Baren Digest               Saturday, 12 July 2003       Volume 24 : Number 2301


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From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:18:39 -0500
Subject: [Baren 22196] Re: Jan's calendar prints.... 


Jan Telfer's calendar prints are here..Nudes and Postcard.....what a treat 
! uhmmm....that sensous smell of fresh oil ink !!!
"Blossoms" is a most delightful sensual image....

Thanks Jan....I will put up a webpage so that bareners can preview the 
incoming prints as received...also one for entering our colophon 
information as you want printed on the calendars....

thanks....Julio Rodriguez (Skokie, Illinois)


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From: "George Jarvis" <gjarvis#k8.dion.ne.jp>
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 01:53:53 +0900
Subject: [Baren 22197] Re:   Baren Digest V24 #2300 

I guess I have to add my two cents to the 'hanga'
terminology discussion.

As  my office is the 'headquarters' of a local printmaker's
organization Aikita Hangajin Kai (Akita Printpeople Association)
I think I can say definitively that 'hanga' means merely printmaking.
Among the membership are/were
lithographers
etchers
both wet and oily woodblock printers
silkscreen
monoprint
and 'gariban' (a kind of manual mimeograph which used to
be used for printing classroom materials in the days before
the personal computer)
and all of them would insist that they were making 'hanga'.

The founder of this organization (now deceased) Masando Itoh
made prints in the traditional Japanese method but until recently
when one of the students of another old-timer here that teaches
traditional methods joined the group there wasn't anyone else
working in completely traditional methods.

As far as moku-hanga is concerned, as Dave said, this word makes
no distinction between oily and watery. As a secondary school
art instructor in a Japanese high school I can tell you that traditional
methods generally don't appear in the standard curriculum.

'sosaku-hanga' literally means original print, but has the historical
meaning
of prints where the drawing, the making of the matrix, and the printing are
all
done by the artist him/herself. Rather than method, it refers I believe to
total artistic control.

To add a little to the confusion, the terminology for end-grain wood
engraving
is 'ko-guchi-moku-han' (I remember being corrected on this point in my
student-teaching days). The  Chinese character for 'wood' being read
'ko' in this case. (Dave, I rechecked the Kojien [the Japanese 'Webster's]
before writing this.) but written exactly as Dave describes.
The same character can be
ki as in kikuzu(the chips we make when we carve)
       or kiura(the heart-side of a plank)
gi as in hangi(the block we actually print from)
ko as in koguchimokuhan and kodachi(a clump of trees)
moku as in mokuhanga and mokume(wood grain)
boku as in bokuto(wooden sword)
and  I have also seen the sai in saizuchi(wooden mallet)also written
with the same character, but this may have been idiosyncratric
like the way Shiko Munakata wrote hanga(board picture) instead of
hanga(print).

a small change of subject:
The above mentioned group has a biannual exhibition in the Akita
Prefectural Art Museum. We/they are talking about exhibiting the prints
of Baren Exchange #14 if no one has any objections.
If this comes off it would occur August 15 thru 19th.

 G Jarvis
Jarvis KOBO -studio workshop
Akita JAPAN 010-0051



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From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:38:31 -0500
Subject: [Baren 22198] Re: more on Paul Jacoulet.... 


Following up on the link to Jacoulet's print...here is some bio info I 
found at the p4a website (www.prices4antiques.com). 

I sure would have liked to have seen Dave pull some prints from those old 
blocks  in KC !!!!

Steve,  do you know how the block(s) came to the museum ? and what may be 
of the other blocks for that print ?
Strange for one single block to be separated like that...

thanks...Julio Rodriguez (Skokie, Illinois)


Edme Marie Eduard Paul Jacoulet
Born on January 23, 1902 in Paris to a French family who moved to Japan in 
1906 where Jacoulet pere taught French at the Imperial University. Paul 
was a self-taught artist, and, in 1929, went on a long trip to the islands 
of the South Pacific. Jacoulet made many sketches and photographs of local 
natives, dressed and posed elegantly. It was this work that he first 
translated into woodblock prints. He felt the contrasts between the 
aristocracy and ordinary people could take traditional Japanese art into 
the 20th century. 

Over the course of his life Jacoulet was able to claim many "firsts". "He 
was the first foreigner to become a master of the ukiyo-e (pictures of the 
floating world of pleasure) art, being worthy to rank with the Japanese 
masters. He was the first ukiyo-e artist to use more than fifty blocks for 
a print; he frequently used from 200 to 300. He was the first artist to 
record the vanishing nobility of Mongolia. He was the first print artist 
to extend the application of ukiyo-e beyond the borders of Japan, for he 
also recorded the "floating world" of the South Seas and mainland Asia. In 
true ukiyo-e fashion, Jacoulet portrayed vanishing customs almost as if he 
foresaw that these modes of living would float away." 

Jacoulet further broke from tradition by publishing his own work to ensure 
its high quality. "(His) prints were not on sale in shops. He evolved a 
system of obtaining monthly subscribers who received a copy of the 'print 
of the month'. (These were) published in series, each distinguished by a 
seal of his design which incorporated the stylized Japanese characters for 
his name in a design of some conventional object." In subsequent decades 
Jacoulet produced 166 completed woodblock prints, including as subjects 
South Sea Islanders, Mongolians, Manchurians, Koreans, Ainu, and Japanese. 


