Gedō — a Buddhist word for those outside the way. Original paintings in brush and sumi ink by a working hand-carving tattoo artist. One of one.
Brush and sumi ink on washi, by the same person who carves skin for a living. Originals are not listed with a price — write to us and we will tell you what is available and what it costs.
Sumi ink and pigment on washi · 00 × 00 cm · 2026 · signed and sealed
Sumi ink and pigment on washi · 00 × 00 cm · 2026 · signed and sealed
Sumi ink and pigment on washi · 00 × 00 cm · 2026 · signed and sealed
Sumi ink and pigment on washi · 00 × 00 cm · 2025 · private collection
Sumi ink and pigment on washi · 00 × 00 cm · 2025 · private collection
Your own subject, painted by hand in the same tradition. Tell us what you have in mind and we will quote it.
Each image is painted once, then pulled as an edition of thirty. Every print is signed, numbered and sealed by the artist by hand. Thirty is not a marketing number — it is the number he can seal before the impression begins to soften.
Not released yet. The list goes first: twenty-four hours of early access, at a lower price, before it opens to everyone.
In Japanese, the woodblock carver and the tattoo carver are called by the same word — horishi. The carver of blocks. The carver of skin.
Tebori means to carve by hand. Skin is worked the way a block is worked before a print is pulled: angle, depth, timing, the same discipline. In Edo the two trades overlapped so completely that Kuniyoshi, one of the great ukiyo-e masters, is thought to have been a horishi himself.
Ukiyo-e was never museum art. It was cheap, mass-printed, censored, and made for the streets. The word ukiyo meant the floating world — the theatres, the drink, the pleasure quarters, everything the shogunate disapproved of. Painting it was the whole point.
Our artist works by hand. No machine for the shading, no machine for the colour. He carves skin during the week and paints with brush and ink at night, and the work in this catalogue comes from the same hand, and the same tradition, as the tattoos.
Fewer than a few dozen master carvers are still working in Japan. This is not a revival. It never stopped.
現代の浮世を、墨と筆で。
Tell us which piece you are interested in. We reply in English, usually within a day, with size, condition and price.
We send a secure payment link — a normal checkout page, not a bank transfer. No account needed.
Sent from Japan in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. Most orders arrive within seven to fourteen days.
Every original travels with a signed certificate of authenticity, the artist's seal, and the publisher's mark.
No obligation. We will tell you what is available, what it costs, and what shipping to your country looks like.
Or write directly — hello@example.com
Twenty-four hours of early access at a lower price, before each edition opens to everyone. We write when there is a new piece — not otherwise.
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