Bokashi Jig

hiroshige
Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge, Hiroshige, 1857

I’ve always wanted to to an irregular bokashi or gradation (yes, my desires are irregular).

The classic example of such a thing is Hiroshige’s Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi. The problem with irregularity is consistency of ink application within an edition.

shimoi2
Shimoi-san dabs sumi with a tokibo at just the right places. Photo courtesy of Yuya Shimoi.

Last week, Shimoi-san of Ukiyo-e Reproductions showed how he recreated the dark rain clouds while he was printing “Sudden Shower”. I asked him if he used a jig and he said “no, jigs didn’t work as well” and posted a few pics showing his technique of directly inking which is probably the traditional way to do it. However, I’m not good enough to trust myself with placing the pigment, brushing, and printing consistently.

shimoi1
This is a photo from Shimoi-san of the irregular bokashi effect. Nice job! Photo courtesy of Yuya Shimoi.

Getting jiggy

I had remembered David Bull using a jig in 2009 to create a very smooth bokashi arc for a fan print he was working on. He used a Lazy Susan to help with the brushing- I thought that was pretty ingenious.

jigWoodblockCom2
Dave Bull’s curved bokashi jig. Photo courtesy of woodblock.com.

I cannot imagine how someone in the Edo period could brush freehand that cleanly and I’m sure there was another trick at the time. Anyway, Dave’s print really looked nice and I squirreled that information away.

jigWoodblockCom3
The resulting impression of using Dave’s curved bokashi jig. Photo courtesy of woodblock.com.

My jig

I am printing a third print of a series of 14 (much more on that much later) and wanted to capture a rainstorm in the mountains.

roan1.jpg

You can see the similar effect as in Sudden Shower that I am looking for: A dark, foreboding cloud just as the rain has started, but not as undulating as Hiroshige’s design.

For this print, I am using 11 blocks with 17 impressions in the shin-hanga style. The rain, incidentally, is printed with gofun, or Chinese white. The rain is my first attempt of Kyoto-style printing: Unlike the Tokyo/Edo ukiyo-e transparent style (like the rest of the print), opaque pigments require more pigment- under very light baren pressure. In this case, it’s the last thing to print.

I’m at the proofing process and wanted to get everything ‘just so’ for a much larger edition. I know how gradations tend to ‘creep’ over time- a little or too much there cumulatively can lead to a little or a lot too much there. So, to that end, any fluctuations in the bokashi would render the edition too variable and I wanted some help.

I remembered Dave’s jig and made one of my own, albeit not as clever.

Here’s a few pics:

0P0A0480
The jig- basically, 3 pieces of wood with an “L” shape on the left to fit around the block’s corner.
0P0A0483
Here’s the backside of the jig.
0P0A0479
The jig in action- the idea is for the hanga bake (printing brush) moves along the jig’s irregular contour. I normally would use my left hand to held it in place, but I needed it to take the pic.

Given using the zokin, nori, and hanga bake correctly (note in the above photo, the black dot indicating which side of the brush is loaded with sumi), the jig worked well- I had to keep the brush at a consistent angle, but overall, I’m quite pleased with the relative consistency!

roan-proofing.jpg
18 proof prints- now on the next design!

Thanks to both Yuya Shimoi and David Bull.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.