Every segment is one complete Edo-period woodblock print: warm washi inside a thick and thin ink border, flat colour blocks printed slightly out of register with woodgrain, baren rubbing and tiny specks, the black key line on top; hand-wiped bokashi skies and water, long mist bands, flat-topped pines and small flat figures. The key block prints first, each colour block lands and snaps into register, rain or snow steps at 12 frames a second, and a title cartouche drops in as a red seal is stamped. Made for landscapes and seasons, journeys and places, festivals and traditional tales.
Use this styleTell us the place or scene for each section (mountains, sea, a bridge, a pagoda, a street, the season and weather), any figures or objects in it, and the title and series name for the cartouche. You may choose the film's main colours (Prussian blue, autumn, night) and the word on the seal. Everything is printed in code, so no photos are needed.
A winter night print is pulled block by block: the key line draws a five-storey pagoda, pines, a stone lantern and far mountains, then the night blue, the pine green and the pagoda's vermilion land in register. Snow begins to fall, a traveller in a straw hat and cape walks past the lantern leaving footprints, the lantern flickers, and a cartouche reading Snow at the Pagoda drops in beside a red seal.
Ukiyo-e · 16:9 · 10.0s