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- pad of twisted bamboo fibres in a bamboo sheath. The soft, fibrous and absorbent paper was made of mulberry bark, and sometimes the mark of the cutting tool and the grain of the wood left their impression on the prints.
The proofs from the first or key block were given to the artist, who added colour to the design. The engraver then carved additional blocks for each colour, carefully making kento or guide marks (_ J) at the bottom so that the printer could precisely align each block in order to ensure the exact registration of the colours. In some cases, it could require more than twelve blocks to make the final version of a colour print. At first, the colour pigments came from vegetable extracts and minerals, but later techniques employed chemical dyes, which were imported from the West.
Most Japanese artists did not cut their own blocks or do their own printing. The process was a team effort.
The team also included a publisher who was responsible for financing and distribution. An edition would normally run to about 200 copies. The woodblocks were then stored away and would sometimes be used to print additional copies at a later date. Often more copies would be printed after the artist�s death, but these were generally of an inferior quality.
As crafts people, the ukiyo-e artists were neither rich nor socially important. Edo society was rigidly stratified into four main classes: samurai, farmers, craftsmen and merchants. The merchants were considered the lowest class, even though they controlled most of the nation�s wealth. Woodblock artists and crafts�men were usually paid a pittance by their publisher and were therefore worse off financially than the merchants. Because the farmers produced food, they occupied a higher social position than the print artists and the merchants, who were both considered paracitical.
The aristocratic class viewed the work of the print artists as vulgar, cheap and tawdry. The prints were beneath the dignity of a noble or samurai, who would normally own expensive scroll paintings by recognized masters. Since ukiyo-e prints were produced primarily as a way of making money rather than as a form of pure art, they catered largely to the tastes of the wealthy merchants and often depicted the
Les estampes ukiyo-e �taient une denr�e bon march�, produite en s�rie, qui servaient au peuple d�affiches ou de pin-up�surtout les marchands qui les achetaient des vendeurs ambulants ou de petites boutiques en plein air. Elles servaient �galement de calendriers, de souvenirs, de cartes de voeux, et d�affiches.
La technique de la xylographie �tait simple. L�artiste produisait tout d�abord sur papier une esquisse ou un croquis (appel� hanshita-e) en encre noir. Le dessin �tait ensuite coll� sens dessus dessous � une planche de bois de cerisier, sci�e dans le sens de la longueur et rabot�e dans le sens des veines du bois. Parla suite, le graveur champlevait le bois, �tant le superflu autour des traits du dessin. Souvent, les deux c�t�s de la planche �taient taill�es afin d��conomiser sur le bois.
Une fois le relief termin�, l�imprimeur faisait l�encrage et pla�ait un papier mouill� sur le bois de trait. Ensuite, il frottait le papier � la main d�un tampon huil� fait de fibres de bambou tordus, serti dans un fourreau de bambou. Le papier, doux, fibreux et hydrophile, �tait fait de feuilles de m�rier. Parfois les traces du burin et les veines du bois laissaient une impression sur l�estampe.
Les �preuves tir�es du premier bois de trait �taient donn�es � l�artiste, qui ajoutait de la couleur au dessin. Ensuite le graveur taillait des bois suppl�mentaires pour chaque cou�leur, y apposant soigneusement en bas des kento (--i), ou points de rep�re, permettant � l�imprimeur d�aligner pr�cis�ment chaque bois et de s�assurer d�un registre exact des couleurs. Dans certains cas, il fallait peut-�tre plus d�une douzaine de planches pour obtenir la version d�finitive de l�estampe en couleur. Au tout d�but, les pigments des couleurs provenaient d�extraits v�g�taux et de min�raux mais plus tard on s�est mis � utiliser des teintures chimiques import�es de l�Ouest.
La majorit� des artistes japonais ne taillaient pas leurs propres bois et nefaisaient pas leurs propres tirages. La proc�dure �tait un effort d��quipe.
Un �diteur faisait aussi partie de l��quipe; il �tait responsable du financement et de la diffusion. Normalement, la justification du tirage serait d�environ 200 examplaires. Les bois grav�s �taient ensuite rang�s et servaient parfois � faire un tirage d��preuves suppl�-
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