The following is reprinted with permission from  Printmaking Today
©1998 Farrand Press:

Moku Hanga: Traditional Japanese Waterbase Woodcut Technique
Some Key Points from Personal Experience
by April Vollmer

My art concerns the similarities in shape and pattern between plant, animal and landscape. I have a special interest in printmaking, woodcut in particular. A few years ago, inspired by Hokusai, Utamaro and especially the beautiful nature prints of Hiroshige, I decided to learn hanga. Hanga is the Japanese technique of printing blocks with waterbase color. Hanga translates as graphics; moku means wood.

Because of the years I'd already spent making etchings and oil-base woodcuts, I was amazed at how much trouble I had printing my blocks. I struggled for long time before I found someone who could teach me what I needed to know, the artist Bill Paden, who had learned hanga while he lived in Japan. Successful printing requires a whole new approach: an understanding of traditional Japanese methods, including the use of special tools, careful preparation and lots of practice. In the process, I became convinced that hanga is the only way I ever want to print woodcut. It repays all the effort because it is so adaptable, and because it provides precise registration and great control over color. As a bonus, it requires no solvents and no press, and can be set up in even the smallest studio.

It was some consolation for me to find out that the Ukiyo-e masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries never cut or printed their own blocks. A publisher coordinated the work of artist, cutter and printer: each craftsman was a specialist. Today many contemporary hanga artists do design, cut and print their own blocks. Still, the technique remains rooted in the use of traditional natural materials: wood, carefully made cutting and printing tools, and washi , the resilient handmade Japanese kozo fiber paper.

WOOD : I use blocks of 3/8" shina plywood, a type of basswood. Shina plywood is readily available. Fine, even-grained and easily cut, it warps very little when wet. Both sides can be cut. Harder woods, like the traditionally used cherry, are more difficult to cut but can stand up to more printing. The blocks should be lightly sanded to remove any stray fibers from the surface before the drawing is transferred.

PLANNING : Images need to include indications for the two kento registration cuts: the kagi, a backward L-shaped cut near the lower right-hand corner of the block, and the hikitsuke, a straight line stop about 2/3 of the way down the longest side of the print, at the bottom of the block. The drawing is transferred to several blocks, and a block is cut for each color. If the color areas are far enough apart, two or more can be cut on the same block. In the traditional method, a key block of black outlines is cut first. Then printed copies of it are glued to each of the color blocks and cut through. However, I often simply transfer tracing paper drawings with carbon paper.

TOOLS and CUTTING : The blocks are cut with sharp steel tools of seven shapes and many sizes: mainly variations of the to knife, the u-gouge and a flat chisel with an arced bevel. These tools are forged from two hardnesses of steel bonded together for sharpness and strength. Hanga tools are especially designed for cutting flat wood in a horizontal position. To make a block that will print clearly, the Japanese cutting method relies on the to for outlining all lines and color areas before clearing away the negative areas with the u-gouge and clearing chisels in sequence.

One specialized tool is the kento-nomi . This is a 15 mm flat wood chisel, used to cut the kento registration notches near the corner and on one side of each block. This accurate registration system makes it easy to print many layers of color.

COLOR : The luminous color of hanga prints is what attracted me to this technique. Hanga is printed in gouache, watercolor and sumi ink. Many of the great Ukiyo-e prints have faded because they were made with fugitive colors. Nowadays it is possible to make color from pure pigments so the permanence, opacity, and tinting strength are known. I like to use saturated color and strong contrasts, and making my own color has made this much easier. (I use a recipe derived from Ralph Mayer.) Color made from water dispersion is much less expensive than gouache or watercolor in tubes. Gouache will generally provide more uniform and opaque color than watercolor because of its calcium carbonate content. However, some colors, such as quinacridones, will show their color better as watercolor.

The color is mixed on the block with a paste for uniform printing. Methyl cellulose has the advantage over traditional rice pastes because it is easy to mix from powder, and it will not mold. It is mixed with water 1:7 so the mixture has a just-pourable consistency. Small brushes are used to transfer color and paste to the block.

BRUSHES : Brushes of dense horsehair are used to brush out the color once it is on the block. Stiff deer hair brushes or other stencil brushes can sometimes be substituted. For large areas the brushes are flat, like a shoe brush; smaller areas require smaller brushes which often have a paddle handle.

Practice is the only way to determine the balance of pigment and paste to put on the block for printing. It depends on the strength of the color, the water content of the paste and the way the block is cut. The important thing is to brush out the mixture evenly over the entire surface of the block so there are no dry spots and no puddles. It is helpful to print a small square of paper to test the color before printing.

WASHI : Japanese handmade paper is an essential part of the hanga print. Not only is it beautiful, but it shows the true color of the pigment. It is strong enough to withstand repeated printing, and when damp it will not expand or contract to ruin your registration. (For proofing, Stonehenge is a useful alternative, but it will change size.) Washi is an important Japanese craft tradition in itself. It is made from kozo fiber, the white inner bark of the paper mulberry tree. Mitsumata and gampi fibers are also sometimes used. It is important to purchase washi made specifically for hanga, as it is designed to be printed on. Washi needs to be sized before printing so it won't stick to the block and so colors will not bleed - it is not sized internally like western papers, but it can be purchased already sized. The paper is dampened, stacked and left overnight between damp blotters so the moisture has time to equalize. (Beware of leaving it too long: it will mold after a few days!)

PRINTING : For printing, the corner of a damp sheet of washi is registered into the kagi kento and the hikitsuke kento at the same time, and the sheet is dropped face down on the surface of the block. Then the baren is vigorously rubbed across the back of the paper to force the color up into the fiber of the paper.

BAREN : The baren is a hand-held printing tool, a disk about five and a half inches in diameter. Its printing surface is a spiral coil made up of twisted thin slivers cut from a bamboo sheath. The coil is fitted into a light, thin backing disk and covered with a sheet of bamboo sheath. After a certain amount of printing the cover must be replaced (see below). Printers generally use several barens, finer ones for small areas and thin lines, and coarser ones to provide more power to print large areas. Cheaper plastic barens, such as the Disc Baren, are useful for smaller color areas and thinner papers. To learn how to replace a baren cover, click here .

EDITIONING : The printing sequence is repeated for each of the colors, adding one color at a time to the entire edition, and stacking the damp paper so the moisture remains evenly distributed. I understand that in Japan the humidity is so high that paper doesn't dry so quickly, but here in New York City, I cover my damp prints with plastic sheets to conserve moisture while printing. The baren prints very fast because of its large number of contact points. It is gratifying how quickly edition printing goes after the lengthy preparation.

NOTE : My source for many of these specialized tools and supplies is McClain's Printmaking Supplies at 1-800-832-4264 (US and Canada only), fax: 503-238-0558, e-mail: McClains@aol.com. They have a very helpful catalogue.

...With special thanks to William Paden for his invaluable technical assistance.