I Think In Ink

I love to draw & paint with #ink! That is not news to regular readers, since this is the fourth article I’ve written on the subject. Lots of different inks are great for lots of different types of art, but my absolute favorite ink is sumi. Again, this is not news to many people, since this is the third article I’ve written about traditional Japanese ink. To find those earlier articles, click #ink. Now, I get to talk about several types of sumi art that I have not had a chance to try (yet!)

Sumizuri-e

Sumizuri-e means ink printed painting. It is a form of woodblock printing using sumi which dates back at least to the 700s. That means it is one of the earliest forms of Japanese printing. The stamp design is painted, then carved from a block of cherry wood. The stamp block is then inked. A sheet of paper is carefully laid atop the inked stamp & pressed with a tool called a baren to transfer the image. Creating this art was a group effort- an artist designed the stamp, a woodcarver created it, & a printer inked the stamp & made the prints. This art style has remained popular for over a millennium, & it is easy to see why. Sumizuri is a minimalist, monochromatic art style that produces strikingly beautiful pieces. Sometimes a stamp is still being used for prints hundreds of years after being carved, as with this piece that was carved in 1698, but printed around 1915.

Woodblock prints with color use a wide range of techniques. Some are relatively simple, such as painting the individual prints with watercolors or colored ink after the sumi dries. Some methods are more complex & are, essentially, early versions of modern color block printing. The Great Wave off Kanagawa, possibly the most famous piece of Japanese art in existence, is an example of this.

Gyotaku

Now we get into the meat of the subject! I do not apologize for that pun! Gyotaku is a portmanteau of gyo, or fish & taku, or stone impression. It is fish printing! Making actual fish into ink stamps! Now people will have to believe you caught a fish “this big”, because you can literally unroll a scroll & show them an impression of the fish in question! I’m not joking- these prints are hung in tackle shops for that exact reason. This method is used for other forms of marine life as well, but fish prints were the majority of what I found by far. Fish stamps render beautiful amounts of detail. I had expected just a black fish shape when I first read about them, almost a silhouette, but that is not the case! Look at this print, for example. Aren’t the scales gorgeous? In the most basic form of gyotaku, the print is left black & white, with the eyes painted in after the print dries. This is the form most often used to keep records by people who fish. Other forms get more artsy. Some add colored ink directly to the fish, while others print in sumi & then add color after. Many places online claim you can still eat the fish after printing if you use plain sumi. Some fishing services that offer sumi prints will filet your fish while taking care to keep one side intact. They then lay the intact side over a basket or some other type of frame so that the fish holds its proper shape while printing, but the rest of the meat doesn’t touch ink. My sumi ink does not indicate it is food-safe anywhere on the packaging, & let me just remind you that the main ingredient is soot, so let the buyer beware!

Oh No, I Did It Again

Say it with me now; “Karin got distracted geeking out about art & now she needs at least one more week to finish talking about the subject at hand.” Woah, you all managed to say that in perfect unison. It was impressive, & a bit creepy. Well done! Have you tried any of these kinds of sumi art? Will you? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

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