Glossary
The dozen terms that appear on our listing pages and in the condition guide.
- ukiyo-e 浮世絵
- "Pictures of the floating world" — the popular print genre of Edo-period Japan.
- moku hanga 木版画
- Japanese woodblock printing: water-based pigment, hand-carved blocks, hand-pressed paper.
- nishiki-e 錦絵
- "Brocade pictures" — full-color prints made from many blocks, standard from the 1760s.
- fūkei-ga 風景画
- Landscape prints, the genre Hokusai and Hiroshige made dominant in the 1830s.
- key block
- The block carved with the design’s outlines, printed first; color blocks follow.
- kentō 見当
- Registration notches cut into every block so successive color passes align.
- baren 馬楝
- The flat hand-held pad the printer uses to burnish paper against the inked block.
- bokashi ぼかし
- Hand-wiped tonal gradation on the block — the soft graded skies in Hiroshige’s prints.
- washi 和紙
- Handmade Japanese paper, typically from mulberry fiber; the cream ground of every sheet (and of this site).
- ōban 大判
- The standard large print format, roughly 25 × 37 cm; the Tōkaidō series is horizontal ōban.
- hanmoto 版元
- The publisher: financier, coordinator, and usually owner of the blocks.
- restrike
- An impression pulled from original or re-carved blocks later than the first edition.