Woodblock printing

2024/07/18

My friend Taichi is a retiree who enjoys different hobbies. He told me about his experience of woodblock printing.

Taichi imprints fun family images on postcards and sends them to his friends.

He enjoys reading the responses he gets from his friends and he calls this group

“his woodprint communication”.

Because of their responses, he also gets inspired to create his next work.

 Woodblock print

Taichi is a retiree in his seventies who lives with his wife.

Taichi worked as an occupational therapist for many years in the field of

education and in community practice.

He has always been very active and busy working with clients and their families.

He also has engaged in different interdisciplinary projects, working together

with various professionals.

Meanwhile, Taichi looked forward to retiring early to get involved in a variety

of hobbies and activities.

In his early sixties, Taichi started switching from a work centered life to

a hobby and volunteering centered life.

Taichi fully retired six years ago and now he’s living off his pension. 

They say that male retirees often have nothing to do after they leave their jobs,

so they lose energy in their life.

However, Taichi has tried a number of hobbies and activities to determine which

fits him best: gardening, cooking, walking-jogging-running, reading,

sightseeing guide volunteer, and oil painting.

Taichi said that the best activity he is involved in is woodblock printing.

He has enjoyed woodblock printing since he was very young.

Every new year, he prints greeting postcards for his friends and acquaintances.

After he retired and after he won a printing art contest, he excitedly enrolled in

an art printing course in a senior citizen college.

He focused on creating humorous images with familiar themes.

Taichi started sketching families engaging in daily activities.

As you see, his works express daily family scenes: families' seasonal events,

leisure activities, and daily routines.

He does a lot of sketching to express funny family set ups, scenes and changing figures.

It takes him a long time to decide on a design.

Then he repeats the woodblock printing sequence of carving, printing and fixing to complete his work.

Taichi creates a woodblock print twice a month.

He prints postcards and then sends his cards to whoever replied to him previously.

He was happy that one of his friends called his print “Funny wood printing.”

Others responded to his print with warm impressions and updated him about their current health conditions.

Now he repeatedly sends postcards to ten friends, all of whom are, coincidentally, retirees in his generation or older.

Taichi calls his correspondence with them “The printing communication”.

He is always looking forward to hearing back from them after he's sent a new print.

He’s satisfied with his friends’ love of his print works and their correspondences.

He thinks it’s an appropriate way for old retirees to keep in touch with each other

and to update each other with recent happenings.

As an elder, Taichi knows that elderly people may sometimes have conditions that

will prevent them corresponding immediately.

And they sometimes have happenings in their life to share with each other in ways

more meaningful than urgent phone calls.

So their bi-weekly communications seem particularly appropriate.