Morning and Evening

Description

The viewer looks over the old townhouses of the Nishijin weaving district in Kyoto. The rooftops there have captivated woodblock print artists more often, appearing in some of their finest designs – including this one by Nishijima Katsuyuki. This woodblock print is one of the few largest works Nishijima Katsuyuki has created, and among the largest we have on offer. Producing woodblock prints of this size poses challenges for artists. While carving the woodblocks is more laborious, it is not significantly more complex; the real difficulty lies in the printing process, as the printer must apply pressure evenly over a much greater distance. Moreover, even the slightest misalignment becomes magnified at this scale, resulting in a significant deviation on the opposite end. Nishijima Katsuyuki is one of the few artists capable of working at this scale, though even he produced only a handful of designs this large.