写楽

Invented in a backyard shed during lean times, instant ramen has become a global food juggernaut. Walk into just about any food store, anywhere, and chances are you’ll find a few colorful packages containing a dry raft of woven noodles and a foil flavor packet.

But ramen is ever-evolving, appearing as a Japanese street favorite, a dorm room staple, a hip foodie obsession and, most recently, a hybrid that’s both artisanal and convenient. Here’s how ramen, in all its incarnations, conquered the globe.

Actor Arashi Tomisaburo II in the role of Innan Kazuma in the kabuki play Asakusa Reigen-ki.

Onoe Matsusuke as Usui Sadamitsu, Katsukawa Shunzan, 1781, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 31 x 14.5 cm (12 3/16 x 5 11/16 in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Onoe Kikugogo I as Izumi no Saburo in Ichimura Theater, Ippitsusai Buncho, 1769, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 30.6 x 14 cm (12 1/16 x 5 ½ in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Nakamura Nakazo I as Watanabe no Tsuna, Katsukawa Shunzan, 1781, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 31 x 14.4 cm (12 3/16 x 5 11/16 in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Memorial Portrait of Matsumoto Koshiro V, Age 75, Hachisuka II, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 37.5 x 26.1 cm (14 ¾ x 10 ¼ in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Segawa Roko as Hachizo’s Wife Ohatsu, Utagawa Toyokuni, c. 1805, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 36.9 x 27.7 cm (14 ½ x 10 7/8 in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Nakamura Tomijuro and Nakamura Shichisaburo II as the Lovers Agemaki and Sukeroku, Torii Kiyonobu II, 1753, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 42.1 x 29.9 cm (16 9/16 x 11 ¾ in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Here’s the thing about reproducing ukiyo-e that nobody talks about: the original woodblock print was already a reproduction.

Utagawa Toyokuni’s “Actor Ichikawa Yaozō III and Poem” from the series Actors in Paired Mirrors was never a unique object. A designer drew it, a carver cut the blocks, a printer pressed pigment onto mulberry paper - division of labor, edition after edition. The kabuki fan in 1790s Edo bought this the way you’d grab a magazine. That dark overrobe with its swirling cloud patterns, the coral-red underlayer, the peony blossoms picked out in pink and gold - each color required a separate carved block, each impression hand-burnished with a baren. A poem by Ryōhōan drifts in cursive beside the actor’s face like a second voice sharing the stage. The original was already mechanical. So what does a modern archival pigment reproduction actually betray?

Honestly? Less than you’d think. Pigment-based inks on warm-toned paper can hold those five or six tonal shifts in Yaozō’s face without collapsing them into muddy grey. The red kumadori lines at his eye corners stay sharp. The calligraphic poem keeps its gestural life instead of dissolving into blur. The print was born for paper. Now at the Rijksmuseum - still performing.

Actor Holding a Razor, c. 1790s or early 1800s, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 31.2 x 14 cm (12 5/16 x 5 ½ in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Ichimura Uzaemon IX as Soga no Juro, Katsukawa Shunsho, mid 1770s, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 32.8 x 15 cm (12 15/16 x 5 7/8 in.) Medium: color woodblock print

Here’s the thing about reproducing ukiyo-e that nobody talks about: the original woodblock print was already a reproduction.

Utagawa Toyokuni’s “Actor Ichikawa Yaozō III and Poem” from the series Actors in Paired Mirrors was never a unique object. A designer drew it, a carver cut the blocks, a printer pressed pigment onto mulberry paper - division of labor, edition after edition. The kabuki fan in 1790s Edo bought this the way you’d grab a magazine. That dark overrobe with its swirling cloud patterns, the coral-red underlayer, the peony blossoms picked out in pink and gold - each color required a separate carved block, each impression hand-burnished with a baren. A poem by Ryōhōan drifts in cursive beside the actor’s face like a second voice sharing the stage. The original was already mechanical. So what does a modern archival pigment reproduction actually betray?

Honestly? Less than you’d think. Pigment-based inks on warm-toned paper can hold those five or six tonal shifts in Yaozō’s face without collapsing them into muddy grey. The red kumadori lines at his eye corners stay sharp. The calligraphic poem keeps its gestural life instead of dissolving into blur. The print was born for paper. Now at the Rijksmuseum - still performing.

Nakamura Utaemon as Inanoya Hanbei, Hokushu Shunkosai, c. 1822, Cleveland Museum of Art: Japanese Art

Size: Sheet: 38 x 26 cm (14 15/16 x 10 ¼ in.) Medium: color woodblock print