This is a continuation of the first entry introducing this print
Below are the individual impressions for the shin hanga print “Flower Street After the Rain” or “Kagurazaka Dori” by Hiroshi Yoshida, 1929. I hope it’s not too much of an esoteric subject, but hey, I’m a geek about this stuff.
For my (and others’) sake, I have added some of the artist’s hand-written notes along with some of my own about what I believe each impression’s technical considerations were and how it was designed by the artist.
Folks that are not familiar with overlapping colors may be surprised with how much stronger the impressions on the left sides (no.’s with A) appear in context with how they appear in the cumulative print on the right. This can be explained in two ways: (1) the perception of value contrast as the solitary colors are surrounded by blank paper and (2) often colors on top of others are not absorbed into previously printed colors- especially if the paper is damp which creates somewhat of a resistance. Often the newly-printed colors merely appear to tint the previous colors rather than darken them.

I’ve heard that if a woodblock design or printing wasn’t going that well, a publisher would decide make it into a night scene. In this print, however, it’s clear to me that this design is all about featuring a night-time luminosity of reflections and glowing interiors.
Since I did not take these images, there may be a lot of variation in lighting value and temperature. I believe I remembered the individual color sheets to be of a lesser quality paper that has become darker that the washi used for the cumulative impressions- this makes sense cost-wise and registration is not an issue. Either way, thank you again Florida State University’s Art Collection!



































Once again, here is an the animation from the first entry:
This is some incredibly wonderful educational material. How come I didn’t encounter your blog before. Thank you so much!