line block establishes the design

Pigment transfers from the raised surface left by carving. Translating a drawing into wood makes the carver’s skill part of the result.

Sources and scope

These illustrations explain processes and institutions rather than reconstructing actual people, buildings or layouts. Cutaways and insets show hidden structures or separate locations.

Ukiyo-e print encyclopedia ↗

Print the lines

100%

Scroll the enlarged image to inspect details.

A keyblock transfers mountain and sun contours to paper. The carved design reverses on transfer.

A keyblock transfers mountain and sun contours to paper. The carved design reverses on transfer.

Haru, the publisher, craftspeople, customers and this landscape commission are fictional. Activities simplify craft processes; numbers are not historical costs or working hours. Her role does not represent every workshop.

Explore the time and place
Sources
  1. Encyclopedia of ukiyo-e woodblock printing ↗

    すみだ北斎美術館 · Colour printing around 1765, divided labour, blocks and printing.

  2. Hokusai and Fuji exhibition ↗

    すみだ北斎美術館 · Outline colours in Fuji series, carvers and illustrated books.