Carving Woodblocks: Reviving a Dying Art Form

Some Things are Too Beautiful to Lose: Buddha Woodblocks, Reviving a Dying Art Form

I became aware of mokuhanga and Hiroki Morinoue about ten years ago. I had heard about a Japanese teacher from Hawaii who taught at Andersen Ranch in Colorado. I felt immediately interested and without knowing anything about the process made plans to study with Hiroki and ordered a beginner’s mokuhanga tool set from McClain’s printing supply which included several shina plywood blocks, Japanese Kozo paper, sumi ink, watercolors, and a bamboo baren. However, I run a summer yoga and art camp in Boulder and always seemed to be leading summer camp when Hiroki would come to town. I would not be able to realize that dream until several years later when I decided to leave teaching high school and move back to Hawaii that I was able to meet and study with Hiroki. Turns out he taught just 10 minutes away from Konalani Ashram. I began my studies with him in the fall of 2013. 

Hiroki and Faith at Andersen Ranch

At this point I have attended about 12 of Hiroki’s workshops (assisting with two) including week and 2-week long sessions at Andersen Ranch and programs running over several months at Donkey Mill Art Center in Holualoa. Donkey Mill Art Center, along with Hiroki and his wonderful wife, Setusko and daughter, Miho, sponsored and hosted the 2017 International Mokuhanga conference in Honolulu, Hawaii with satellite programs at Donkey Mill on the Big Island. Hiroki is an amazing teacher, warm and knowledgeable. I loved the graduation dinners at his home where we would enjoy delicious meals together, play songs on ukulele and sing. Hiroki is a world-renowned mokuhanga artist, but you may not know that he also sings a beautiful version of Blue Hawaii. In addition to my studies with Hiroki, in 2018, I was able to attend an advanced residency at Mi-lab in Japan at the base of Mount Fuji. I spent about 6 weeks in Japan and was able to visit with Hidehike Gotousan to learn more about printing black blacks and spent a few days in Kyoto studying with Master Carver, Shoichi Kitamura. I have been actively practicing mokuhanga for eight years now.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have been my main subject matter. I remember being a young art student at Montserrat college in Massachusetts and wondering – what is my voice? I loved painting portraits and figure painting but felt like something was missing until I learned about thangka painting, the traditional Tibetan method for drawing and painting Buddhas. A thangka is a rolled scroll painting of a Buddhist figure. Thangka painting is a rigid system of drawing the Buddha according to mathematical proportions using a thigse or graph method. Measurements are done in sors which translates as finger. 1 sor could be the width of a finger. However, one can adjust the size of a sor for larger wall size paintings or smaller miniature paintings. Drawings are done on paper and then transferred to a cloth to which animal skin glue has been applied and then, sanded to a smooth surface. Colors are ground from stone and minerals and are applied as a flat color to large areas and layered with thousands of tiny dots or dashes like pointillism for the shading. Gouache paints are the closest Western equivalent. The colors are water based and come up easily if you accidentally drip water on them. It would take me up to six months to paint a 20 by 30-inch cloth or thangka. Then it was mounted in bright brocades

There are 5 main forms of Tibetan thangkas:

1. The most common is brightly painted scrolls in a frame of brocades
2. Applique thangkas are made from sewn and embroidered fabrics
3. Black, gold, and red background- Nag than are painted on black or red backgrounds using gold paint and very light shading.
4. Woodblock thangkas made from carved woodblocks. 
5. Embroidered thangkas

The invention of printing can be directly connected to Buddhism and the need to reproduce religious texts and simple images of the Buddha. This demand greatly influenced the development of printing technology. Text reproduction began with stamping and rubbing, which led directly to block printing. The Chinese were the first to use this process to print texts, doing so some time prior to the seventh century. The earliest well-defined extant block print was made in Japan in 770. The earliest extant printed book, dated 868 and now in the collection of the British Library, was found in Dunhuang, China. Tibetans adopted the block printing technology as early as the twelfth century and continued to carve woodblocks for printing into the twentieth century.

Tibetan woodblocks:

Tibetan books and illustrations produced from woodblock printing were printed from the same carved block, then they can be painted or colored. Often hundreds of copies were printed from a single set of woodblocks. Depending on regional and craftsmen’s preferences, the chisels and types of wood used for the printing blocks varied, but blocks were most often carved from the wood of pear and jojoba trees. 

