baren
- Museum number
- OA+.7399
- Description
-
Baren. Woodblock printing tool used to transfer ink from the woodblock to paper. Coil of bamboo twine faced with lacquered paper, and wrapped in bamboo bark.
- Production date
- 19th century
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 11.80 centimetres
-
Height: 1.40 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Paper is laid over an inked woodblock, and pressure applied with the baren in a circular burnishing motion, to transfer ink to paper.
-
Clark 2017
Throughout his career, Hokusai was closely involved in the production of his print designs and therefore intimately familiar with the baren, the woodblock printer’s essential tool. The baren consists of a tight coil of bamboo twine (shin) sandwiched between two rigid disks of lacquered paper wrapped in silk (ate-kawa). The whole is then wrapped in a thin sheet of bamboo bark (tsutsumi-kawa), knotted against one face to form a handle and leaving the opposite face as a flat surface. The thickness of the twine at the core determines the character of the tool. A baren made of thick twine lends itself to heavy pressure and printing large areas of a design. Thin twine sustains only light pressure and produces a tool useful for delicate printing effects. A baren may range in diameter from around 8 cm to around 21 cm (3–8 in.) Having laid a sheet of paper on an inked woodblock, the printer uses the baren to burnish the back of the paper, transferring the ink and producing a print. The bamboo covering of the baren can last for a few hundred prints before it has to be replaced. During the Edo period, baren were made by specialist craftsmen.
- Location
- On display (G35/dc9)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2017 25 May - 13 Aug, London, BM, G35, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
2017 6 Oct - 19 Nov, Osaka, Abeno Harukas Art Museum
2021 30 September - 2022 30 January, London, BM, 'Hokusai: The Great Picture Book of Everything'
2022 16 Apr-12 Jun, Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Hokusai from the British Museum
2023–2024 Oct-Jan, Santa Ana, CA, USA, Bowers Museum, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
2025 1 May-7 September, BM Room 35, 'Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road'
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- OA+.7399
