kimedashi　きめ出し

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Also kimekomi きめ込み or nikuzuri 肉摺 (flesh printing). A special printing technique used to raise the paper surface of a color woodblock print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 to create a slight three-dimensionality. It may be used to enhance the curves of a woman's body or the bulge of a warrior's muscles (hence flesh printing), or perhaps the feathers on a bird or piled-up snow. Once printing of the color blocks is completed, the print is placed back again face-down on the uninked original "key" block that was used to print the black outlines sumi-ita 墨板. The printer then presses down very hard on the paper with his elbow to force down the paper into the gap between the raised ridges of wood on the block which originally printed the outlines. This slightly sinks the outlines and raises up the area in between. This technique is frequently encountered on prints by Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木春信 (1725-70) and Ippitsusai Bunchou 一筆斎文調 (worked 1765-73), but seems to have been less commonly used as prints came to be more mass-produced.

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