Ukiyo e woodblock printmaking with Keizaburo Matsuzaki

Master printer Keizaburo Matsuzaki visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales in March 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition Hymn to beauty: the art of Utamaro. He brought the woodblocks to create a print of Takashima Ohisa, the teahouse waitress, designed by Kitagawa Utamaro (17541806) in the 1790s. Matsuzaki hails from Arakawaku in Tokyo and has been a printer since he was fifteen years old. Gallery visitors were amazed to witness Matsuzaki s deft touch as he applied seventeen colours with perfect alignment. Each colour was rubbed with the printer s most precious tool, the baren. The final touch was a dusting of mica.