BAREN STUDIO KIKUHIDE
※ Notice of price change（From April 2024）
Although we have maintained the current price for many years, the current
situation continues to make it extremely difficult to maintain the current
price.
The cost is also quite high as everything is done manually.
We apologize to everyone who has been using Kikuhide products for many
years, and appreciate your understanding.
Kikuhide Business Information
Kikuhide started its business in 1979 as a woodblock print baren specialty workshop. We are currently the only workshop specializing in baren in Japan that handles everything from substitute baren to main baren. Thanks to you, Kikuhide's products have been used by many people who are devoted to woodblock print production for many years at professional printmakers, art colleges, vocational schools, and various print classes in Japan and overseas. We would appreciate it if you could see it as a material that you would like to know about Kikuhide products. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email.
BAREN STUDIO KIKUHIDE
56-4 HIGASHI-KOISO, OISO-MACHI
NAKA-GUN, KANAGAWA-KEN 255-0004
JAPAN
TEL 0463-47-4123
E-MAIL: baren50@mh.scn-net.ne.jp
[How to order]
■ Please contact us by email first. We will send you a confirmation reply
email. If you do not receive a reply, please send the email again as some
emails may be overlooked.
[Payment method]
■ Please use with PayPal. We are very sorry, but please bear the PayPal
fee.
[About overseas shipping handling fees]
■ Please bear 3,000yen per order.
[About shipping method]
■ We will send it by EMS at the post office.
[Delivery date]
■Please contact us each time.
□■ Medium core 12cm（14,000yen）・13cm (17,000yen)
This type of baren can be used for a wide range of prints.
It is suitable for paper thin
and medium thickness.
□■ Coarse core 12cm (14,000yen)・13cm (17,000yen)
This type of baren is good for
tsubushi (flat color) and suitable for thicker paper.
The cord is twisted with two
types of threads to make it more uneven, which enhance the effectiveness of
rubbing.
□■ Fine core 12cm（19,000yen）・13cm (25,000yen)
This type of baren is quite similar to the Hon Baren Fine core.
It is the most suitable for printing delicately carved areas and for thin
paper.
This type of baren is soft as feather and seldom leaves baren marks.
This type of baren is
the most suitable for printing extremely delicate lines.
□■ Super Murasaki 12.5cm (24,000yen)
This type of baren gives the most powerful
effect among of all from the Murasaki Baren series. Try it and experience the
feeling of surprise once this all means.
■■ HON-BAREN
HON-BAREN's ATEGAWA and bamboo skin core provide a very delicate texture
that is
The BAREN core uses
the only variety of bamboo skin in Japan.
beautiful print taste.
■■ HON-BAREN Usage and price (13cm in diameter)
|
|
Coil (cord diameter) |
Coil sample |
Coil feature and usage |
|
1 |
（about 5.5mm） 117,000yen |
|
Efficient for wide areas and thick paper. |
|
2 |
（about 4.5mm） 120,000yen |
|
|
|
3 |
（about 4.0mm） 130,000yen |
 |
Best suited for delicately carved areas or with thin paper. |
|
4 |
（about 3.2mm） 145,000yen |
 |
|
|
|
（about 5.3mm） |
 |
This Baren is very versatile. |
|
6 |
（about 4.5mm） 145,000yen |
|
Choose this rather than the 12-medium if you intend to work |
|
7 |
（about 6.7mm） 153,000yen |
 |
Plenty of power for printing ‘'Betazuri' on thick papers. |
|
8 |
（about 4.6mm） 165,000yen |
 |
Try this if you need full power for printing 'Betazuri', |
|
|
|
|
|
■ About HON-BAREN in Japan
BAREN
From the famed ukiyo-e, pictures of
the floating world, to simple New Year cards, woodblock printing is deeply
entrenched in the Japanese person’s experience of art. Every Japanese child has
tried out the process in school with a student’s carving kit, rubbing the color
onto the paper with a little round tool wrapped in a bamboo skin. This tool is
called the baren.
Although at first glance the baren
seems nondescript, it has a long history of craftsmanship from the Edo period.
