Japanese art: wood block printing

One of the most amazing things I saw in the Edo-Tokyo Museum (which I would highly recommend if you make it to Tokyo) was a display about the art of wood block printing.  A lot of the exhibits were in several languages, including English, but this one was particularly interesting because of all the visuals that really helped to drive home the process more than a few paragraphs could.

What you see here is the entire display.  The final print is in the upper left, while the first is in the upper right.  The top row of prints is the composite produced after layering on each individual print with each different pattern and color.  The middle row shows what new piece is added to the picture, and the bottom row is the carved wood block itself.  Sorry the images are a bit dark and/or blurry.  I couldn't use a flash in the museum.

click on any image to enlarge for details

Here's a smaller section to give you a better idea.

Here's a wood block and what it would print:

Here's the before and after for the block shown above.

This is the final image, with a total of 14 blocks/prints needed to make this picture.  It was roughly 12"x16" or so.

Note that the Japanese characters in the scroll were also carved, as a mirror image mind you, in a wood block.  Really amazing.