Key words
woodcut; Japan; snow
Questions to ask
Look at all the different colours in the print. How do you think this image was made?
There is a very realistic sense of depth in this image. How do you think that this has been achieved?
The artist created images that were both real and imaginary. What is it about his images that give a sense of another world?
How this might inspire your work?
Make a lino print of a fantasy landscape using multiple colours. Lino printing will give a similar effect to woodcut, the technique used by Hiroshige.
Hiroshige drew upon his own travels and the adventures of others to give inspiration in creating his landscapes. Think of a place you’d like to visit. Create a simple drawing of your fantasy landscape using different colours, and transfer this image onto a lino block. Choose your first colour, and use lino cutters to cut away the areas around your design, bearing in mind that the un-carved areas will be the ones to get printed
After your first print, clean and dry the lino block. Carve another section of the lino block, and ink up with your next different colour. The section that has been carved will not be printed for the subsequent colour. The process continues until all of the colours have been printed.
Snow at Shiba Akabane, between 1833-1843, woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).
This woodblock print shows a snow scene in dramatic perspective looking down a deep-cut canal to an arched bridge in the middle distance. A red pagoda nestles in the wooded hills to the left, and buildings line the canal.
This print is an example of Ukiyo-e which translates to mean' floating world', the main genre of woodcut printing in Japan. This genre offers images of an impermanent world of fleeting beauty, where pleasure and entertainment are the focal point, and life’s more mundane considerations do not exist.
Utagawa Hiroshige is one of the most well-known Japanese ukiyo-e artists, perhaps in part due to his popularity with many European artists in the late nineteenth century.
There are these inscriptions on the exhibit:
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery collection, bequest of Emily and Gordon Bottomley 1949
Image © Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
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