Blast from the Past - Episode #1

The footage used in this video was taken in the workshops of the Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints, in the Mejiro area of Tokyo, sometime in the late 1950s. It features five people:
Adachi Toyohisa, founder of the organization
Adachi Isamu, his successor as owner/manager of the organization
Funabashi (given name unknown), image preparation
Okura Hambei (Touta), woodblock carving
Murata Katsumaro, woodblock printing

The background music in this video, included to bring the same 'flavor' as the original film version - which contains music we cannot legally use - comes from the YouTube Audio Library: Josef Suk, Serenade, Op 6

High-resolution images of the five Adachi prints featured at the end of the video can be found in our online Collection, at:
https://mokuhankan.com/collection/ind...

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[Update: Adachi Isamu passed away, at age 94, the same week that this video was uploaded ...]
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We have created caption files in both English and Japanese for the inner video.

00:00 Introduction
03:30 The old video begins
04:37 Toyohisa Adachi
05:46 Murata-san the printer
06:42 Okura-san the carver
10:49 Survey of older prints
11:57 Funabashi-san, tracing the design
13:04 Colour block carving
14:49 Other carvers
16:57 Isamu Adachi, sizing
17:11 Printing begins
20:13 Dave's comments on the video
29:33 Epilogue: five prints from the Adachi studio

The Mokuhankan website:
https://mokuhankan.com/collection/ind...

Our Twitch streams:
  / japaneseprintmaking  

Our Patreon page:
  / mokuhankan  

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We have more footage from old printmaking and papermaking workshops, and intend to produce more episodes in this 'Blast from the Past' series. Stay tuned!