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Shukukon
“Mr. Imamura, if you’ve started woodblock printing, why don’t you come to a workshop?” I was invited by a friend.
I heard that the lecturer was woodblock artist Shigeyuki Kawachi. I had never met him, but I had known his work for a long time. He belongs to my generation, but is younger than me and has been active as a printmaker since he was young. I felt proud that such a wonderful printmaker was born in Yamanashi. Many people may know him as a “picture of chickens flying over mountains, seas, and towns.” He is now one of Japan’s leading printmakers.
After the first day’s lecture, I was instructed to bring a rough sketch by the next week. Now, as I began to think about what to draw and how to draw it, I remembered a wedding reception I attended a few weeks ago.
I was invited to the wedding of my neighbor, the son of my friend, and my son’s childhood friend. My friend’s father had already passed away, and he was independent from an early age, without a mother.
I have attended many weddings and receptions, but I have never shed a tear. But this time was different. I’m usually embarrassed to show my tears, and I’ve never shed tears in front of others before, but this time, the tears just flowed naturally, even though I tried to hold them back.
“Humans are wonderful, I can hear gorgeous sounds.”
A phrase I read somewhere a long time ago swirled around in my head.
I wondered if I could somehow make it into a print. I thought and tried to think of a way to use colors and shapes to convey at least some of what I was feeling. I made the couple getting married symbolic, not someone specific.
The main theme of the workshop was to learn how to print intaglio woodblock prints. I tried printing a few pieces, but in the end it didn’t work. I considered the final product to be the layering of several relief plates before the intaglio printing.
It may have been a half-finished production process, but for me it was the first multi-color woodblock print I made.