The knife I use is called a 'hangi to' or a 'kogatana'. They come in a number of sizes but you really only need one size. I use a 4.5 mm blade but I know of a carver that uses a 5.5mm or even a 6mm blade. My recommendation is 4.5 but chose your poison and stick with it. Here is a link if you want to buy one (no affiliation) : **They also sell left-handed and ebony handle kogatana**

Small clearing chisels: you will need at the bare minimum one 'Aisuki" (bull nose) flat chisel but I recommend a beginner get 3 : a 1.0, 2.0 and a 3mm. My full set contains a range of 7 aisuki from 0.8 (which I file down to a 0.3), 1.0 (which i file to a 0.5 tip), 1.2 (which i file to a 1.0), 1.5, 1.8, 2.0, 3.0mm. I also have one 'suikomi aisuki', this is a 8mm aisuki with a curved profile, which i use to clean splintered areas around the clearing i did with the large U gouges. U gouges: You will need 1 large U gouge 10mm is recommended for beginners. this you will use with a hammer. (the larger you go the quicker the clearing but its more dangerous.) my set contains three U gouges 18mm, 10mm and a 7mm (but i only use the biggest and smallest now.) You will also need a small hand U gouge, I suggest a 6mm My set has 2 one 6mm and one 3.5mm. large flat clearer: you can make do without this in the begging, many people use their U gouges to clear the wood completely, but this is tough on your hands and i suggest you get one sooner rather than later try your first print without one and if you enjoy the process get one. These don't have to be specific 'Mokuhanga chisels', the sharpening is how they differ from ordinary woodworking chisels. I suggest you get a flat backed if you are working with Cherry or any other hard wood, 24mm. If you are working on shina ply you should get one with a slightly curved profile 24mm. the flat chisel will tare up shina. my set contains four. Two for cherry flat, a 24mm and a 12mm. Two for ply curved a 24mm and a 12mm24mm and a 12mm. Other tools : You may also need to purchase a mallet for your larger chisels and u gouges. Kento nomi. Do you need one? absolutely not, you can and in my opinion for best results, should cut your registration with your kogatana. Why? because its cleaner, leaves a much more accurate registration and does not compress or stress the wood composing the kento. With a kento nomi you can bang, quickly make registration marks, if speed is you top priority or just arent that concerned about the benefits I mentioned, be my guest. Everybody has different priorities and I think you should make prints the way that makes you happy. But do you need one? Strictly speaking no, its a printers tool.

Predominantly I carve on Yamazakura (mountain cherry). This is the traditional wood used for Japanese woodblocks as it has the right balance of hardness without brittleness, absorbance and tight growth rings which allows for smooth printing. On occasion box wood will be used for delicate areas and shina ply for simple colour blocks on projects with a tight budget. There are a number of other woods that can be use to varying degrees of success such as Magnolia (too soft to print many hundreds) and American cherry (can be too hard although I don't have much first hand experience ).

Short answer is 4-6mm at the deepest point. long answer: Your lines should be cut with your kogatana to 1.2 mm ideally. Next come your marunomi (u gouge). this should clear to about 2-3 mm depending on the size of you marunomi. smaller marunomi you want to be on she smaller end of that and larger marunomi you are making the deeped cut further from the line so a little deeper. Next is your large cleares these should cut between 4-6 mm at their deepest. There is no need to go over this depth, in most cases 4 is pleanty. But if there is no support for the paper then you should go deeper (edge of the block for example). Naturally there should be no steps on your block as you move further from the cut line the cleared area should be always sloping down and away. After that you take your smaller clearing chisel in hand a shave off (using your body weight not a hammer) and smooth over the ridge line between the u gouge and the wide cleared. lastly your aisuki should clear next to that line 1mm down from the surface of the wood. The slight over lap is to secure that you wont snag the line when clearing with the aisuki and chip any lines. The key is to Keep the cleared areas moving down and away from your carved areas like an exponential decay graph. In fact, heres a helpful graph I made to illustrate.

Different carvers have different preferences for how they sharpen their aisuki in my tradition we sharpen them mostly flat at the tip with slight rounding on the corners. You cant leave them them 90° as they will catch and make the wood catch and tare up your block, so they should be rounded slightly on the corners others prefer a more rounded tip. Personally I'm not a fan of this as the cuts they leave tend to be a little concave. Now this dosn't matter much on the flat bottom of cleared valleys or even next the lines, but it can be frustrating when you are doing something like 'ita bokashi' (block gradations) where you want a smooth convex curve ramp from the printing area down to the valleys. It's not a big deal you can still do it but you cave to be more carful and make more cuts to achieve the same finish. it also just leaves a much cleaner smooth block which I enjoy. I find I can run the edge of my aisuki right up to the cut I made with my hangi-to with more accuracy. I suppose the counter point made by round-tippers would be they are less prone to snagging the line past the cut. In any case its a small point and come down to personal preference. Another point when sharpening your aisuki would be the extra attention you make to the non cutting edges. after you sharpen you will be left with sharp angles on the back of the aisuki running up from the cutting edge to the spine. You want to rub these corners off on your sharpening stone to round them out. When you are in a tight area and the back of the aisuki may touch already cleared lines you don't want them getting scratched up or damaged by the untreated edges.

