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Mokuhankan in Tokyo made a limited woodblock print run of The Great Wave of Kanagawa a couple years ago. It was printed using traditional methods but the templa

Mokuhankan in Tokyo made a limited woodblock print run of The Great Wave of Kanagawa a couple years ago. It was printed using traditional methods but the templates were made on a computer, using high-res scans of multiple vintage prints as source material. The long process was documented on YouTube. <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-Wicsj5rAasS2g7e-Z9eFUdG6I7ZqED https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-Wicsj5rAasS2g7e-Z9...> One interesting fact that came up is that: No known existing print has been identified as being from an original print run! All known antique prints in existence are reproductions from back in the day. Japan did not have any copyright law, so copying of prints was common. This has been seen by every print having artefacts that have been recognised as some that can happen while copying, and then those artefacts were copied and so on... The British Museum has an article about it: <https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/great-wave-spot-difference https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/great-wave-spot-differenc...>

qubyte 2y ago
I stopped by the Mokuhankan shop when I was in the area last year. David Bull was carving a block on the left as I came in, so I didn't see him at first (my eyes were drawn to the prints, which are arranged into bins like records on the right). I was wearing an old trade shirt which had a Kurzgesagt sort of look to it. When I bought a print to the till it was in his eyeshot and caught his interest, so he came over for a chat! He's such a nice guy. He asked me what I do, and the next thing I know we're talking about tech stuff, and how he builds his site and shop. A true renaissance man.