Japan Wood Cuts

Introduced during China’s Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, the art of woodblock printing was not popularized in mainstream Japan until its Edo period, an era denoting 1603 through 1868. Initially, the woodblock printing process was used to reproduce traditional hand-scrolls as affordable books. Soon, however, it was adapted and adopted as a means to mass produce prints.


While woodblock printing was eventually replaced by methods of moveable type (in terms of text), it remained a preferred and popular method among Japanese artists for decades—namely, those working in the ukiyo-e genre. Japanese masters like Andō Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, and Kitagawa Utamaro helped elevate the practice with their “floating world prints,” which are considered world-class works of art today.