Crane at sunrise

 This design - based on an original by Koryusai - incorporates two of the most important symbols of the New Year in traditional Japanese culture: the long-lived crane, and the first sunrise of the new year.
This is another editorialized image taken from a taller print with waves at the bottom. The image has been adapted to a smaller format and cropped to fit its new hagaki (postcard size) dimensions.

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This is an interesting one. The original block set was carved by Dave Bull many years ago. It sold hundreds of prints, and the blocks wore out—except for one. The karazuri (embossing) block wasn’t rubbed with pigment and was made on a nice, hard piece of wood, so it was fine. However, all the other blocks had rounded corners, and the print could no longer be printed cleanly.

So, we tried an experiment of planing down the blocks and trimming the edges to breathe new life into the old block set. That was the idea, anyway. After planing and reviewing the blocks with Dave, we decided it simply wasn’t worth the trouble. Touching up blocks can be very finicky and time-consuming, so upon reflection, the decision was made to cut-and-run and remake the blocks from scratch. As a result, we now have this 'new version' of an old print.

How many times can you change the brush head before it’s considered a new broom, I wonder?