An artist painting on a wooden panel using a brush, surrounded by paint cups and art supplies in a bright studio.
- Image courtesy of
- Artist website (Shoichi Kitamura)
The image shows an artist applying pigment with a brush to a wooden block in a studio setting, surrounded by ceramic pigment dishes, hake brushes, and the working tools of mokuhanga. In Japanese woodblock practice, color is brushed onto each block immediately before each impression rather than rolled like Western relief ink — the printmaker mixes water-based pigment with rice paste (nori) on the block surface using a brush in this exact gesture. The print belongs to a small group within Kitamura's output that turns inward toward the workshop, treating the printmaker's craft as legitimate subject matter. Such self-reflexive depiction continues a thread in twentieth-century [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga), where artists who cut and print their own blocks documented the labor that distinguishes their work from the workshop-divided practice of earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e). The bright studio interior implies natural daylight, the working condition mokuhanga printers prefer for color matching across multiple block impressions.
An artist painting on a wooden panel using a brush, surrounded by paint cups and art supplies in a bright studio. was created by Shoichi Kitamura (北村昭一).
An artist painting on a wooden panel using a brush, surrounded by paint cups and art supplies in a bright studio. depicts craftspeople.
