We carry a small but fine selection of Original Woodblock Prints by Kawase Hasui, Kuniyoshi, Kunisada, and Toyokuni to name a few. We also carry a selection of Restruck Woodblock Prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai and others. A Restruck Woodblock Print is one that has been made in the traditional process, but not printed from the original blocks of wood, and often not during the lifetime of the artist. A Restruck Print is still made with the same labor-intensive process as the original; an artist drew the design, the design was given to the woodblock carvers, who had to carve a new block for every color in the print, and these were then given to the printer who had to make sure that each color that was added to the woodblock print was lined up in perfect registry, so nothing would be blurred. The continual carving of new woodblocks is necessary because after a limited number of runs the carved blocks lose their edge and cannot be used to make a fine quality woodblock print anymore.
The continued production of Restruck Woodblock Prints guarantees that the traditional processes of hand-carving the blocks and printing from them will never be lost, because the necessary skills are still being taught and practiced.