I'm sitting here with the print in my hands and I just can't wrap my head around how you do it. You make images that live and breath, thank you Taran-san!
I have been absolutely stunned by the quality of the prints in this series. I am at a loss for words before the sheer amount of passion and work expressed in these prints. Thank you for your continued work.
thank you so much for making this video. your dedication to elevating your craftsmanship to the highest level is very inspirational. I hope you can find a few minutes to chat in person in September when I visit Mokuhankan. congratulations on a stunning image that will be admired for generations
Margin Mystery: could it be a scanning error. Every image you have or on BM website or used in their videos is probably from the same scan . Could you ask someone to look at the actual paper and see if the error is there.. The scanning operator may have set an area to scan and some images are in a different position and the reassembly had an error. if it was a simple translate you could see it being trimming but it being a rotate to fix it is strange.
Interesting idea but the origional intention was most certainly a book. Perhaps a collector later down the line may have tried to use them for another purpose before they were recompiled🤔
It strikes me that while the technical skill of Japanese wood block carving is not lost - it's just hard to learn - the artistic skill of transforming an ink brush painting into a carving does seem to be lost to time. Generations of carvers have been trained in reproduction. The fact that the three carvers involved in this project all have different approaches and are trying to make a best guess from examples in old books means that there is no living tradition telling us how the old carvers would have carved these pictures. This would have been an absolutely central skill for an old carver and here we are kind of taking a stab in the dark...
While this is true, modern carvers don’t have much experience with freshly brushed lines and much of the work are reproductions. I think you have missed a fundamental thing. One of the big goals with this series was to demonstrate the difference with which each carver approaches and interprets lines. This isn’t a failure in our way of doing it. This is how it has always been. Each carver has their own sense and while your average viewer may not be able to look and tell the difference in the carved lines and the choices the carvers made with their knife, those in the know can see clearly the different styles of the carvers. You can see it all over older prints often in many books stories side by side you can see the way two different carvers interpreted the same brush strokes. These are not stabs in the dark these are our personality’s showing in a project designed to give us the freedom to do so. Also to demonstrate the greater role of the carver not just as a simple fleshy CNC but transformative to the final image. And yes it takes an awful lot to learn hahaha
@@GinkoHanga Imagine Hokusai drawing two version of the same image on a long sheet of paper. Maybe because of he way he works with the brush, he wants the short edge of the paper on one side (it does not matter left or right as long as it is the same side). Then, one of the images will be upside down with respect to the other. If the paper is then not cut cleanly down the middle, there will be an upside down remnant on one side.
Between you and Dave's stuff, Japanese woodblock carving is like 80% of my entertainment these days. Love it!
I’ve been there! I’m glad you enjoyed and I can contribute to the pool.
Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing with us
I'm sitting here with the print in my hands and I just can't wrap my head around how you do it. You make images that live and breath, thank you Taran-san!
That’s very kind. That’s the terminology that makes carvers very happy.
lovely to see these kinds of arts still practiced!
I have been absolutely stunned by the quality of the prints in this series. I am at a loss for words before the sheer amount of passion and work expressed in these prints. Thank you for your continued work.
It was a lot of fun to let loose on these projects, it’s right up my alley. I’m glad you like it!
Wonderful Taran! 💙Thank you for sharing the process of your work!
thank you so much for making this video. your dedication to elevating your craftsmanship to the highest level is very inspirational. I hope you can find a few minutes to chat in person in September when I visit Mokuhankan. congratulations on a stunning image that will be admired for generations
Thank you Deniss, just make sure you remind me closer to the time👍
extremely helpful in understanding the time and craft required in making a print. Thank you for making this video
Thanks for watching 🙇🏻
@@GinkoHanga My plesure, Love seeing what Mr Bull has made possible for skilled craftsmen such as you and the other carvers and printers.
Amazing work Taran san, this videos are perfect!
Margin Mystery: could it be a scanning error. Every image you have or on BM website or used in their videos is probably from the same scan . Could you ask someone to look at the actual paper and see if the error is there.. The scanning operator may have set an area to scan and some images are in a different position and the reassembly had an error. if it was a simple translate you could see it being trimming but it being a rotate to fix it is strange.
Is that the actual size of the drawing, or was it reduced in scale for the woodblock print? Either way, the fineness of detail is insane!
Same size. So when we talk about cleaning up his brushwork we can let Hokusai off, it’s pretty fine work with a brush. He was kinda good!
Margin mystery…maybe meant to be joined as in a lantern or cylinder?
Interesting idea but the origional intention was most certainly a book. Perhaps a collector later down the line may have tried to use them for another purpose before they were recompiled🤔
It strikes me that while the technical skill of Japanese wood block carving is not lost - it's just hard to learn - the artistic skill of transforming an ink brush painting into a carving does seem to be lost to time. Generations of carvers have been trained in reproduction. The fact that the three carvers involved in this project all have different approaches and are trying to make a best guess from examples in old books means that there is no living tradition telling us how the old carvers would have carved these pictures. This would have been an absolutely central skill for an old carver and here we are kind of taking a stab in the dark...
While this is true, modern carvers don’t have much experience with freshly brushed lines and much of the work are reproductions. I think you have missed a fundamental thing. One of the big goals with this series was to demonstrate the difference with which each carver approaches and interprets lines. This isn’t a failure in our way of doing it. This is how it has always been. Each carver has their own sense and while your average viewer may not be able to look and tell the difference in the carved lines and the choices the carvers made with their knife, those in the know can see clearly the different styles of the carvers. You can see it all over older prints often in many books stories side by side you can see the way two different carvers interpreted the same brush strokes. These are not stabs in the dark these are our personality’s showing in a project designed to give us the freedom to do so. Also to demonstrate the greater role of the carver not just as a simple fleshy CNC but transformative to the final image. And yes it takes an awful lot to learn hahaha
Margin mystery: Maybe Hokusai drew multiple versions on one long sheet of paper and it was cut at the wrong place.
That’s a good suggestion. Quite possibly true but it dosnt explain why it was carefully placed, on the wrong side upside down haha
@@GinkoHanga Imagine Hokusai drawing two version of the same image on a long sheet of paper. Maybe because of he way he works with the brush, he wants the short edge of the paper on one side (it does not matter left or right as long as it is the same side). Then, one of the images will be upside down with respect to the other. If the paper is then not cut cleanly down the middle, there will be an upside down remnant on one side.