Digital Ukiyo-e preserving project: intelligent coding and constructing archives of printing blocks

We introduce a project on digital archives of Ukiyo-e Japanese traditional woodblock printing Ukiyo-e, or multiblock and multicolor woodblock printing is known world-widely as one of fine arts in the Edo period in Japan. However, since the printing blocks are made of wood, it is very difficult to re-utilize the existing printing blocks due to cracking, wearing and warp, and very important cultural heritages We introduce a method to preserve the printing blocks as virtual woodblocks by digital coding using the virtual woodblock printing method developed by the authors. Digital printing blocks are generated from existing final prints instead of actual blocks. The Ukiyo-e prints can be generated by two methods: (1) virtual woodblock printing by virtual printing blocks in a virtual space; and (2) actual woodblock printing by actual printing blocks generated from digital data by an NC carving machine. The process of digitizing blocks and a method to generate prints are discussed