Hi,

I wanted to thank you for answering my question on Ask Metafilter (under the name shirobara, about the ukiyo-e)! After searching and searching online, I'm really amazed to finally have an answer. Thank you so much for going out of your way to look for it!

A followup question or two: so, I could theoretically buy it for ¥8,500? What does it mean that the print was pulled 10 years ago? (I don't know too much about ukiyo-e, so...)

Ukiyo-e are made by carving a series of wooden boards: one for the outlines, and one for each color or degree of shading that's desired in the final print. Then each board is prepared with its ink, and v-e-r-y carefully aligned with register marks and stamped on the paper, one by one, light colors first. You can see that several steps were needed here ( http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/ukiyoe/fuji2.gif ), for example.

Thus, an ukiyo-e print is made by artists who handcraft the printing plates, except that the plates are wooden blocks, and a set can be used for making (pulling, if you can imagine peeling the print with wet paint off the block) several prints, though the plates do eventually wear out. This print was made about 10 years ago, I don't know when the artist carved the blocks.

Actually, I was at their gallery just 3 weeks ago, browsing. Ukiyo-e are very brilliant and colorful and compelling to look at, imho. Van Gogh-esque. they give lessons, you can actually make a simple ukiyo-e there at the handicraft center, where their shop is now located. I'll try to get a picture next time I'm in the neighborhood.