My Tibetan artist friend, Tenzin Rigdol, told me that his father made the ink used from printing and is the reason printed texts and sutras are important in his work. He said charcoal is used to make the ink in a process very similar to Sumi ink.

Woodblock thangkas were mostly used for teaching Buddhism by travelling monks and lamas. They were rolled up and easily transported. They were generally one-block, the key block, in a method like pre-Ukiyo-e Buddha woodblocks in Japan. Sometimes the woodblock was hand-painted. There is an example in the Ruben Museum collection, in New York, of a hand painted woodblock mounted in brocade. 

I have that same drawing as a thangka painting. Drawings were often shared and reused:

From Faith’s collection of Thangkas

Woodblock thangkas were printed on cloth and paper using charcoal inks like sumi. Buddhist woodblocks were especially prevalent as prayer flags where they are still common today. However, carving the Thangka woodblocks all but vanished after the Communist invasion of Tibet. There is still a monastery, Derge Parkhang monastery in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet. “Derge Parkang is repository for more than 300,000 woodblocks and an active center for the publication of sutra, commentaries, and histories of Traditional Tibetan Buddhism. It is also home to a significant collection of woodblocks for printing thangka, prayer flags, mandalas, and other spiritual images Derge Parkang is the only survivor of the great historic Tibetan printing temples and has a collection of older thangka woodblocks”. 

– Pearl of the Snowlands, Buddhist Printing at the Derge Parkhang.

Very few people in the world are currently still making Thangka woodblocks and Buddha woodblocks. I was speaking with Ven. Lama Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal recently about Thangka woodblocks. He said at one time, each monastery or school would have woodblock thangkas of their lineage and the Buddhas or Bodhisattvas that were important in the lineage but that now almost no one is carving woodblock thangkas, and few remain after the destruction of monasteries and spiritual art by Chinese communists, in Tibet. 

Japan History:

Woodblock printing came to Japan during the eighth century, but it took approximately 1000 years for Japan to become a print culture. Woodblocks became the primary method of printing from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. As in China, the technology was first used to duplicate Buddhist texts and then later, books of Chinese origin. It was not until the 1500s that books originally in Japanese began to be printed. Black and white illustrations were a part of these early texts, to which color was sometimes added by hand, but eventually colored prints developed around 1765 as printing techniques improved. 

The only surviving evidence of printing from the 8th century Japan comes from Nara in the form of the Hyakumantō Darani.  The Hyakumantō Darani are slips of paper with Buddhist text printed on them installed in miniature pagoda that were placed at various locations in Nara. They were apparently made to atone for a rebellion that took place in 746. The rebellion was in response to the growing influence Buddhism had in the Japanese court; a Buddhist monk, Dōkyō, had been able to have himself appointed to the position of Chancellor of the Realm. The interference in courtly matters by the Buddhist clergy led to much resentment and Fujiwara no Nakamaro led a rebellion against Dōkyō. The ex-Empress Shōtoku ordered the printing of one million charms to appease the Buddhist monks and temples, although it is unclear whether this order was fully carried out Very few of the dharani survived to this day. Hyakumantō Darani represent the earliest existing proof (from Japan) that Buddhism was an influence on printing in East Asia. 

Originally, Ukiyo was a Buddhist term to express the impermanence of human life. During the Edo Period (1615–1868), however, Ukiyo came to refer to the sensual and hedonistic pleasures of people, who embraced them even more for their ever-changing nature. 

Buddhism spread to Japan through woodblocks in the Edo period. The key blocks were elaborate and highly detailed. Many were then, hand painted. However, at the onset of Ukiyo-e and a movement to more secular artworks, the Buddha woodblocks almost disappeared. They remain today as stamps used when visiting temples or printed for good merit in a practice like, reciting mantras. The more mantras repeated the more merit, the more Buddhas printed the more merit. These tend to be small and generally without landscapes or backgrounds. Inbutsu, religious stamps depicting the Buddha were also used to fill Buddhist sculptures adding to their sacredness.

I carved a Monju Bosatsu that I referenced from Inbutsu:

 

Here I must mention one Contemporary artist, Shiko Munakata. He carved beautiful Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in a charming thick spontaneous fashion. I was enchanted when I first saw his work. I also resonated with his back painting techniques, baku bokashi. The historical images of Buddhas are printed with sumi and then hand painted. Munakata utilized this technique in his own unique way. 

