"Gyotaku" (gyo 'fish' + taku 'rubbing') is a traditional form of Japanese fish printing, dating from the mid 1800s, a form of nature printing used by fishermen to record their catches. My sister Nicole and I had discussed it a while back and after having seen a few examples on you-tube, we decided to give it a go during my recent visit to her house in Winnipeg.
The selection of fish was not the greatest at the local Superstore, so we went with a frozen 'white fish' because it had a pretty nice pattern of scales. It's apparently better to use a freshly caught fish that has not been gutted because then you don't have to fill in the underside with paper towels to give it body. Once thawed, we dabbed some paper towels in vinegar to wipe off as much slime as possible, while drying it out. Filling in with bits paper tissue behind the gills, in the nostrils and covering the eyes (which are then painted in later) helps prevent wet spots of fluid blotting the ink. We also used plasticine underneath the fins to keep it propped up for when pressure is applied with the paper.
The next step is to paint the fish. We used a black block print ink. You dab the paint with a sponge or rag to make sure it gets into the surface but also to remove some of the ink where it is too thick. Using Japanese rice paper, you then spread a piece over the fish and and apply pressure with your hands and rub the paper with your fingers.
Et voilà! You then take a brush and ink to add in the eye as well as enhance some of the spots that did not pick up enough ink during the rubbing, like the dorsal fin and tail. I'm looking forward to trying it with nicer looking fish, freshly caught on my next camping trip.
Here are two fish prints I did the following summer whilst visiting Quadra island. The one above is a 2.5 lb rock fish. I had brought a roll of rice paper, tissue with the ink and brushed it on the fish on a stump near where I landed my kayak from which I caught the fish.
It was the same for this nice 12lb salmon a few days later. You have to bring enough paper to make several prints because inevitably you will screw one or two of them up. There is a variety in each print as well, some picking up the detail of scales and fins better than others. The one below, I stuck onto a canvas with acrylic medium and I added some paint and other strips of paper to give some texture. The best part of it all is that after you had fun creating a work of art from a fish, you just rinse the water soluble paint off of it then it's ready to be cleaned, cooked and eaten.
