The Woodblock Prints of Utagawa Hiroshige
Miscellaneous

Glossary

J Noel Chiappa has produced a very useful glossary.

Print Sizes and Types

ōban
about 15" x 10" (38cm x 25cm)
ō-ōban
large ōban, about 23" x 12" (58cm x 32cm)
chūban
half an ōban, by division along its short axis; about 10" x 7" (25cm x 19cm)
aiban
roughly halfway between chūban and ōban; about 13" x 9" (34cm x 23cm)
koban
half an aiban, by division along its short axis; about 9" x 7" (23cm x 17cm)
sanchōgake
one third of an ōban, by division along its short axis; about 9" x 4½" (23cm x 12cm)
chū-tanzaku
half an ōban, by division along its long axis; about 15" x 5" (38cm x 13cm)
ō-tanzaku
two-thirds of an ōban, by division along its long axis; about 15" x 7" (38cm x 18cm)
ai-tanzaku
half an aiban, by division along its long axis; about 13" x 4" (34cm x 11cm)
ko-tanzaku
one third of an aiban, by division along its long axis; about 13" x 3" (34cm x 8cm)
yotsugiri
half a chūban, by division along its short axis; about 7" x 5" (19cm x 13cm)
 
 
yokoye
horizontal/landscape orientation
tateye
vertical/portrait orientation
ōgi-e
folding fan with a picture or illustration
uchiwa-e
rigid fan with a picture or illustration
harimaze
prints of two or more images on one sheet; originally intended to be cut out and displayed separately
surimono
prints that were privately commissioned for special occasions such as New Year; produced in smaller numbers for a mostly educated audience (Wikipedia)
 
 
References:
Memorial Catalogue, Strange, J Noel Chiappa
 

Types of Printing and Colouring

nishiki-ei
separate woodblocks are carved for every colour and used in a stepwise fashion (Wikipedia)
aizuri-e
blue printing (more at J Noel Chiappa)
sumizuri
printing from a relief block in black ink to produce black-on-white texts and images
sumizuri with usuzumi
printing from two or more relief blocks in various shades of black ink
tashokuzuri
printing from multiple relief blocks in many saturated colours
tanshokuzuri
printing from three relief blocks in black and a limited range of light tints, usually pink and gray
kappazuri
stenciling, applying colours by brush to sheets printed with line-only illustrations, using a separately cut stencil for each colour
bokashi
printing areas in one colour of graduated intensity by the differential application of a pigment to a relief block
hissai
applying colours by brush to sheets printed with line illustrations
karazuri
impressing patterns into a sheet of paper from an uninked relief block
 
 
References:
The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book

Finding Japanese Prints on the Internet

John Resig's Japanese Woodblock Print Search contains over 200 000 prints. The site also has an extensive list of links to other sources of prints.

Ritsumeikan University image search (in Japanese) contains links to over 200 000 prints.

Japanese Woodblock Prints on Other Websites

The Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) Project
The Kuniyoshi Project
Catalogue Raisonné of the Work of Utagawa Hiroshige II
Catalogue Raisonné of the Work of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)
Chikanobu

The Thirty-two Aspects of Women by Yoshitoshi (Independant Arts Production on YouTube)
A new film by the creators of “Wright’s Tokaido”. A documentary on an original album of Yoshitoshi’s famous 32 Aspects. An educational, documentary style look at a recently rediscovered classic by one of Japan’s most controversial print artists.

J Noel Chiappa's website contains some excellent material on Hiroshige and Japanese woodblock printing in general.
Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking
Tokaido hitoritabi (Japanese) A modern day walk along the route of the Tokaido highway. The site features Hiroshige's Tokaido print (Hoeido edition) of each station and photographs of the places as they are now.
@Cascadesssss has produced an interactive google map that shows the location of prints from a number of series by Hiroshige and Hokusai.

Contact

I can be contacted at john_at_hiroshige.org.uk. Obviously replace _at_ with the obvious.

I have no Japanese, I don't work in the art business and I don't have any specialist art history training but I do try to make sure that all the information on the website comes from reputable, published sources.