Mystical:

Then, there is the mystical element of my attraction to thangka woodblocks. Rudi told a story of a dream or vision that he had. In the vision, a spacecraft landed that was covered with very crude woodblock images of Buddhas. Several Tibetan lamas stepped out from the craft. Rudi said that he almost turned away as the quality of the woodblocks was so poor. He was an Oriental antique dealer and a great admirer of Asian art, especially sacred art. Instead, he stayed with the lamas and received teachings from them. I had been carving Buddha woodblocks for some time when I heard this story. I again felt inspired and had the thought: My job is to revive Buddha woodblocks and thangkas but to do them in a more refined style like mokuhanga. I got the idea to merge the two traditions, to use the Japanese carving methods with the Tibetan style and proportions of Buddha images. While Tibetan thangka paintings can be extremely refined and sublime, the woodblocks tend to be somewhat rough. In contrast, the woodblocks of Japan are highly refined, superbly carved and printed.  

When, I first came to mokuhanga, I was told it was a dying art form that was being revitalized. It seems that the revitalization has been very successful as we can see from this 4^th International Mokuhanga conference. Mokuhanga is now a worldwide art form growing in popularity. I love the low-tech and non-toxic aspect of mokuhanga. One doesn’t need a printing press but one of Goto san’s barens is a treasure to print with. (Goto san is a revered baren maker in Japan. He is holds that dying art form. He grows and cares for his own bamboo forest to make his special barens).

I also feel the importance of preserving this special form of printmaking while at the same time reviving the lost art of Buddha woodblocks. In Japan, Buddha woodblocks fell out of favor with the onset of Ukiyo-e except for Buddha stamps. From the Tibetan tradition, Thangka painting has gained world-wide appeal and it is possible to study the tradition in India, Nepal and in workshops throughout the world but almost no one is teaching the carving of thangka woodblocks or practicing this art form. I hope to revitalize this lost art. 

I am not satisfied to just revive Buddha woodblocks but want to expand and elaborate on the form infusing it with my culture. I carve Everyday Goddesses and Bodhisattvas to reflect the diversity of race and culture that is the melting pot of America, American Buddhist Art. The Buddha form looks different in Japan, India, China, Tibet, and Thailand. I believe the same will happen as the Buddha becomes infused in Western culture. Buddhist art first became popular in the West in the form of tattoos, graffiti, and street art but is now becoming more mainstream and acceptable. Ten and fifteen years ago it was almost impossible to find a gallery that would take my work, it was considered too religious, but now it has become easier. It has always been more acceptable in Hawaii with its large Japanese and Asian population. 

Some things are too beautiful to lose. 

I believe that is the case for both mokuhanga and Buddha woodblocks.

 Thank you

Faith Stone

 

Reference Books:

1. Karma and Faith, the artwork of Karma Phuntsok and Faith Stone, Prakasha Press 2019
2. Drawing Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Faith Stone, SGRY 2013
3. Tibetan Thangka Painting, David and Janice Jackson, Snow Lion Publications, 2006
4. The Woodblock and the Artist, The Life and Work of shiko Munakata, Edited by Sori Yanagi, Kodashana International, 1991
5. Footprints of the Buddha from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1980
6. Pearl of the Snowlands: Buddhist Printing from the Derge Parkhang
7. Munakata Shiko, Japanese Master of the Modern Print, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002
8. Japanese Buddhist and Shinto Prints, Meher McArthur, Sam Fogg 1996
9. Japanese Buddhist Prints, Kodansha International, 1964
10. Pearl of the Snowlands, Buddhist Printing at the Derge Parkhang, Columbia College 2009
11. Tibetan Sacred Art, Detlef Ingo Lauf, Shambhala Publications, 1976
12. Principles of Tibetan Art, Gega Lama, Karma Sonam Gyamtso Ling, 1980

 

Discussion of the revitalization of Buddhist woodblocks.

1) Using Japanese mokuhanga techniques and sumi to revitalize Buddha woodblocks.

2) The importance of Shiko Munakata, and the discussion of painting from the back, bakku bokashi,to preserve the richness of the sumi.

3) Fusing Tibetan iconography with mokuhanga and sumi techniques for carving and printing. (show a traditional Tibetan woodblock and a contemporary mokuhanga shina block). Talk about the importance of highest quality sumi for truly black blacks.

4) Exploring Contemporary expressions of Buddhist woodblocks:

a) Everyday Goddesses

b) Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in contemporary settings

c) Bringing it home – American Buddhist Art in Woodblocks