These classes help stimulate and inspire our UCSC undergraduate art major students to prepare their artistic careers and expand their possibilities for study opportunities internationally. Through various class activities, excursions, and cultural visits students were exposed to diverse and multi-regional art practices that broadened their perspectives and increased their understanding not only in the field of print media but in the larger contemporary visual culture. Classes included field trips to local museums and galleries, hands-on workshops at a traditional paper mill (washi) in Tokyo, and interactions with local visiting artists, master printmakers and other Japanese students. Many Western printmaking methods involve complex printing presses, oil-based inks, and toxic solvents. This method deeply influenced some late 19th-century Post-Impressionist artists, such as Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet.Īt Tokyo National University of the Arts, students studied the treasured historical skills and tools of Moku Hanga with greater understanding and appreciation. Description Moku Hanga, meaning wood print, is a simple, centuries-old Japanese technique employing water-based ink, basic carving and rubbing tools, beautiful Japanese paper, and fine-grained wood. While in the Western tradition, oil-based ink is applied with a roller and printed onto the papers surface, often with the help of a press, in the Japanese tradition water-based ink is applied with a brush and, while being printed by hand, is pressed deeply into the absorbent Japanese paper.
![moku hanga workshop moku hanga workshop](https://mlyon.com/wp-content/gallery/ccp-2006-workshop/2006_03_a_frisch_5.jpg)
![moku hanga workshop moku hanga workshop](https://zwarte-inkt.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/mokuhanga-geel-en-blauw.jpg)
![moku hanga workshop moku hanga workshop](https://66.media.tumblr.com/50213d7bc280870a91e7349e25557b20/tumblr_nw6kqzStzz1qk3u9lo1_1280.jpg)
In Summer 2018 Professor Jimin Lee took a group of UCSC Art students to Japan to learn Japanese woodblock printmaking “Moku Hanga” known as the “Ukiyo-e technique” widely studied by artists today.