Japanese Woodblock Prints

Hokusai, The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, 1829-32,
color woodcut

Japanese woodblock prints, according to Wikipedia, "is where the text or image was first drawn onto washi (Japanese paper), then glued face-down onto a plank of wood, usually cherry. Wood was then cut away, based on the drawing outlines. A small wooden hard object called a baren was used to press or burnish the paper against the inked woodblock to apply the ink to the paper."  Many artists have been influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, so much so that the word Japonism, refers to the influence of Japanese art on European artists.  According to Wikipedia, "from the 1860s, ukiyo-e, Japanese wood-block prints, became a source of inspiration for many European impressionist painters in France and elsewhere, and eventually for Art Nouveau and Cubism. Artists were especially affected by the lack of perspective and shadow, the flat areas of strong color, and the compositional freedom gained by placing the subject off-centre, mostly with a low diagonal axis to the background."