Facts about Japanese Woodblock Prints

1. 05

   Woodblock printing technique for art arrived in Japan from China, but Japanese artists developed it into a distinct multi-color method called benizuri-e before full polychrome nishiki-e printing emerged.

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2. 04

   Hiroshige's Japanese woodblock prints series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō depicted post towns along the famous road connecting Edo and Kyoto.

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3. 03

   Katsushika Hokusai's series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa, helped inspire the Western art movement known as Japonisme.

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4. 02

   A Japanese woodblock print typically required separate carved blocks for each color, with skilled craftsmen pressing dampened washi paper onto inked blocks by hand.

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5. 01

   The ukiyo-e tradition of Japanese woodblock prints flourished during the Edo period, depicting subjects such as kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, and landscapes.

   Japanese Woodblock PrintsJun 7shareartjapanesehistory