Further Reading

To view a listing of objects without the introductory text, click here.

T. Tokuno, “Japanese wood-cutting and wood-cut printing,” S.R. Koehler, ed., in Smithsonian Institution. United States National Museum. Annual Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1892. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1893), pp. 221-244. Smithsonian annual reports are available at many large libraries, and they can be accessed online through the Biodiversity Heritage Library project. The Tokuno report as edited by Koehler also was published as a separate pamphlet in 1894, and that edition is available online at Google Books, although the copy as digitized is missing some of the illustrations.

Almost a century later, former Smithsonian Graphic Arts curator Peter Morse published an updated version of the Tokuno text, "Tokuno's Description of Japanese Printmaking," with additional notes and annotations, in Essays on Japanese art presented to Jack Hillier, Matthi Forrer ed. (London : R.G. Sawers Pub., 1982).

The full text of the edited report is also available online, part of a very comprehensive website developed by David Bull who has added notes informed by his extensive knowledge of the process.

Ann Yonemura, curator at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Museums of Asian art, prepared an exhibition that included some of the NMAH Tokuno objects. The accompanying catalogue, Yokohama: Prints from nineteenth-century Japan, was published by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1990.

The Smart Museum exhibition catalogue discusses a range of developments in color printing in France and Japan from the 18th through the early 20th centuries in the context of their interactions and further developments in China and Europe.Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints, by Chelsea Foxwell and Anne Leonard, with contributions by David Acton, Laura Kalba, Andreas Marks, Andrew Stevens, Stephanie Su, and David Waterhouse. (Chicago: Smart Museum of the University of Chicago, 2012).

Another portion of the gift included several bound collections of prints, which now are housed in the Library of the Freer-Sackler Gallery. Some of them have been digitized, including ten volumes in Itsukushima zue, four volumes in Kōkōkan gashō and the two-volume Shūbi gakan. We are most grateful to Alessandro Bianchi, The Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art at the Freer Sackler Gallery, for his assistance in identifying and locating these volumes.

 

One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16a is the white pigment. Two paper labels, one in Japanese, the other marked "No. 16" presumably in reference to the drawing of these bottles in GA 3209.4.
Description
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16a is the white pigment. Two paper labels, one in Japanese, the other marked "No. 16" presumably in reference to the drawing of these bottles in GA 3209.4. According to Tokuno's description, these colors-- white, red, blue, and yellow--were used to print the triptych series Inaka genji (the rustic genji), GA*03212-03216.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03211.16a
accession number
22582
catalog number
03211.16a
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16b is the yellow pigment. Paper label in Japanese; stopped with cork.
Description
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16b is the yellow pigment. Paper label in Japanese; stopped with cork. According to Tokuno's description, these colors-- white, red, blue, and yellow--were used to print the triptych series Inaka genji (the rustic genji), GA*03212-03216. Historical alternate name for this color is Seki-o.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03211.16b
accession number
22582
catalog number
03211.16b
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16c is the blue pigment. Paper label in Japanese, stopped with cork.
Description
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16c is the blue pigment. Paper label in Japanese, stopped with cork. According to Tokuno's description, these colors-- white, red, blue, and yellow--were used to print the triptych series Inaka genji (the rustic genji), GA*03212-03216.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03211.16c
accession number
22582
catalog number
03211.16c
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16d is the red pigment. Paper label in Japanese; stopped with cork.
Description
One of a set of four glass bottles of powdered or crystalized pigment used in Japanese printmaking. GA 3211.16d is the red pigment. Paper label in Japanese; stopped with cork. According to Tokuno's description, these colors-- white, red, blue, and yellow--were used to print the triptych series Inaka genji (the rustic genji), GA*03212-03216.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03211.16d
accession number
22582
catalog number
03211.16d
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number.
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Carbonite of Calcium [white]: "Gofun"
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03434
catalog number
03434
accession number
23218
Pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label with catalogue number.on folded length of red cotton felt. Tokuno described this as "apparently cochineal, but its chemical nature is unexamined yet. It is imported from China in the form of red cotton felt.
Description
Pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label with catalogue number.on folded length of red cotton felt. Tokuno described this as "apparently cochineal, but its chemical nature is unexamined yet. It is imported from China in the form of red cotton felt. For use it is put in water and gently pressed, a resultant pink-colored water is removed into a color dish, evaporated to near dryness upon a water bath or very slow fire, taking care not to dry it completely, otherwise it soon destroys its brilliancy. It is then kept in a cool place, protected from dust or dirt..."
ID Number
GA.03435
catalog number
03435
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork. Bottle wrapped in black paper to protect from light exposure.
Safflower [red]: Ki-jo-mi
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03436
catalog number
03436
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.Vermillion: ShuCurrently not on view
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Vermillion: Shu
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03437
catalog number
03437
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.Certain kind of red ochre: Ben-garaCurrently not on view
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Certain kind of red ochre: Ben-gara
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03439
catalog number
03439
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.Turmeric: Wakon-koCurrently not on view
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Turmeric: Wakon-ko
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03441
catalog number
03441
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.Extract of yellow-wood: ZumiCurrently not on view
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Extract of yellow-wood: Zumi
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03443
catalog number
03443
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name as transliterated from Japanese: Indigo blue: Ai-gami; separate label with catalogue number. No cork; glass broken at top.
Description
Small glass bottle of pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name as transliterated from Japanese: Indigo blue: Ai-gami; separate label with catalogue number. No cork; glass broken at top. Bottle contains paper saturated with color which suggests this may be dayflower, Tsu-yu-kusa, rather than indigo which did not come in paper form.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03444
catalog number
03444
accession number
23218
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.Indigo paste: Ai-roCurrently not on view
Description
Small glass bottle of powdered pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks. Paper label in English with color name transliterated from Japanese; separate label with catalogue number. Each bottle is stopped with small cork.
Indigo paste: Ai-ro
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03445
catalog number
03445
accession number
23218
Stick of indigo, known in Japanese as ai-bo, pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks.Currently not on view
Description
Stick of indigo, known in Japanese as ai-bo, pigment used for printing Japanese woodblocks.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03446
catalog number
03446
accession number
23218

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