As an artist, Jacoulet's technique was exceptional. "From his many years 
of training in calligraphy, (he) acquired a subtle feeling for brush 
stroke and the nuances of meaning given to different thicknesses' of the 
'living line'. He transfered his skill with a brush into skill with a 
pencil, and thus became the only artist to attempt and to master the 
ability to draw the 'living line' with this instrument. This makes his 
prints unique. No Japanese brush artist can produce this original touch; 
nor can a western artist, lacking years of calligraphic training." In 
addition, few other artists used so many precious metals or innovative 
techniques (embossing, colored micas, waxes, lacquers, powdered 
semi-precious stones) in their artistic works. Using special watermarked 
paper, each of Jacoulet's prints was the result of as many as 300 
pressings. 

As World War II loomed on the horizon, Jacoulet's living circumstances 
became difficult as a foreigner in an economically depressed Japan 
preparing for war. Artistic materials became scarce, his foreign clientele 
returned home and he himself spent the war years in the Japanese rural 
resort of Karuizawa raising vegetables and chickens and selling them on 
the black market. 

Following the war materials were still scarce, making it impossible to 
reprint his earlier works in any quantity, so Jacoulet began to design 
directly for the key block. Plagued by continuing ill health from birth, 
Jacoulet's work consumed all his energy as he also tested new pigments and 
dealt with his increasing popularity. In his mid-fifties Jacoulet's health 
seriously deteriorated and, on March 9, 1960, he died of diabetic shock at 
the age of fifty-eight. 

In his lifetime, Jacoulet produced some thirty thousand woodblock prints 
and several hundred watercolors, most of which were lost. 

p4A.com acknowledges the scholarship of Eldred's cataloger Susan M. 
Craig-Schofield, whose coments are quoted in this note. 




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From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:02:27 -0500
Subject: [Baren 22199] Re: more on Paul Jacoulet.... 


Here is another/different view on Paul Jacoulet 's life....mixed in with a 
review of american artist in Japan..Clifton Karhu.

Karhu and Jacoulet -- Western Artists Working in an Eastern Medium


http://www.cic.sfu.ca/horvat/Jacoulet.html

Julio Rodriguez (Skokie, Illinois)



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From: "gluedtke" <gluedtke#prodigy.net>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:39:13 -0500
Subject: [Baren 22200] Re: more on Paul Jacoulet.... 

Julio,

I'll have to take a cautious exception to one of the 1st's your quote on 
Jacoulet mentions.   The "first" in particular is of extending "Ukiyo-e" 
beyond Japan as a foreigner.   I am wondering if Charles W. Bartlett, 
Fritz Capelari, Noel Nouet, and some others might not have beat him to 
it, as I think they were older, and Bartlett in particular worked with 
Watanabe fairly early in the century, when Jacoulet was still a teenager 
perhaps.

I know almost nothing about Jacoulet however, so dare not stick my neck 
out toooo far.   But, it never stopped me before.........   : )

P.S.  It was great to finally meet you at the summit.

Gary
 

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From: Julio.Rodriguez#walgreens.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 17:15:11 -0500
Subject: [Baren 22201] Re: more on Paul Jacoulet.... 


Gary writes:
"I'll have to take a cautious exception to one of the 1st's your quote on 
Jacoulet mentions.   The "first" in particular is of extending "Ukiyo-e" 
beyond Japan as a foreigner. "

Yes, you are right Gary, that first quote seems to be quite glamorized 
towards the artist....specially that part about 200-300
blocks per print !!! I gather Jacoulet liked to "exxagerate" a bit...the 
second article seems more accurate...

It was indeed very nice meeting up with you in KC, I'll write you off-list 
about your print designs.

Julio


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From: David Bull <davebull#woodblock.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 07:45:06 +0900
Subject: [Baren 22202] Re: Jacoulet article ... 

George wrote:


> ... the terminology for end-grain wood engraving
> is 'ko-guchi-moku-han' (I remember being corrected on this point in my
> student-teaching days).


Yes George, thanks for the correction. When I said 'ki-guchi' I guess 
you could tell right away that I've never actually made any prints that 
way!

Julio sent interesting information about Paul Jacoulet, including this 
line:

> In his lifetime, Jacoulet produced some thirty thousand woodblock prints


In case any of you are feeling a bit depressed because you don't know 
how you could ever make that many prints, please remember that Jacoulet 
never in his life used a knife or a baren. He hired professionals (the 
_best_ professionals, incidentally) to make the prints for him. This is 
_not_ mentioned anywhere in that article, which leaves the impression 
that Jacoulet designed, cut, printed and published everything.

Do my biases show?   :-)

Dave


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From: Chromoxylo#aol.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 23:29:08 EDT
Subject: [Baren 22203] Re: conditioning japanese brushes 



Before McClain's carried Dragon Skin I went down to the local exotic fish 
market and begged them for a shark skin (they just throw them away). Scraped off 
the fat with the side of a knife and used Borax powder to dry the oils and 
season the skin. When fairly cured I tacked it to a board so it wouldn't roll up 
and get hard in that position. The only down side was the incredibly fishy 
smell that lasted for months - I had to leave it outside. Years later, on a 
particularly hot and humid day I could still smell the critter. Works great and 
will last a lifetime.

Paul Ritscher 



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End of Baren Digest V24 #2301
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