Picture Book: Thousand-Year Mountain (Ehon Chitose-yama) 1740

This is a page from "Picture Book: Thousand-Year Mountain," made by Nishikawa Sukenobu in Japan, sometime before 1750. It's a woodblock print, meaning that the image was carved into a block of wood, inked, and then pressed onto paper. Look closely, and you can see the characteristic lines of this process, each one carefully cut by a skilled artisan. The figures, interior, and text are all rendered with a sense of precision. Note the way that the woodcut lines define the folds of the kimonos and the architectural details of the room. Woodblock printing was a labor-intensive process, involving multiple artisans, from the artist who designed the image to the carver who cut the block and the printer who applied the ink and pressed the paper. This collaborative mode of production speaks to a different relationship between the artist and the work. It blurs the lines between individual expression, skilled labor, and the commercial imperative of producing books for a growing readership. And it reminds us that even the most seemingly simple image is the result of complex social and material processes.