Ita bokashi or block gradation is where you round over the edges of a coloured section. It begins before carving. Areas you want gradation should be carved wider than the intended section. It's advisable to maker out by marking the section you gradate while prepping yourt hanshita or transfer sheet. These gradations can be short around 1 mm or larger up to 1 cm. Any bigger than this and it wont really show up in the final print. Once cut and your waste wood cleared there are a few different ways to create the gradation. But it all starts by first using your aisuki and shave the edge the edge in a smooth gradual curve. Sand paper - You will then further refine this curved edge with sand paper. course sand paper will live a more mottled effect and a finer sand paper will leave a softer edge. before the introduction of sandpaper this work was traditionally done with a bamboo sheath. Soldering iron - for a very course edge on rare occasions you can use a soldering iron or wood burner to burn the edge. Be careful you go to hot or slip you can ruin a block easily.

It depends on your goals. If you just want to make a presentable print, dive in, give it a go, and you'll be able to create something. If you want to create simple designs of your own, then for a clean result, it will take around 6 months to 2 years, depending on the level of detail you're aiming for, how much goma (speckling in the colors) you're willing to tolerate, and how much practice you put in. To become a professional working at an industry standard, it will probably take 5-10 years if you work really hard and have an aptitude for it. And even then, you're not done—it's a constant battle with yourself to improve. If you can't look at your work objectively and identify your shortcomings to focus your practice on those areas, then you may never get there. You don't know what you don't know, and one of the biggest areas of improvement beyond basic skills is training your eye. My general thought on this is, it's probably not a good question. If this is where your head is at, and all you care about is the timeline, then forget it. Make prints because they’re fun to create, they’re beautiful objects, and there's something incredibly satisfying about holding something knowing you made it. Don’t be discouraged by the lead time to 'getting good'. If you do your research, buy some nice materials, and put in the effort, your second print could be brilliant. Your first will probably be more of a 'learning experience' than a beautiful print. JUST MAKE SOMETHING, MINDFUL PRACTICE, GOOD LUCK.

There are examples of prints that have been made on raw paper but generally prints are made on paper that has been sized. In Japanese its called 'dosa' and it is a mixture of alum (a white hydrated sulfate salt chemical) and nikawa (animal derived glue usually bought in granule or stick form). Sizing paper has a number of benefits in printmaking. Strengthens paper - The printing process can be a little tough on paper, particularly when the paper is wet. The back of the paper will be rubbed multiple times during the course of printing a multicoloured image and it can begin to pile and even tare if treated too roughly the glue in the dosa strengthens the paper and helps reduce the negativve effects of printing. Prevents bleeding - When we print we are most often looking for sharp, clear and smooth impressions. The dosa prevents bleeding by reducing the absorbency of the paper. This also gives us the ability to print incredibly fine details. Thinner paper will need less dosa mix than a thicker sheet for obvious reasons. But, also different paper types will also require different levels of dosa for optimal results. For example a, luxurious hosho washi would need a stronger dosa mix than a thin gampi shi. The enviromental conditions at the time of printing will also effect the paper. Generally speaking we use a higher concentration dosa mix in the summer when the air is warmer and more humid (here in Japan), and less concentrated mix in winter when the colder air temperature and low humidity make the paper will feel harder. The typical 1 Liter dosa mix would be in the region of 40-50 grams of Nikawa with between 20-25% the weight of nikkawa added of alum. eg. 1 liter water +40g nikkawa +8g alum (20% of nikawa) = light winter dosa mix I am no authority on dosa and this is only a very general overview and is just a starting point for your own research into the topic if you chose to do so. YOU CAN ALSO skip all this and buy pre sized paper which is usually good enough for most peoples needs!

Yes, paper should be moistend before printing. ideally this would be done the night before you print (or in the morning if you plan to print in the evenings). But, if you short on time you can moisten your paper an hour before and add a wight on top of your stack to help speed up the process.

The paper, after being given time for the water to absorb and even out throughout the stack, should be "soft," not wet. If your finger comes away with wet tips, then you're way off. Typically, most people over-moisten their paper, so it's a good idea to start a little lighter on the moisture. This way, you can test a couple of sheets, and if it feels too dry, you can always re-moisten and try again. It's much easier to control this way.

Water colour pigments. These can be powder or straight from a tube. Note that some powder pigments will not dissolve well in water so you may need to use some alcohol to emulsify them. Cheaper pigments will work fine but typically more expensive pigments will have a richer, deeper and less fugitive. The classical powder pigments called ganryo: Black: sumi - black. The sumi I use for my transfer sheets is called 'kaimei bokujou' 開明墨汁（かいめいぼくじゅう）、it has a small amount of nikkawa in it and it helps give rich impressions on dry paper. Regular caligraphy sumi is fine your normal print runs. Blue: hon-ai - indigo, this is the classical blue used for ukiyo-e beru-ai or gunjo - prussian blue introduced by the Dutch (beru-ai translated and Belgium blue) Red: hon yoko - a kind of carmine shu - Vermillion, a fiery red with a hit of orange Beni - a red pigment derived from sunflower petals traditionally. bengara - a rusty red orange bade from iron oxide (one of the oldest known pigments) Yellow: shin seki ei - a basic yellow. Yellows are a tricky pigment and there used to be another super vibrant yellow (Orpiment) used in the past but unfortunately it contains arsenic. All colours can be mixed from these and pigments and printers will using all or some of these. Typically no colour will be used on its own and will be mixed with either sumi or one of the other pigments.

