IMC 2024 Echizen submission

This print was Jesse's submission to the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference (IMC), held in part at Echizen in Fukui Prefecture — the historic [washi](/glossary/washi)-producing region whose papers have underpinned Japanese woodblock printing for over a millennium. IMC submissions are typically printed on Echizen [kozo](/glossary/kozo) washi supplied to participants, with size and edition parameters set by the conference, and they function as a snapshot of the contemporary mokuhanga community gathered every three years. As a co-founder of Mokuhanga Sisters and wood+paper+box, Jesse has long worked at the center of these international networks, and her IMC entries sit alongside those of practitioners from across Asia, Europe, and the Americas in the conference's traveling exhibition. Like much of her studio output, the work is built up through hand-rubbed [baren](/glossary/baren) impressions from multiple cherry or shina blocks, often incorporating [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations and the soft, absorbent surface qualities that Echizen washi is prized for. It belongs to the strand of her practice that engages directly with the Japanese mokuhanga revival rather than her commercial illustration work.