Here in Japan, the spread of COVID-19 by mutant viruses has been observed. It is still unpredictable what will happen to travel restrictions from foreign countries to Japan in the future. Regarding the IMC 2021 NARA, we are currently considering to hold it in one of the following 2 ways:
to hold it in real life on a small scale and hold it online in parallel;
to hold it completely online.
Before deciding how to hold the conference in June, we would like to ask you to answer a questionnaire to know your intention whether you will participate in it. Deadline April 30 2021.
On Sunday November 8, a video shooting workshop for mokuhanga artists was held by the IMC Japan Committee. This is to promote the project Letters to Forgotten Woodblock Printmaking Lovers, in which mokuhanga artists are invited to publish video clips about their creation of mokuhanga works. The project will continue until the opening of IMC2021 in Nara, which was postponed in 2020, and will now begin on November 30.
This is a Facebook group project, titled ‘Letters to Forgotten Woodblock Printmaking Lovers’. Follow this link.
Why don’t you join the group! Please feel fee to post your videos, photos and notes to this group account. Any members of the group can add to this site, and watch and read each other’s posts. You can post your videos up until November 10, 2021. They will be shown in the venue of IMC2021 Nara. Please invite as many members as you can.
Here is a video from the project’s founder Mr Hiroki Satake:
We thank all of you who have already registered for the conference, or who have already applied to participate in the Open Portfolio event, or to give a Workshop or Demonstration, and to those of you who have submitted a paper proposal, and all of those who are planning to join the conference in November 2021 in Nara.
Currently, the conference is still going ahead in November, but we will inform you here in the News section of this website and on social media of any changes and updates to the conference in light of the developments of Covid-19 and the global response over the next few months.
Owing to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the IMC2021 conference has now been postponed until 2021, and renamed IMC2021. Please note the new dates of November 30 to December 4, 2021, and note that application dates for the juried competitions, etc., have been moved to one year hence. As always, we thank you for your great support. Please take care during these difficult times.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Keiko Kadota on January 10, 2017. She was a great friend and important mentor to many artists within and outside Japan, promoting international understanding through her many projects. As the Director of the Nagasawa Art Park (NAP) residency mokuhanga training program (1997-2011) and its successor the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory (MI-LAB) her work has been of special importance in advancing an understanding of mokuhanga, Japanese woodcut, as a creative practice internationally. The network of strong friendships she fostered has resulted in many mokuhanga exhibitions, classes, conferences, presentations and other events in all parts of the world. She was also a supporter of related craft traditions and had a deep understanding and appreciation for washi, Japanese handmade paper. In addition to her work as Director of two Japanese residencies, she initiated the tri-annual International Mokuhanga Conferences. The third of these conferences, IMC2017, will be held in Hawaii September 28 to October 1, 2017. The MI-LAB program will continue to accept applications for residencies, and the Tokyo CfSHE office will continue to offer classes and exhibitions related to mokuhanga. The passion and dedication of Keiko Kadota will be deeply missed, but her programs will continue her legacy of promoting international understanding and cooperation through mokuhanga.
In celebration of her accomplishments, MI-LAB is preparing an exhibition for June 2017 in Cyprus, which has been designated by the EU as European Capital of Culture for the year. It concerns the history of MI-LAB and NAP between 1997 and 2017 with an overview of the development of mokuhanga internationally. As a part of its research, MI-LAB will conduct a survey of NAP and MI-LAB alumni regarding their mokuhanga print publications, their other creative work including work with washi paper, their careers in educational fields, and the launch of new studios and residencies. This research will be presented at the Third International Mokuhanga Conference, Hawaii, with a small farewell celebration for Keiko, whose work so profoundly influenced the lives of so many artists, craftspeople and educators.
For further information about Keiko Kadota’s continuing programs:
Claire Cuccio, Hiroki Morinoue and Miho Morinoue at IMC2014
ニュース ↓
IMC 2014 Tokyo was held at the Tokyo University of the Arts with the Satellite events held at the 3331 Arts Chiyoda complex. It was a very rich experience and a celebration of art and culture that seems to have happened just yesterday.
During the conference, we exchanged some thoughts about holding the next IMC abroad to benefit many Japanese interests. Holding the conference outside Japan would offer Japanese craftsmen and young Japanese printmakers an opportunity to see how Japanese mokuhanga is used in the West, and to see Western views of Mokuhanga and its future possibilities. This is the only way to bring such an awareness to them, and to interest them in the rich learning experiences and development made possible by international exchanges and networking with Artist-in-Residence Programs. It will help strengthen the relationship among all the interests and beyond and sustain the lives of printmakers and craftsmen.
At the 2014 IMC Hiroki and Setsuko Morinoue discussed the possibility of hosting the next conference in Hawaii, since that location offers good support for Japanese artists and craftspeople who may have have language and cultural barriers to face during the first trip outside Japan.
We approached Prof. Charles Cohen at the University Hawaii Manoa and the Honolulu Printmakers’ Executive Director Duncan Dempster to support the Conference as Site Co-Chairs on the island of Oahu, since this event will be hosted by IMC2021 Hawaii Local Committee under the Donkey Mill Art Center, on the island of Hawaii, “the Big Island.”
The key players on Oahu and Hawaii as well as many dedicated individuals are lining up as we move forward. We are very excited to collaborate and willing to work hard to make this event a success and to celebrate across the state.
Hiroki and Setsuko Morinoue with April Vollmer and John Yamaguchi at IMC 2014
