We love Tatebanko and we are dedicated to saving the art form and updating it. We use
Tatebanko in its purest form, to visually recreate historical narratives from different cultures as dioramas. The Halloween ghost story, the defeat of Nian, the Christmas miracle. These are the stories that define who, and what, we are. Figstory is passionate about sharing these stories with you.
You have probably seen dioramas - 3D scenes populated with 2D figures - such as those you might find in a pop-up book.
What you may not know is that this is a traditional Japanese paper craft called Tatebanko. Tatebanko first appeared during the Edo period (1603 – 1868) in Japan and flourished into the 20th century.
Tatebanko or 'construction print' is the art of creating, from several pieces of paper affixed to a base, a 3D dimensional scene, illuminated with candles.
In traditional Tatebanko all the parts of a diorama were printed using woodblocks onto one or more sheets, which would then be cut out and arranged into a scene.
Tatebanko covered many topics.
Some Tatebanko told stories from history such as the 1892 woodblock of Sakai Tadatsugu tricking the
forces of Masakage into not attacking (1573) Hamamatsu Castle. Or the 1897 woodblock of the Battles of Coxinga which depicts Watōnai trying to restore the Chinese Ming Dynasty.
Folk tales and history, in particular, were very popular, and many Tatebanko's depicting various legends survive. Perhaps the oldest example is the play “Kanadehon Chushingura Ku-danme”
printed in c.1790 that tells the story
of 47 loyal samurai who avenged their dead lord at the cost of their own lives. Similarly 'The Dance of the Gods at the Heavenly Cave' tells the story of how the Gods tricked the
Goddess of the Sun into leaving a cave - Ama-no-Iwato - in which she was hiding, returning light to a dark world.
Many Tatebanko depicted daily life such as the 1813 woodblock of a festival, or the 19th-century depiction of a fan shop. Other Tatebanko showed
landscape scenes such as the famous Great Wave by Hokusai c.1830, one of 36 views of Mount Fuji. Similarly, the Kaminarimon Gate at Sensô-ji Temple in Tokyo was depicted in a
c.1810 woodblock.
In the 20th-century woodblocks became replaced by machine printing and Tatebanko started to pass into history. As few complete examples were left, slowly the paper art was forgotten.
Over the years Tatebanko has faded from view in Japan. Because most examples of Tatebanko were used, few of the original prints now survive. However, we are absolutely passionate about saving Tatebanko for a whole new generation. We believe the Tatebanko art form is extremely valuable enough in its own right. However, we also believe Tatebanko is about preserving moments, stories, and characters from the pages of history and bringing them all to life for a new generation. This is the very essence of what we strive to do.
Figstory takes the rich history of Tatebanko and reimagines it for the modern world.
We are true to our routes; traditional materials and methods are the core of our designs. For example, we retain the tradition of
printed elements on 1-2 sheets of paper that are then hand-cut and assembled. We are also passionate about re-creating historical and mythological stories in card,
exactly as our forebears did through their own Tatebanko.
However our Tatebanko does come with a modern twist, expressed through a range of innovations. We have taken the storytelling core of Tatebanko and increased
its power through the integration of technology that allows us to create a far more complete narrative than traditional Tatebanko ever could. You can read a whole page we
have dedicated to our Tatebanko to find out more about how we achieve this.
We think this method has created some of the most innovative, immersive, and engaging greetings cards on the market today, whilst still being authentic to their
history and origin. If you want to see more, visit our shop to see our selection of handcrafted cards.