By What Name Do the Japanese Refer to the Art of Woodblock Printing?
Posted past Dave Balderdash at vii:xiv AM, October 11, 2010 [Permalink]
For the benefit of those who didn't get a chance to watch the recent NHK program on my work in the Japanophiles series, I'yard putting a version of it here on the RoundTable.
Please employ the comments below to let me know what yous recollect about it!
It'south marvelous. I'k very impressed. You lot manage to get so much information and and then much of your wonderful story compressed into a very brief fourth dimension. You look good and audio expert and the script and pace and scenes are so inviting and delightful. It'south a wonderful job and I promise it has a very wide viewing.
I think it is quite the best kind of marketing tool for your work, at least in this country. I'm very excited about this clip and its potential for y'all. (I loved the closing segment about the fine knife you were given and which you hope to be able to use someday. What a lovely sensibility that seems to me and y'all communicated it so gracefully. Maybe y'all are more than virtually set up than yous think.)
I've already sent the link to shut friends and am constructing a list of others who will appreciate it. I retrieve it is just what people need to meet to be motivated to detect out about your work.
I tin't cheers plenty for posting the link. I shall sentry it myself several more times. Truly it is splendid and exceedingly well done. Congratulations!
Very nicely done!
Hello David,
I live in Los Angeles and only saw the circulate of the episode which featured you and your work. Simply wanted to say that your work is really thou and an inspiration. I simply constitute your site and will spend some fourth dimension looking through what you take posted. If I was able to purchase whatsoever of your pieces, would you be able to ship to the U.S.?
Give thanks you for sharing your dedication with me.
Scott
It looks like this folio might be the place to collect 'feedback' on the programme, so I'll paste in here a few of the comments that I received today since the broadcast ...
I just finished watching the broadcast here in Seattle - it's about 10:40 pm Pacific - and found it extremely interesting. I've been and then pleased with the print set I purchased from you, and your skill is obvious in the piece of work I have. Now, I've had a risk to see the enthusiasm y'all bring to information technology, and it makes having the prints an fifty-fifty greater pleasure. I especially enjoyed meeting your first patrons, the bakers!
I take just been amazed and inspired by a documentary nigh your work that I saw on NHK.
I've only watched that documentary on Northward.H.K about y'all and your woodblock printing and carving. Corking!! Yous meet equally a very talented homo, obviously, only at the aforementioned time very humble and modest in your mental attitude. I really enjoyed watching it and enjoyed your explanations on the various aspects of the work. Congratulations on your success and all the best for the futurity.
I just watched the NHK program. I am surprised to find myself feeling actually inspired. You did a wonderful job expressing what it's all about. All I tin can say is, thank you. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for perpetuating the magic of mokuhanga.
A peachy show on NHK! Congratulations on the testify, and I sincerely promise that it generates a ton of new subscribers...we all desire you to work hard(er) and so that you can utilize those special tools!
Wow! The program is so good! It is so full. I learned a lot nigh woodblock printmaking. I like to hear your talk considering your talk lets us know you really love woodblock prints.
I have ever been an (rather novice) admirer of woodblock prints. But my appreciation for the art form grew meaningfully upon watching your interview and your description of the process and techniques involved.
I have to say, the programme section was barely over when I dashed upstairs to my computer. Your piece of work is beautiful and We absolutely will get regular customers!
Your craftsmanship and desire to perpetuate the talents preceding you, I notice noble. And I beloved your bakery store patrons. Down to earth and refreshing!
I idea everything went together well - with good interaction between you and Peter (Barakan) throughout the show. I was glad you were allowed to go into greater detail near your original inspiration for making prints; your struggles and triumphs throughout the years; and your vision for the future. I really enjoyed the time spent in the bakery (which nosotros hear and so much about) to finally run into those wonderful friends of yours. Very fun people!
Thanks everybody!
Very informative. I liked your explanation of the importance of "lite", very true but very rarely thought about.
David, The program was extraordinarily moving. You managed to cover a huge corporeality of cloth and withal to imbue the presentation with an intimate spirit.
Your enthusiasm, your deep respect for the practitioners of Japanese woodblock through the centuries, your dear of the tools and the newspaper, your quest for "the calorie-free" -- all of this came shining through so beautifully in this programme. Congratulations! I hope that the programme introduces many more people to your work. And I hope you won't listen if I link to this post from my blog. Cheers for posting it here.
-Annie
Congratulations! Your love of the medium actually shines through this program - very overnice to exist left with the prototype of the delicate knife you were bequeathed. Only one thought re the interview -I'yard wondering why they didn't talk well-nigh the number of blocks needed to produce one of the prints?
What an absolutely wonderful insight into your life and work. I tin can honestly say that later watching this I believe that whatever fine art or craft field one works in, this programme is an inspiration. I too believe that to a community of hanga printmakers you lot proceed to be that fount of inspiration, and while we all vary and arrange the system equally we want, we tin can also turn to you lot and learn the 'right' fashion to do things, should nosotros wish...give thanks you lot.
