Hideo Nishiyama

This print is from Hideo Nishiyama's rarely seen series of the national parks, "Yoshino Kumano Kokuritsu koen" (Yoshino Kumano National Park). Tourist boat excursion landing at the Kumano river. The carver Nagashima, printer Shinmi. Published in 1960.
The original artwork was obviously a crayon sketch. It is astounding how well the carver and printer have worked to recreate the layered crayon texture. I cannot imagine how this might be done. Each pass of the crayon can be seen sitting atop of the one underneath. The rough texture of the crayon on the paper is also rendered perfectly. The surface of this print is quite smooth and the back shows baren marks. It is a woodblock print.
Click on the thumbnail for a closer view