Japanese woodblock prints, 1780–1850. A past exhibition.

Pictures for everyone

In Edo a woodblock print cost about as much as a bowl of noodles. Publishers commissioned drawings, cutters carried them into cherry wood, and printers pulled hundreds of sheets, one colour at a time. Merchants bought them, and actors, travellers and children.

Three hands on one sheet

Beside the prints we showed the tools: knives, a baren for rubbing the paper and one cut block, lent by a printmaker who still works the same way.