Gyotaku

Gyotaku is coming to the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum on Saturday, October 10, for a hands-on workshop where you'll learn how to print fish on paper. It's a short session—2:30 PM to 3:30 PM—so it fits easily into a Saturday afternoon in Balboa Park.

If you've never heard the term, it's a bit of a giveaway: in Japanese, gyo means fish and taku means impression. The practice goes back centuries, long before photography, when Japanese fishermen used it to record and document their catch. What started as a practical way to keep a record turned into a rich art form that's both simple and detailed. The workshop walks you through the basics, from inking the fish to taking the print, so you'll leave with your own piece of work.

It's the kind of thing that's easier to see than to describe—the way the ink catches the scales and the shape of the fish—and since it's a workshop, you're the one doing the printing rather than just looking at a finished piece. If you've ever wanted to try something a bit more tactile on a weekend, this is a good place to start.

The workshop runs from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM at the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum, 2215 Pan American Road East, in Balboa Park. It's free, so you can drop in without worrying about the cost.