Translator Reviews ( Japanese → English )

Additional info: ・佐久市立近代美術館→SAKU Municipal Museum of Modern Art

Japanese

もともと版画の技法は複製のための技法でした。版を作り写しとる版画は、線や面が直接描くそれと違います。版板の作り方について分類するならば、凸版・凹版・孔版・平版があります。また、それぞれの技法に、さらに細かい技法があります。たとえば、同じ凹版であっても、ビュランの鋭い彫り跡を摺りとる方法があれば、版に細かい傷を作ってグラデーションを生み出す方法もあります。
紙に直接描かないことから生まれる版画ならではの表現は、魅力となり複製とは違う「版画」というジャンルを生み出しました。

English

The technique of block print was first invented as a way of making duplicates. Block print is different from drawing because wood block is carved along a pattern and the pattern is then printed on papers in block print while lines and faces are drawn directly on papers. There are several ways of carving wood block: intaglio, relief, serigraph and lithograph. Each of them has more precise techniques. In intaglio, for instance, some technique requires burin’s sharp carving to be printed whereas some technique is for making gradation by making fine scratches on the block.
The unique expression of block print is created by not being drawn or painted on a paper directly. Block print became so appealing in that it was not merely a duplicating method that it established itself as a genre called “Block Print.”