Although born in Paris, Paul Jacoulet became fluent in Japanese having grown up in Tokyo, where his father was employed by the Japanese government to teach French. He also embraced their social customs and studied their traditional arts.
As early as 1931 he began to work with a Japanese artist to learn the craft of woodblock printmaking. In 1933 he established the Jacoulet Institute of Prints, publishing his first designs the following year. His standards for printing were rigorous and consequently chose to honor his carvers and printers, acknowledging their identifies in the margins of his prints. He also incorporated enhancing materials such as mica, crushed pearl and powdered metals into his prints, following the Meiji tradition.
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