Woodblock prints

A woodblock print is a relief print: the image is cut into a block of wood, the parts meant to print are left level with the surface, and the rest is removed. The cut-away areas carry no ink. The raised surface is inked, and the paper laid on it is pressed or rubbed, often with a hand tool called a baren. Traditional Japanese prints are cut on cherry wood and printed with water-based inks, where Western woodcut typically uses oil-based ones. Early Japanese prints were mostly monochrome, in black ink only. Colour came by cutting one block for each colour and lining the blocks up with registration marks called kentō, as in ukiyo-e prints. From the late Meiji period, artists who carved and printed their own blocks began to make what are called creative prints.

Look closely at where black meets white and find the lines the knife left. Then step back and see how the black areas and the blank paper build the whole picture.

• Etching (copperplate print) 銅版画（エッチング）→Etching prints from ink held in hollowed lines, the opposite of a woodblock, which prints from the raised surface.