At the beginning, printmakers fashioned their own baren but as demand for
woodblock prints grew, specialized artisans emerged to produce these
instruments. However, there is only one extant book published in 1973 that detailed
the manufacturing process of baren. This is because such knowledge was
generally passed down orally within the artisan community, from master to
apprentice. The second world war all but wiped out this community. Through the
unstinting efforts of post-war artisans, the production of baren was
slowly revived.
This book is an effort by a contemporary
maker of baren to leave a concrete record of its production process, hoping
to inspire others to learn how to make it themselves. While the process may at
times seem impossibly complex, one can overcome the technical challenges with
perseverance. The book shows how several artisanal techniques are drawn upon to
create a single object and represents an attempt to fashion a new type of baren.
Making a baren is a time-consuming and difficult process. But when it is
made well, it will last a lifetime. It is my hope that this book will lead to a
better appreciation of this instrument, which is so integral to woodblock printing.
What is a baren?
Carve the picture or text onto a block of
wood. Apply pigment. Lay a sheet of paper over the woodblock and transfer the
engraved image onto the paper. This sums up the process of woodblock printing,
and the last step is where the baren comes in.
In the production process of the ukiyo-e
which is synonymous with Japanese woodblock printing, the artist (e-shi)
makes an original design (genga) which is then carved onto the
woodblocks by engravers (kezuri-shi), and transferred onto paper by the
printers (suri-shi). A long production line of artisans work on this
product before it is finally published (shuppan, or to emerge from the
block). This was also the production method for books before the advent of
industrial printing machines. In all of this, the baren played a central
role.
In contemporary printmaking, artists and
printmakers continue to be connoisseurs of baren as they know that this instrument
can make or break their artwork. At the core of the baren is an
intricately braided coil of bamboo fibre called the “heart of the baren”
(baren-shin), which is covered by a shield (ate-kawa) made of multiple
sheets of pressed rice-paper and finally wrapped in another layer of bamboo
skin that forms the handle (tsutsumi-kawa). The materials, craftmanship
and technique that go into manufacturing this instrument ensure that it in turn
produces woodblock prints of an exquisite quality. The artisans of Japan can be
proud of having created such an instrument, which is even called by its
Japanese name “baren” in foreign lands where woodblock prints are made.
The role of a baren
Appropriately for a medium made famous by
“floating world pictures”, water plays an important role in Japanese woodblock
printing. First, water-based pigment is spread on a wet woodblock, then an
evenly moistened sheet of paper is placed on top of the block, and the baren
is rubbed over it to transfer the image from the block to the paper.
Many aspects of this art are unique to Japan,
an island country with a high level of humidity. For one, Japanese rice paper (washi)
is the perfect vessel for the water-based pigment because of its long,
unbreakable fibres. The printmaker needs to have a complete understanding of
conditions relating to water – how liquid the pigment is on the woodblock, the
amount of moisture on the paper – in order to control the amount of pressure
and the direction in which the baren should be rubbed. Only then will
the pigment be smoothly absorbed onto the paper to form the perfect printed
image.
Amongst Japanese printmakers, there is a
term for this printing alchemy – whether the baren is “working” (kiku)
or “not working” (kikanai). When the baren is “working”, the
pigment is evenly and thoroughly absorbed all the way to the core of the rice
paper. When the baren is “not working”, the pigment sits leaden on the
surface and does not permeate the paper. What makes a baren “work well”?
Its heart must be hard and firm, its shield must be slender but tough and its
handle must be sturdy and taut. A baren that “works well” will create
that mystical mixing of pigment and water that results in subtle yet deep
color, a unique characteristic of woodblock printing.
A final contribution of the baren to
the printmaking process is how it guides the printer’s hand over the engraved
block. A good baren is able to pick up the nuances in the grooves made by the
carver on the woodblock, and help the printer realize these subtleties as the
image is printed on the paper. In other words, the role of the baren is to
be the eye of the printer’s hand.
GOTOU HIDEHIKO
Translated by Adeline Yeo
