Woodblock Prints
Though woodblock prints were around in Japan for centuries, the first time they were used to produce full color art was in 1765. A print is made by carving out a piece of wood, painting the areas that will be a single color, and transferring that to paper. This process is repeated for every color. The same wood could be reused, and more prints, "sometimes numbering in the thousands, could be made until the carvings on the woodblocks became worn," (Woodblock Prints). While very similar, the wood wearing down would make no two prints exactly alike.
Since woodblock prints could be mass produced, they were cheap, and this allowed everyone to have access to nice art that they could keep in their homes, something that only rich people could have afforded before. Woodblock prints would be similar to modern posters or art prints, they were cheap, easily available, and looked good.
To see this process being done, click here or here.
One of the most famous artists using woodblocks was Katsushi Hokusai (1760-1849). In the early nineteenth century, he created his most well known work, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Each painting had a scene of landscapes or people, with "sacred Mount Fuji - either very visible or sometimes as a small detail in the background." (Wanczura, "Hokusai"). The Great Wave off Kanagawa is the first print in this series.
