Woodblock reprints are an opportunity to collect and enjoy a famous design at a fraction of the price of an original. 

Artist-  Hiroshige Utagawa – ‘Famous Views of the River’.  Printed in Japan.

In the 20th century artists and publishers collaborated to recreate famous woodblock prints for interested Japanese collectors and Westerners looking for rare designs. New blocks were created and the prints were painstakingly printed by artisan printers using the same method as the 19th century originals, with blocks carved and printed by hand.

 

Japanese woodblock prints, known as ukiyo-e Produced in their many thousands and hugely popular during the Edo period (1615 – 1868), these colourful woodblock prints, known as ukiyo-e, depicted scenes from everyday Japan. Ukiyo-e literally means 'pictures of the floating world'. The 'floating world' referred to the licensed brothel and theatre districts of Japan's major cities during the Edo period. Inhabited by prostitutes and Kabuki actors (Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theatre), these were the playgrounds of the newly wealthy merchant class. Despite their low status in the strict social hierarchy of the time, actors and courtesans became the style icons of their day, and their fashions spread to the general population via inexpensive woodblock prints. The ukiyo-e style was developed in 1765 and remained popular until the closing decades of the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). While only the wealthy could afford paintings by the artists of the day, ukiyo-e prints were enjoyed by a wide audience because they could be produced quite cheaply and in large numbers. The production process The earliest woodblock prints were simple black and white prints taken from a single block. Sometimes they were coloured by hand, but this process was expensive. In the 1740s, additional woodblocks were used to print the colours pink and green, but it wasn't until 1765 that the technique of using multiple colour woodblocks was perfected. The glorious full-colour prints that resulted were known as nishiki-e or 'brocade pictures'.