Humans have been stamping and pressing patterns onto objects for a long time. patterns or stamps pressed into clay date back thousands of years, and the hammering of metal ingots into coin-like patterns seems to have begun around 600-700 BC. c.
Fragments of carved woodblocks used to print patterns on silk date to about 200 CE, in Asia. Wood-based paper emerges in China around this same time (200 BC – 200 AD), and the use of a carved block of wood to press the pages of a book dates to about 650-700 AD. c., in the reproduction of Buddhist scriptures.
You are reading: The printing of books from carved wooden blocks
The technology is simple. Regardless of its medium, parts of a solid, level surface carry ink, which is transferred to the paper surface by stamping or pressing.
Although movable type (ca. 1050) enabled the printing of Western languages, with the rich combination of a finite set of letters into infinite words, pictographic Eastern languages remained better suited to uniquely carving an entire page, instead of carving and sorting, indexing and storing thousands of characters.
printing emerged in the mid-15th century, and the use of carved woodblocks as a source of prints was common for a hundred years, until the long era of metal engraving (1500-1800) before lithography and printing offset.
woodblock printing for books and artwork persisted in Asia until the late 19th century, before the age of photographic reproduction changed the world of printing.
See Also: 8 Great Santa Fe Bookstores — Wander New Mexico Food Tours
Here is an 1853 Japanese woodblock printing plate that I own.
This is a hard wood block carved on both sides. The printing area is 17.4 x 27 cm (6 7/8 x 10 5/8 inch), with an overall size of the woodblock of 19.2 x 40.5 cm (7 1/2 x 15 7/8 inch), with a thickness of 1.3 cm (1/2 inch). It weighs 720 g (1.6 pounds).
The provenance on this is solidly good because the book is well known. Here is the impression from this plate.
the title of the book is enmi jizokyo wakun zue (sutra of the bodhisattva jizo that prolongs life with Japanese annotations and illustrations) in 3 volumes; and these are pages 25 and 26 of volume 2. it was printed by bokuko and published in september 1853 by the bookseller haruhoshi do in osaka. The editor and commentator was Yomogimuro Aritune, and the illustrator was Matsukawa Hanzan (1818-1882). The writing itself was first published in print around the 15th century in Japan, and this specimen is one of the earliest with Japanese illustrations and annotations.
ksitigarbha is one of the four most important bodhisattvas in east asian buddhism and one of the most beloved figures in japan (called o-jizo sama by children in japan). Many scriptures attributed to him were translated from Sanskrit in China around 700 AD. This particular script (enmi jizokyo) was claimed to have been translated by Amoghavajra (705-774), a highly revered Indian monk who spent most of his life at the court of the Chinese Tang dynasty.
begins with a passage that is claimed to have been spoken by the Buddha himself. The scriptures could actually have originated in Japan, as there are certain passages that are uniquely Japanese (for example, the legendary tengu, a heavenly dog, is mentioned). It was very popular with the samurai of the Kamakura period (11th and 12th centuries) and popular with people in East Asia ever since.
This woodblock print plate contains one of the important passages with its full annotation and accompanying illustration. the pronunciation of each character was indicated by hiragana.
can be roughly translated as: jizo bodhisattva is such that he can display his body in a variety of ways and would like to save all the souls of the six worlds (including hell). the annotation included a detailed explanation of each word and a story of two samurai (rich and poor) from the kamakura period with the illustration showing one praying with the bodhisattva jizo who appeared to him in person.
See Also: 10 Books to Make You Feel Good | NUVO
The other side of the block looks like this.
and the print on this side looks like this.
hundreds of thousands of pages of books and pictures were printed in japan from the period of approximately 1710-1875.
still today, monks at sera monastery in tibet can be seen printing scriptures, to be sold as souvenirs, from blocks of wood. Here are some photos I took of a monk working on the sera in 2008, near a storage wall for the wooden blocks.
See Also: Photo Book Quotes About Making Memories | Shutterfly