The printed fish technique
print /prɪnt/ noun: a photographic copy of a painting, or a picture made by pressing paper onto a special surface covered in ink or a single photograph from a film.
to print verb: to make a picture by pressing paper or other material against a special surface covered with ink.
(from Cambridge Dictionary)
Gyotaku 魚 拓
The origins of the practice of gyotaku are still nebulous, its past is not very clear, and the present is divided between various schools that weakly communicate with each other.
Making a fish print (魚 gyo = fish + 拓 taku = print/impression) it is originally a tradition linked to a recreational fishermen practice in Japan to preserve the memory of an important catch, like a snapshot of a trophy. The fish was painted with a black soot based ink, resin and glue (sumi) on which the sheet of paper (washi) was then placed on (Takugi-ga); the image was then accompanied by information related to the fish such as species, size and weight, the name of the fisherman, and (sometimes) the date. The two oldest examples are dated February 1839 (Tempo Era). From the 19th century onwards many gyotaku were made by the inhabitants of the Yamagata prefecture (Shonai).
A collection of these first prints is currently held at the Tsuruoka City Library. Others made in the 1850s–60s are kept at the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka and the Homma Museum of Art Sakata.
An interesting research was conducted by researchers Yusuke Miyazaki and Atsunobu Murase of Tokyo University, on 261 gyotaku from 4 different regions (from the morthenmost to the southernmost point) found in some fish shops where, once, gyotaku were displayed. The purpose of this survey was to obtain informations (presence and location on national territory) on species currently considered critically endangered. A significan fact also concerns the great difficulty in finding gyotaku prior to 1985 while a peak was observed in 2002; a decline due in part to the growing use of digital photography as evidence. The oldest gyotaku found by this survey was dated 1836: due to the perishable nature of such works, exposure to degradation factors present in the shop (tobacco smoke, moisture and UV rays) it is thought that gyotakus prior to this date may be preserved in private homes (Yusuke Miyazaki, Atsunobu Murase, Fish rubbing, "Gyotaku" as a source of historical biodiversity data, https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article )
The artistic gyotaku was born from this traditional practice. It was carried out by a few masters, but it's rapidly spreading worldwide nowadays, not without conceptual distortions or excessive iuse of print retcouching.
The direct method
the evolution of the traditional method is the addition of color instead of black ink. Through a sequence of dark (kyo), medium (Tyu) and light (Jiaku) shades blended with the aid of only the brush, the livery of the species in question is painted directly on the animal; the resulting imprint is obtained by spreading a sheet over the colored fish and, through rubbing and pressure with the fingers, the anatomical details are obtained. At the end of this procedure the eye is painted freehand. Master Masatzu Matzunaga is the proponent of this technique. He founded the Takuseikai art gyotaku association in 1977 in Osaka, and is the master from whom I learned the direct colored technique. Printing defects, such as white parts, or unclear details, are considered peculiar: "Either it goes, or it breaks it". Touching up the defects would be equivalent to not capturing the snapshot and imprint appearance of the fish. Timing is essential: based on the relative humidity you have a maximum time of 30/40 minutes to print, and the result is always a surprise for the operator too, as you work on the back of the sheet.
The indirect method
Developed in the 1940s by Master Ryuzabuto Takao in Tokyo but bonded to an ancient chinese tradition Taku-hon (拓本), it consists of preparing the cleaned fish and applying the support (paper or cloth) directly on it; subsequently, the imprint of the fish is obtained by dabbing the surface with slightly diluted color using dabbers; also in this case, the steps of the various colors are coded by a sequence. Unlike the direct method, you have total control of the result, since you work directly on the result side, and you have all the time to intervene on the desired effect. The name of this method is Tatsunoko-kai and includes artists such as Ryutaro Ohno, Haryu Ide and Mineo Sakamoto. [2]
In both methods there is a ban on retouching the impression, with the exception of the eyes. If the image is retouched it is not considered gyotaku.
Elena Di Capita