Japanese woodblock prints Woodblock printing

under wave off kanagawa hokusai, ukiyo-e artist

the earliest known woodblock printing dates 764-770, when empress shotoku commissioned 1 million small wooden pagodas containing short printed scrolls—typically 6 cm × 45 cm (2.4 in × 17.7 in)—to distributed temples. apart production of buddhist texts, became widespread 11th century in japan, process adopted in japan secular books surprisingly late, , chinese-japanese dictionary of 1590 earliest known example.

though jesuits operated movable type printing-press in nagasaki, printing equipment toyotomi hideyoshi s army seized korea in 1593 had far greater influence on development of medium. 4 years later, tokugawa ieyasu, before becoming shogun, effected creation of first native movable type, using wooden type-pieces rather metal. oversaw creation of 100,000 type-pieces, used print number of political , historical texts.

an edition of confucian analects printed in 1598, using korean moveable type printing press, @ order of emperor go-yōzei. document oldest work of japanese moveable type printing extant today. despite appeal of moveable type, however, decided running script style of japanese writing better reproduced using woodblocks, , woodblocks once more adopted; 1640 once again being used purposes.

the technology gained popularity among publishers, , used produce affordable prints books. result, japan began see of literary mass production , increasing literacy. content of these books varied widely, including travel guides, advice manuals, kibyōshi (satirical novels), sharebon (books on urban culture), art books, , play scripts jōruri (puppet) theatre. often, within genre, such jōruri theatre scripts, particular style of writing come standard genre; in other words, 1 person s personal calligraphic style adopted standard style printing plays.