Style combination · Contrasts

Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock × Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Japanese colour prints fill flat colours into a carved black key line; the Ten Bamboo leaf drops the key line and grades each colour inside its block. The 1633 manual was reprinted in Japan and foreshadowed nishiki-e, yet the choice is between a graphic outline and a print that passes for a wash painting.

From the research on Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua)

Mix them and make something Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints, their arrangement from Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock, the finish from Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua) Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Type from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock: Gradients
Pastel
Form from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Stylised figuration
Restrained accents
Composition from Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock: Isolated object
Generous white space
Surface from Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock: Painterly brushwork
Paper & letterpress bite

Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints avoids painterly brushwork: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Quiet

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Brush-written kana and kanji titles (gyōsho and sōsho hands)

Text · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.

Shippori Mincho; Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints used Brush-written kana and kanji titles and Kantei-ryū kabuki lettering

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock, with a counter-accent from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua) Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

#e9e0cc ground · 36%
#403e3a ink · 14%
#b8352d accent · 18%
#d27a7f accent · 14%
#d4a64a accent · 10%
#5f7986 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #e9e0cc;
  --ink: #403e3a;
  --accent-1: #b8352d;
  --accent-2: #d27a7f;
  --accent-3: #d4a64a;
  --accent-4: #5f7986;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua): Woodblock printing in watercolour (muban shuiyin) of this kind is still practised by studios such as Duoyunxuan in Shanghai and Rong Bao Zhai in Beijing and is on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage (木版水印技艺, VIII-77: Rong Bao Zhai 2006, Duoyunxuan 2008 and the Hangzhou Shizhuzhai Art Museum 2014): commission or credit their carvers and printers rather than passing off a digital imitation as a hand-printed edition, and never present a generated image as a leaf of the 1633 Collection, the 1644 Letter Papers or the Mustard Seed Garden manual. Have every inscription written or checked by a fluent reader, because image models invent pseudo-characters, and never make up a seal bearing a real painter's, collector's or studio's name.

The two styles

1626–present · East Asia Ten Bamboo Studio Colour Woodblock (Douban & Gonghua) A kind of colour woodblock printing begun in late-Ming Nanjing, made so that a print looks like a brush painting. Each picture is cut into many small blocks, one for each part and colour (douban). The water-based colour is partly wiped off to grade it and printed in overlapping tones, so washes take the place of a black outline; on deluxe leaves and letter paper, uninked blocks press white relief into the paper (gonghua). Bamboo, plum, orchids, rocks, birds and fruit stand alone on blank paper, with small red seals and a brushed poem, often on the facing leaf, in albums for learning to paint.

An enormous hawk with raised wings and extended talons swoops over a rough sea with a small sailboat and rocky islands. Pine-covered cliffs and a Japanese-style building frame the right side, with a mountain, red sun and vertical Japanese lettering in the background.

1670–1900 · East Asia Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.