
Yoshitoshi's 'Hazy Night Moon' (Kumasa) detail
Hello,
I love Yoshitoshi's 'Hazy Night Moon' (Kumasa) design from his 'One Hundred Aspects of the Moon' series. I do truly love it since the first time my eyes lay upon it.
As this one was the print that introduced me into mokuhanga, I've always wanted to carve it. I finally was able to create a proper hanshita so I decided to give it a try. But, because of the size (oban) and the high prices of both paper and woodblocks, I thought of making a "try" at first. So, I pick up a region of the design and carved it 1:1 on my half-koban paper size.
This composition (which has less colors than the full-size) consists in the following colors shorted by blocks (a pair of hanshita for each block as they are half the woodblock size):
- Keyblock <-> Green (keyblock 2)
- Background <-> Nunomezuri (cloth printing)
- Yellow <-> Kazaruzi (embossing)
- Skin 1 + Skin 3 <-> Skin 2 + Skin 4
- Blue <-> Red
- Tan + Orange <-> Violet
- Light blue <-> Shomenzuri (front printing)
Nunomezuri parts are the background, the robe at neck and the belt.
Kazaruri parts are the handgrip of the sword.
Shomenzuri parts are the eyes, the scabbard and the geometric tan-colored pattern of the robe (which I'm still deciphering).
So, the print would be 5 blocks (1 woodblock for keyblocks and 2 two-faces woodblocks for the other colors)
I've some issues while carving but the result is OK (not perfect, but OK). The sumi-e paper I used in my injection printer bleed a bit so the lines ended wider. I tried using the hanshita-shi but the bleeding was even worst. Next time I'll go to a print-shop to print it with a laser printer.
Also, as I complained before, the sumi-shi kept in the way of the hangito thus making truly painful to follow the fine lines. The worst part was, obviously, the most delicate: the facial hair. I had to clean up the block and to carve what I could by comparison on the fly... Of course, when I get enough money to buy all the items I would need to do this print (bigger brushes, a "medium"-force baren, oban size woodblocks, a paper better for making the hanshita-e, proper sized hosho, proper pigments, etc.), I would try reproduce all the lines as perfect as I can, and with a laser printed hanshita-e.
Now, to the meat.
This is a composition of the keyblock just before removing the hanshita-shi and the test print after cleaning up the block. I didn't use the inked woodblock because I wasn't able to photo it...