Currently I don't sell direct to customers but, many of my prints are for sale in Mokuhankan. Some are part of subscription sets others single prints, while others still I was commissioned to carve and are sold directly by the commissioner. Patreon prints I've made are only available through a patreon subscription. Here is a link to the Mokuhankan website where you can purchase many of my prints. https://mokuhankan.com/catalogue/thumbnails.php?search_key=all&start=101&total=148 and heres a link directly to misty day at Nikko: https://mokuhankan.com/catalogue/0319.php

My teacher is Motoharu Asaka of Takumi Hanga, I took classes at his carving school for a year before becoming his apprentice. If you are also in Japan and are interested in learning the traditional way here is a link to his website where you can check his schedule and contact him to book a class. I also learnt a lot from Dave Bull of Mokuhankan, so my my regards to him and all the other kumiai (woodblock association) members for their insights a support.

Yes. technically although i am already a working professional my apprenticeship is still ongoing. The typical carvers apprenticeship is 10 years (with 7 been in 'training' a 3 years being working off your debt to the studio). A printers apprenticeship will be 5 years + a number of years of productive work paying your teacher back. There is a serious lack of printers in japan now so if you are interested in becoming a Japanese wood block printer and live in japan, why not hunt down a master and learn. When you get good hit me up, I will have lots of work for you! Ideally every carver needs 3-5 printers to support their work.

I am a working Carver. So as a rule I don't have much time of other disciplines. I used to make a lot of art when I was younger but I decided to peruse carving whole heartedly so my own 'art' got put away. Recently I have been doing more design work and have a number of upcoming projects where I am both carver and designer. I have basic competency in printing and can produce my own works but, generally its not advised to do both carving and printing. As a professional in either discipline, it develops opposing muscles and can be detrimental to the other. Particularly negatively impacting the carving.

I use Ginko as a pseudonym for my work for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is that ginkgo leaves are a symbol of the city in which I live, Tokyo. traditionally It symbolizes, future growth, charm and tranquility. I've always loved gingko, ever since I was young, and in university I dedicated a large portion of my dissertation to discussions of ginkgo as living fossils in relation to macro and micro evolutionary processes. The three ginkgo leaves of my logo represent the artist, printer and carver. The circle holding them all together is the representation of the publisher.

Personally I save some for my camping trips and barbecue, they are great for stating fiers. The rest I compost but I have also hear that some people give their chips to a local wood factory to recycle them into HDF. I'm sure there are other out there with good ideas for recycling. but honestly speaking there isn't very much wood shavings, they curl up and can some times look bulky but once compacted its not all that deep. We don't carve so deep.

The Japanese paper wighting system in not gsm (grams per square meter) but instead uses the 'monme' system. If you intend on using Japanese paper seriously its good to get your head out of the gsm system and really familiarize yourself with monme and paper thickness as most Japanese suppliers won't provide the gsm. 1 monme is said as being roughly equivalent to 3.75 gms, but its not very accurate in my experience and I have often seen 8 monme sheets with wights of 40-45 gms giving 1 monme at about 5gsm. The issue is that Japanese washi is weighed per sheet and not per square meter. And since the frame sizes (used in the production of the paper that set the paper dimensions) vary between workshops. Also the monme rating will vary based on the type of paper, 8 monme gampi and 8 monme kozo washi may have very different gms. One of the most common sizes used for Mokuhanga is called O-bosho. Traditionally said to be 394 x 530 mm but to leave room for salvage and frame mounting room, size was increased in modern workshops. But it was not standardized. While Iwano san's (living national treasure who supplies all the paper for top publishers in japan currently ) O-bosho measures 450 x 550 mm another workshop may be 410x 570 mm and Awagami's O-bosho measures 430 x 530 mm. The most common size you will find in online shop click to purchase now is Kikuban which measures 910 x610mm from Kurotani, 960 x 660 mm from Kintaro and 930 x 640 from Gokayama Yukyu. Hosho washi, the one we predominantly use for printmaking ranges from 6-12 monme which is around 30-120 gsm. a typical thickness for Echizen Kizuki-Hosho washi printmaking paper is 0.2 mm thick and about 55 gms but these are hand made items and we are talking in very broad strokes here. But each artists and publishers have their own preferences in thickness, dimensions, colour and Thick paper have an incredible luxurious rich look and feel but can be very difficult to print smooth colours as you will need good power to drive the pigment into the paper. thiner papers work really well for delicate work.