Japan: Two women on a veranda, painted by Suzuki Harunobu (1724-1770), c. 1750.

Nishiki-e (lit. 'brocade picture') refers to Japanese multi-coloured woodblock printing; this technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e ('pictures of the floating world'). It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced a great many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later. Previously, most prints had been in black-and-white, coloured by hand, or coloured with the addition of one or two colour ink blocks. A nishiki-e print is created by carving a separate woodblock for every colour, and using them in a stepwise fashion. An engraver by the name of Kinroku is credited with the technical innovations that allowed so many blocks of separate colours to fit perfectly onto the page where they ought to, relative to one another, in order to create a single complete image.