What is Mokuhanga?
Mokuhanga is the Japanese word for wood block print. The Japanese characters 木版画 are 木 wood, 版 block and 画 picture.
Woodblock printing in Japan (木版画, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868), it is very different from Western style woodcut that uses oil-based inks.. The Japanese water-based inks provide a wide range of vivid colors, glazes, and transparency.
A print is created through design, carving blocks for each colour, then printing each colour successively until the print edition is completed.
Mokuhanga is chemical free, with only non-toxic. I use japanese traditional hand tools, handmade washi (japanese paper), and equipment requires little space to produce beautiful work. The natural beauty of the materials - wood, pigment and hand-made paper are all retained and enhance each other.