--- Go to the Opening Page of the woodblock.com web site ---

Here is a little gallery of closeup views from prints that I own, and which I would like to be able to reproduce one day. I'm certainly nowhere near it yet ...

The first image is a clip from a Meiji-era kuchi-e print. All the entangled criss-crossing hairs are carved (and printed!) from a single block.

These kuchi-e prints (there were thousands of them produced for use as inserts in Meiji period magazines) sell in Tokyo bookshops for prices far far less than ukiyo-e prints. But they are no less masterfully made ...

Here's another portion of one I showed a few pages back. Click to get the close-up and marvel at the beauty of those carved lines!

This next one is a very old original surimono that I own. The dealer claimed it was a Hokusai, but I think he should more honestly have said 'Hokusai school'. It dates from 1798. Somewhere down the years it caught a splash of soy sauce! When you click to get the close-up, the black line you see across the surface of the image is a hair I placed on the bed of the scanner ...

Got time for a couple more? ...