Galloping into 2026 with My First Riso Print of the Year

Happy New Year!
Today marks the beginning of a brand new year—and I’m feeling so excited! This year, I want to double down on risograph printing, illustration, and participating in more art book fairs. Things started rolling in a great direction last year, so I’m hoping to keep that momentum going in 2026 with lots of creative output. To kick things off, I decided to do a printing version of “kakizome” (書初め), a Japanese New Year’s tradition.

Kakizome is a calligraphy ritual we do at the start of the year—kids in Japan even get it as winter break homework. You write your goals or something meaningful for the year with a calligraphy brush and black ink on special paper. I used to take calligraphy lessons, but I was so bad at it… I remember not liking kakizome at all. I’d always rush through the assignment and then use the leftover ink to make Japanese-style illustrations for fun instead!

So this year, I did a kakizome—but with my risograph machine! For my first print of 2026 using the SF5450 (the machine my husband got me last year), I sketched a horse leaping over Mount Fuji to match this year’s zodiac animal. Then I finished it in Procreate and printed it using Riso. It turned out like a blend of ink painting and Riso gradients—so unexpected but cool!

I also included the phrase “駆け出す2026” in Japanese, which loosely translates to “Galloping into 2026.” That’s the energy I want to carry into this year—off and running, full speed ahead!