"Approaching the subject as an artist rather than a print scholar, Rebecca Salter focuses on the craftsmen and the complex visual culture within which they worked. Through information gained from interviews with some of the remaining practitioners and analysis of the objects themselves, she builds up a picture of the quiet role woodblock played in the lives of the Japanese as they moved from the isolation of the Edo period to embrace modernisation in the early 20th century." "The book is an exploration of this area of cultural history and the numerous colour illustrations encourage a playful investigation of the many threads of Japan's visual culture."--BOOK JACKET.