Wood-Block Printing | Page 6

No description can give quite fully the sense of extreme orderliness and
careful deliberation of their work. Everything is placed where it will be
most convenient for use, and this orderliness is preserved throughout
the day's work. Their shapely tools and vessels are handled with a
deftness that shames our clumsy ways, and everything that they use is
kept quite clean. This skilful orderliness is essential to fine
craftmanship, and is a sign of mastery.
The arrangement of tools and vessels on a work-table may be as the
accompanying plan shows:
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Plan of work-table.
A. Block. B. Sheets of damped paper lying on a board. C. Second board
lifted from B. D. Brushes lying on a strip of wood. E. White plate or
dish containing colour. F. Saucer containing paste of rice-flour. G.
Baren, or printing pad, lying on a sheet of paper slightly oiled with
sweet oil and tacked to the table. H. Deep bowl of water and brush for
moistening the damping sheets. I. Saucer of water for use in printing. J.
Sponge.]
When printing on a table arranged in this way the board lying on the
sheets of damped paper at B is first lifted off and placed at C to receive
the sheets as they are done. If the block A is quite dry, it is thoroughly
moistened with a damp sponge and wiped. The colour from a saucer, E,
is then brushed over the printing surface thinly, and a trace of paste
taken from F is also brushed into the colour. (This is best done after the
colour is roughly spread on the block.) The brush is laid down in its
place, D, and the top sheet of paper from the pile is immediately lifted
to its register marks (notches to keep the paper in its place) on the block.
The manner of holding the paper is shown on page 70. This must be
done deftly, and it is important to waste no time, as the colour would

soon dry on the exposed block and print badly.
Pressure is then applied to the back of the paper as it lies on the wet
block. This is done by a round pad called the baren by the Japanese. It
is made of a coil of cord covered by bamboo sheath as shown later on
page 62. The pad is rubbed by hand with considerable pressure, moving
transversely forwards and backwards across the block, working from
the left to the right. Once all over the block should be enough. The
paper is then lifted off and laid face upwards on the board at C. The
block is then re-charged with colour for another impression, and the
whole operation repeated as many times as there are sheets to be
printed.
[Illustration: Plate III. The Baren, or printing pad.
(The pad is actually 5 inches in diameter.)
(To face page 12.)]
When this is done all the sheets will have received a single impression,
which may be either a patch of colour or an impression in line of part of
the design of the print. The block A is then removed, cleaned, and put
away; and the block for the second impression put in its place.
It is usual to print the line or key-block of a design first, as one is then
able to detect faulty registering or imperfect fitting of the blocks and to
correct them at once. But there are cases in which a gradated tone, such
as a sky, may need to be printed before the line block.
The complete design of a print may require several blocks for colour as
well as the key block which prints the line. The impressions from all
these blocks may be printed one after another without waiting for the
colour on the paper to dry.
As soon as the batch of damped sheets has been passed over the first
block, the sheets are replaced at B between boards, and, if necessary,
damped again by means of damping sheets (as described later in
Chapter V) ready for the next impression, which may be proceeded

with at once without fear of the colour running. It is a remarkable fact
that patches of wet colour which touch one another do not run if
properly printed.
For the second printing fresh colour is prepared and clean paste, and the
printing proceeds as already described, care being taken to watch the
proper registering or fitting of each impression to its place in the
design.
There are many niceties and details to be observed in the printing of
both line and colour blocks. These are given in special chapters
following. This description of the main action of printing will be of use
in giving a general idea of the final operation before the details