Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/75

RV 53

colour print he still has duties to perform, as will be presently seen.

The printer's services are now required, and a certain number of copies will be printed, on thin paper, from the outline block—one copy at least for each colour which is to appear in the finished picture. The artist's help will now again be needed, and if he has not already coloured portions of the original drawing, he will colour, entirely or in part, one of these printed copies as a model for the finished picture. Then he will paint, possibly by tracing on another of these outline copies, all portions of the picture that are of the same colour; on another copy, in the same way, the parts of the picture that are of another colour, and so on, until he has thus painted as many single-colour copies as there are colours in the finished picture. Each of these coloured copies is now pasted on a separate block of cherry wood. The engraver then resumes work. He carves away the whole surface of each block, including the outline, leaving only in relief the coloured part of the design. In each case he also carves at the corner and edge of the block a rectangular nick and a guiding line, which correspond exactly to a similar nick and guiding line in the outline block. A separate block having thus been produced for each colour, the remains of the paper copies will be removed, and unless any alterations are required, the engraver's work is concluded. Although it is difficult to overrate the amount of skill often exhibited by the Japanese wood-engraver, it is easy to see from this description how thoroughly subordinate he is to the artist.

Printing is the next process. The various blocks now pass into the hands of an operator of little less importance than the engraver in point of skill, and requiring much greater artistic talent. In a work of any importance the artist, having selected his paper and directed the mixing of the various colours, will probably superintend the printing of the first proofs. But there is no printing-press. The outline block is placed face upwards upon a stool or upon the floor, and the portions in relief are carefully painted with an ink brush. A sheet of paper is then placed upon