Tantou woodcut New Year pictures

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Tantou woodcut New Year pictures

Applicant: longhui County, Hunan Province

Item No.: 307

Project No.: Ⅶ - 8

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Hunan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: longhui County, Hunan Province

Protection unit: longhui County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Introduction to Tantou woodcut New Year pictures:

Applicant: longhui County, Hunan Province

Tantou woodblock New Year picture is the only handmade woodblock watermark New Year picture in Hunan Province, which has its own style with strong local characteristics of Southern Chu. Tantou town is located in the southeast of longhui County, Hunan Province. Its folk customs are simple and honest, and its customs are unique. In history, there have been paper-making villages, carving villages, colored paper, flower paper, fragrant powder paper lanes and new year's painting streets. Its handicraft industry is very developed, and its division of labor is clear. There are many kinds of paper horses used for sacrifice, and its production technology has an inherent inheritance relationship with the later Tantou woodcut New Year pictures. According to longhui county annals, Tantou woodcut New Year pictures have a history of more than 300 years. According to folk oral historical materials, the original woodcut New Year pictures workshop in Tantou was run by Wang Dongyuan, nicknamed "Wang monkey" in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and had printed more than ten kinds of New Year pictures, such as Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong. During the reign of Daoguang, Hu Qifu opened a new year's painting workshop named heshunchang, adding new varieties such as "the knot of peach garden". During the Tongzhi period, Tantou woodblock New Year pictures had been sold all over the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, the production of Tantou woodcut New Year pictures reached its peak, with 108 New Year picture workshops, with an annual output of more than 30 million new year pictures, which were sold to the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River and Southeast Asia. After 1949, Tantou woodcut New Year pictures were banned as feudal superstitions. Production resumed in 1958, destroyed again after 1966, and resumed in 1979. In 1984, Tantou town was named "the hometown of modern Chinese folk painting" by the Ministry of culture. In 1994, the Tantou woodcut New Year picture was awarded the "silver award of Chinese folk art" by the Ministry of culture. In 2003, Tantou woodblock New Year pictures won the gold medal of traditional Chinese crafts in the first China cultural relics imitation and folk crafts exhibition.

From papermaking to finished products, all processes of Tantou woodblock New Year pictures are completed in Tantou, forming a complete production series, which is rare in the production of New Year pictures in China. There are more than 40 kinds of traditional Tantou woodcut New Year pictures, which are divided into three categories: door god portraits, auspicious meanings, and drama stories. In the process of Tantou woodcut New Year pictures, the traditional processes such as steaming paper, holding glue, and brushing powder are unique to Tantou, and "face opening" is also a unique special skill different from other New Year pictures. The difficulty of plate making of Tantou woodblock New Year pictures lies in the line plate carving. In this respect, the "steep knife vertical line" technology of "gaofuchang" New Year pictures workshop is very famous. The angle of the line knife is consistent, the use of uniform dark force, and the turning and intersection are stable. It is completely controlled by feeling and skills.

Today, after more than three hundred years, Tantou woodcut New Year pictures have become the treasures of large museums in Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries. However, in recent years, the market of Tantou woodcut New Year pictures has shrunk sharply, the income of the workshops can't make ends meet, and the artists have changed their careers. Only two new year pictures workshops still keep their appearance. Among them, "jinyumei" has basically stopped production, and "Gaolamei" can barely support it. The annual output is less than 50000 pieces, and none of the owners' children inherit their ancestors. Tantou woodcut New Year pictures are damaged or lost, and many skills have been lost, which need to be rescued and protected.