Wood Block Prints

I recently visited the Norton Simon museum to see the exhibit: Lessons of the Cherry Blossom: Japanese Woodblock Prints. The exhibit itself was a bit underwhelming as it only showcased 16 prints from their permanent collection. As it turns out, my mom has a few prints by Tadasu Watanabe who reprinted woodblocks by the old masters. In this folio, there are a couple of Hiroshige pieces and a print of The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai. I read the literature that came in this folio but it doesn’t state whether they are printed from the original blocks so i’m unclear how they made the plates for these prints. However, I am certain that these are not offset and are definitely woodcut prints. Who cares what they’re worth – they are simply beautiful!