Dave - NHK did a TERRIFIC job . . . I watched information technology on the internet twice yesterday. The only style it could have been better is if it was an hour longer. Or two. I know you could have shown much more work, spoken at length on the history of Japanese woodcut art and technique, and entertained and enlightened us even more than you did. Bravo. Twice.
Please don't hang upward the ol' knives when NHK comes calling to offer you a job in dissemination.
Hi Dave,
Just a quick mail to allow you know that I thought the Japanophiles programme worked really well. I'g sure that they could brand another evidence with all the stuff that landed on the editing room floor. Yous did manage to capture the moment of revelation, through Peter, of viewing the prints in the correct lite during the studio room prepare sequence, a moment of real enlightenment for the presenter, and the prune you really need to capitalise on in other pages on your site, and on YouTube, Vimeo etc.
Your comments most fine art for ordinary people actually struck a chord, especially in calorie-free of our contempo conversations.
Congratulations on a great bear witness.
Marker. UK.
PS: I wish they'd come to me for the championship sequence though, I'd have done a much better chore!
[Dave's edit: Hither is what Mark means ...] 
What a tremendous bound of organized religion for you and your family to movement to Japan in the first identify, with no security of employment, in the hope that you could learn and practice woodblock printing. Information technology'southward a great story and to echo others, very inspirational. Thank you.
I really enjoyed this show. It was great seeing people such as your first subscribers in motion and speaking so highly of you. Also, it was great seeing the host'due south moment of clarity in realizing that at that place was a corking deal more to the images he held than he first thought. The portion at the stop with the story of the pocketknife was truly wonderful, probably my favorite part.
This show reminds me of an out of print National Geographic special called, "The Living Treasures of Japan." Information technology was filmed in the 80s and showcases people like yourself that accept dedicated their lives to ane unproblematic artistic focus. If y'all have not seen it and it is somehow available, I highly recommend information technology.
Cheers for showing this and for sharing all your piece of work.
Very inspiring! And interesting, I learned a lot. Thanks for posting the link.
Hello, David!
I was able to lookout man this yesterday. Thanks so much! You are truly an inspiration. I am currently a freelance fine fine art photographer and though I have studied a bit of photography when I was in the university, it has been just a few years back that I accept gotten into this hobby seriously and I accept been able to sell my prints from time to fourth dimension. It'south not that often that I get to sell my prints, and everytime I get to sell it, the artist in me feels alive and it encourages me more to go along my arts and crafts. Learning more near you and your unceasing passion for your craft is something that I volition hold on to as I continue my journeying equally an artist. Thanks so much! And all the all-time to yous. I hope I'll exist able to buy one some of your works anytime. They are beyond words. :)
But wonderful! Go along the light shining as it does hither, and we volition never lack for beautiful moku hanga. Thanks one more fourth dimension, David.
Bill
I am a cocky taught miliner originally from Hawaii.The joy that exudes from you brought tears to my optics. I accept experienced knocking on the door of a known miliner in L.A. and humbling telling her that I knew there was a correct way to terminate a cocktail hat and would she teach me how. She saw the creativity in my work and immune me to sit in on her class. The only regret....not having your convictions and fortitude to pursue the desire to the fullest.
Your work is magnificent and yes, I agree each succeeding piece reflects the progression of one'due south life. Everytime y'all create something, a part of your soul becomes part of it. Thank you lot for your ability to express in words what many artists experience but can only express through their work.
I'm so glad you posted this to the RoundTable! I had to work concluding Dominicus, and was sad I'd missed information technology.
Excellent show. I hope it brings you many new subscribers!
brings you lot many new subscribers ...
Well, a full calendar week has passed, so perhaps information technology's time for an update on that.
Existence on TV is not a new experience for me, as a perusal of the Woodblock Shimbun pages will show. The starting time few times I was featured (more often than not on news programs back at the beginning) I was really expecting information technology to make a big difference in the 'concern' aspect of my piece of work - yous know, orders!
Information technology did no such affair.
And I mean 'no' such affair; I soon learned that TV exposure meant zip in particular, across an increased profile in my community. People would mention now and then that they had seen a program, but it never resulted in orders. I gauge people meet so much stuff on Tv set that it just flows by ... and is gone.
So when NHK approached me nigh this program, I accustomed - because it did sound like a fun thing to do - but I had no illusions that it would help add together to the subscriber base.
I was wrong. This time has been different.
Every bit I write, there are ten confirmed new subscribers, and a few more people expressing interest. What's the deviation this time? Well, being broadcast globally just might have something to do with it!
But I think over and higher up that it is that the audience for this one was pre-selected. The only people watching this program were those who take an interest in Nihon and Japanese culture - they were already half-way at that place. All NHK had to do was 'push them over' ... 
Thanks very much to these new 'members' of the family unit, and I promise that you enjoy beingness part of this Mystique series! (And very much thanks to NHK and the programme producers, who did a good job of organizing my sometimes cluttered program ideas ...)
Every bit one of your 10 new subscribers, I recall that I must have established some sort of new record. From watching the NHK program last Dominicus, in simply half-dozen days I am now the delighted possessor of the commencement six of my Mystique prints, together with their handsome storage/display box. This has pride of place in my office.
