Japan!

I have recently returned from a trip to Japan. I had been on Awaji Island in 2004 for the Nagasawa Art Park Residency. During the residency I worked with traditional carvers and printers from Japan. This time, I made the journey to present with Yoonmi Nam at the 1st International Mokuhanga Conference on teaching woodblock printing in the US. Our panel presentation titled "In the Age of Technology: Teaching Others to Print by Hand" was held on Saturday, July 11th at the Awaji Conference Center. To accompany our presentation we developed a website as a companion to our presentation. This website includes photos from a mokuhanga project I did with students at the University of Kansas, downloadable resources for teaching, images of student work, and other such things: http://teachingmokuhanga.weebly.com/

Hardly a surprise but: Japan is amazing! I traveled with friends Mariko Jesse, Yoonmi Nam, and Mari LaClure. My daughter, Helen Blue, has been studying Japanese at Middlebury College and traveled with me as well. We were invited by Kyoko Hirai to visit Sato's print studio in Kyoto. Kyoko is one of two professional women printers in Kyoto (there were three, but one of them is a new mother and currently not printing as a professional). Kyoko is a generous person and a fine printer.

Kyoko Hirai, printing the traditional Japanese technique of water-based printing called mokuhanga.

A handful of images from Sato's studio, where Kyoko works as a professional printer.