Stations- Hokusai's Album of Travel Pictures 1881

This is a page from Hokusai's "Stations- Album of Travel Pictures", made with woodblock printing techniques. The materiality of woodblock prints influences the artwork’s appearance, with its distinct lines, flat planes of color, and visible wood grain. The work's social significance comes from the fact that woodblock prints are a repeatable medium, requiring collaboration between the artist, who designs the image, the block carver, who translates the design into a series of blocks, and the printer, who applies ink to the blocks and transfers the image to paper. It's a commercial medium and a complex process of division of labor. These prints were available at a relatively modest price and enabled a wide audience to engage with Hokusai’s vision. They democratized art in ways that painting, for example, never could. The artist worked within a system that was inherently collaborative and aimed at broad distribution. Paying attention to the materials, making, and social context emphasizes the importance of understanding the full meaning of an artwork, and challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.