Who made an Utamaro print? Four jobs behind one image

What the sources say

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s essay says that each print required the collaboration of four experts: the designer, the engraver (carver), the printer and the publisher.

A print was usually conceived as a commercial venture by the publisher, who often was also a bookseller. The publisher chose the theme and determined the quality of the work.

From drawing to print

The designer drew the composition in ink on thin paper. The drawing was pasted face down on a block of wood, usually cherry, and the carver cut away the wood so that the lines stood in relief. Ink is applied to the block, paper is laid on top and rubbed with a pad.

For colour, further blocks were cut, one for each colour, with registration marks so that colours aligned on each pass. The Asian Art Museum notes that an average colour print needed at least about ten impressions.

The Met adds that reproductions, sometimes numbering in the thousands, could be made until the blocks became worn.

Whose name is on it?

The publisher’s seal appears on prints along with the artist’s signature, according to the Asian Art Museum. In everyday speech we credit the designer, as in “an Utamaro print”, but the object was made by a workshop system.

Interpretation: crediting one name is a useful shorthand, and also hides the carvers and printers whose skill we see in every fine line.