Five stripes of Mizuhiki
Right red, left white
A set of objects.

One day, I found this in a cardboard box labeled "Woodblocks" at a second-hand book market. At first, a single silver piece caught my eye, positioned vertically, and I was struck by the beauty of its smooth, unwavering curves, shaped by sharp carvings. Not realizing that it was also one half of a noshi, I was looking inside the box thinking it might be an interesting object when I came across a vermilion woodblock, and finally realized it was a woodblock for printing noshi paper. It is a classic example of beauty in utility, and in the sense that both the maker and user are anonymous, it could perhaps be considered a type of craft.

The width of the blocks is the same, and the height of the blocks is almost the same as the type, so they are probably from the time when printing was done with a press for letterpress printing.soIt is not old, but I suspect it dates back to the 1950s or 60s, just after the war. If you can align it correctly, you should be able to print beautiful noshi paper by hand even now. However, I think it would be interesting to forget its original purpose for a moment and use it as an object to decorate a celebratory occasion, for example.

Text by Masago Sato