I must say that I was most impressed, not just by the prints themselves, but by the whole presentation, from the informative notes, to the meticulous way in which information technology was all packaged.
Many cheers, and I will look forrad even more to completing the set.
You lot are correct in saying that I was primed to respond to the programme. My son has married a Japanese girl, and 2 years ago my wife and I visited Nippon for the beginning time to attend their wedding. I already had a nascent interest in Japanese art, but did not have the opportunity at that time to seek out some accurate items.
Thanks once again, and keep up this unique work!
Wow, that was fast! I certainly wouldn't have e'er promised that you lot would have the bundle that quickly - from here to England (and through Customs!) in just a couple of days.
And glad to hear that you similar them!
Cheers for showing the program, David.
Your beloved of the craft and power to share your knowledge is a not bad lesson to us all.
I am a apprehensive oil based print maker who uses a wooden spoon to print and watercolour to colour my prints. I respect your dedication and skill to your craft.
David
I was not able to watch the original broadcast but had time today to enjoy your efforts.
Your desire to motility forrad was very apparent when I first found your site and started to read all that you had posted. I have been collecting prints for many years- one here, one at that place. Over time my walls have shrunk so that I must at present focus on smaller items(if you recollect where is my print). Y'all take provided a new way to enjoy this anile craft.
I am always explaining how these come about and find many people who question all that is required to produce a finished product. Even some of my Bonsai friends dorsum away(they forget all the years in our trees).
Please continue on, I volition for ever be a client for your works.
Thanks
Ken Morgan
Bravo David. I hope you can use that knife anytime before long. -- PB
This is my favourite kind of story.
When my wife noticed I had watched this particular documentary for nigh the 4th/fifth time she very kindly ordered me 'The Mystique of the Japanese Print'. They're simply fantastic!
I just finished watching this wonderful program. I volition effort to continue my comments short, to do otherwise would not exist benign. I must say it was the "Perfect" testify about David and his personal journey. The show left me wanting to see more than. Hopefully at some point there will be more. I wish the very all-time for David. God bless!
Phil Bivins
Southern Pines, North Carolina USA
Wow, what a wonderful fashion to learn about woodblock prints, and your passion and talent for creating such beautiful pieces of art. I previously had almost no cognition of woodblock prints, other than a general interest in Japanese art and civilisation (my dad sent me the link to this page), but your programme has enabled me to begin to understand the skill involved and further capeesh a fascinating and stunningly beautiful art class.
Thank you for a really enjoyable and accessible plan. I will be sure to look out for your work in the future.
Manchester, Uk.
Hi David Bull,
I came across your website most 2 yrs ago and am abosolutely impressed by your work and the informative content/beauty of your website. Like you, I fell in honey with Japanese woodblock prints when I was visiting Japan many years ago and happened to chance upon them in a bookshop selling postcards of famous woodblock print masters. After seeing your website, it confirmed my thesis topic for my master prog in Art History that I'm currently doing. I volition be writing a thesis on Sosaku Hanga when my academic year begins once again next January & thought I'll arrive bear on with you lot for exchange of some ideas since y'all are one of the best persons to do so, having lived in Nihon for so long and working directly on those wonderful prints in the Japanese way. I hope you don't heed this substitution of ideas, despite your busy schedule. I believe I take much to learn from you lot. Can I start by request two questions: When both Hokusai and Hiroshige were apprenticed at the Kawakita and Utagawa schools respectively, did they learn to carve prints equally well or were they concentrating on just producing the sketch for the prints, like artists who provided the motion picture for the specialized carvers & printers? Also, how did the ukiyo-e artists esp Hokusai and Hiroshige influenced the Impressioninsts in their use of colors? Did the fact that the Impressionists like Monet'due south and Degas' use of complementary colors stem from the ukiyo-eastward? Thanks and then much in advance for your reply.
Hello David,
I am really impressed by your work and I wish you and your family all the best. I just start a web that tries to promote original print artists and painters and the documentary gave inspiration and energy to keep on going. You lot gave me some important hints how to await at the prints. Thank you for all.
Pavel
just passed this film on to my friend, Don Wentworth, who does Issa'southward Untidy Hut and about iii times a week does a post which includes a wooden block print...
http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/2013/07/waka-of-meiji-era-empress-dowager.html
my friend moved to Kyoto in the 1950's (Cid Corman) and frequently has sent me post cards with prints on them. I guess repros fabricated in Osaka ?
many friend at present or take lived/moved to Japan (and married Japanese women)...
all poets and what struck me well-nigh your work is the attitude / process.... same equally with this arts and crafts of writing poems .... 1 stroke
at a time.... ane word at a time....
you lot know Yanagi's : The Unknown Craftsman ?
thanks, Ed
I am learning how to do forest cut and Japanese method.How should I begin?
crawfordwaskepter.blogspot.com
Source: http://woodblock.com/roundtable/archives/2010/10/watch_the_nhk_program_here.html
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