Karazuri

Blind printing or embossing without ink, creating raised textural effects on the paper surface by pressing it into carved woodblock grooves.

空摺 (Karazuri) is a term used in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Blind printing or embossing without ink, creating raised textural effects on the paper surface by pressing it into carved woodblock grooves.

Karazuri, literally meaning "empty printing," is a technique where the printer presses dampened paper into a carved woodblock without applying any pigment. The result is a subtle raised or indented pattern visible only in raking light, adding tactile dimension to the print. This technique is used to suggest textures like falling snow, the surface of water, fabric patterns, or the grain of wood. The effect is deliberately understated — viewers must tilt the print to catch the light at the right angle to see the embossing. This quality of hidden detail rewards close examination and is considered a mark of sophisticated craftsmanship. In shin-hanga prints, karazuri was frequently used by Kawase Hasui for snow scenes, where the blind-embossed snowflakes create a three-dimensional quality impossible to achieve with ink alone. Hiroshi Yoshida also employed the technique for water ripples and cloud textures.

Notable examples of Karazuri can be seen in works such as "Snow at a Guest House Overlooking a Pond, from an untitled series of views of the Mitsubishi villa in Fukagawa", "The Inokashira Benten Shrine in Snow (Shato no yuki)", "Snow at Tsukishima (Tsukishima no yuki), from the series "Twenty Views of Tokyo (Tokyo nijukkei)"", and 5 more in our collection.