By-Laws and About Gyotaku

About Gyotaku

Gyotaku developed in Japan, before the 1840s invention of the camera, as a method to document a really big catch. It is simply the method of brushing a fish with black sumi ink and pressing the fish to paper. Japanese fishermen often had newspaper and sumi ink at hand on their fishing boats, and so they would brush their fish with the ink, press it to the paper and print their catch.

Afterwards, the fish was washed in the sea and eaten.

So it is today. Gyotaku artists do the same to document their own catch of the really big or unusual fish. Others collaborate with scientists, such as those at the Monterey Bay or Scripps Aquariums in California, to create art from precious and unusual fish that have died in their time. Other artists use fish to create multiple prints that experiment with shape and composition, often freezing their fish and reprinting them in different combinations.

Artists teaching this fine art use fish that are commonly available and sturdy, often getting 10-12 prints from each fish. These fish have been unrefrigerated for 12 hours or more in the printing and washing process and touched by many people, so the fish can’t be eaten, but these fish too are often frozen at the end of class and reused.

You can find gyotaku classes throughout the U.S., at the Smithsonian and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, to name two. Mineo Yamamoto is a well-respected gyotaku artist who practices outside of Tokyo, Japan.

For more about this art form, including images and artist profiles, see our archive at the University of California, Davis and search “Gyotaku.”

Karen Gillard
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