Collection: Iwasaki's Botanical Woodblock Prints on Porcelain

Iwasaki Tsunemasa also Kan-en (岩崎 常正 or 灌園, 1786–1842) was a Japanese botanist and woodblock artist (as well as a zoologist, entomologist and samurai of the Tokugawa shogunate). 

Woodblock printing  is a technique used widely throughout East Asia. Each image is created by carving a wooden block to leave only some areas and lines at the original level; it is these that are inked and show in the print, in a relief printing process. Carving the blocks is skilled and laborious work, but a large number of impressions can then be printed.

This series of work includes mushrooms and lotus buds, flowers and seed pod images from Iwasaki's book "Honzō Zufu",  compendium of plants dating from the late Edo period.  Some of his woodblock art has been reprinted by Kew Gardens and is available here.  I have infused these images into glaze using l third low temperature firing with specially printed images using iron oxide.