Minneapolis Institute of Art

Preparatory drawing for the left and right sheets of Picture of the Gojō Bridge from the Chronicle of Yoshitsune

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Date

c. 1881

Medium

Preparatory drawing for a print, ink on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

It is extremely rare that preparatory drawings for woodblock prints survive, since the final versions were pasted on the key blocks to guide the carving of the black lines and were thus usually destroyed during the production process. Such drawings were more detailed and exact than the initial sketches and therefore offered a better representation of the final print. The outlines were the most important part, and some repetitive areas were only indicated but not fully executed—the wooden boards of the bridge or patterns of textile, for example. These drawings could also include coloring instructions. The spacing was not yet finalized in this drawing, since in the finished print the image is spread over three sheets instead of two. Japan, Asia

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