Changes

Publishers would often initiate projects, deciding on themes and hiring illustrators or print designers. The illustrators would then submit their designs to the publisher, who would then take over much of the remainder of the process. A highly skilled professional ''hangiya'' (板木屋, block-carver) would lay the design over the block - sometimes using a reproduction of the design created for this purpose by a copyist or ''hanshitagaki'' (版下書) - and use that as a guideline for carving out key blocks, showing just the monochrome outlines. ''Hangiya'' were professional artisans, and highly organized as such in craft guilds, working most often with publishers in a manner akin to independent contractors; some of the largest publishing houses had their own in-house blockcarvers, however. Once these initial blocks were cut, a printer (also a professional skilled artisan) would produce a number of impressions from the key block, and send them to the illustrator, or the publisher, who then indicated which colors should be applied and where. These drafts were sent to the blockcarver once more, who now carved separate blocks for each color, sending those to the printer, to produce the actual final commercial copies to be sold.<ref>Gallery labels, "Making Woodblock Prints," Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, December 2012.</ref>

Publishers would often initiate projects, deciding on themes and hiring illustrators or print designers. The illustrators would then submit their designs to the publisher, who would then take over much of the remainder of the process. A highly skilled professional ''hangiya'' (板木屋, block-carver) would lay the design over the block - sometimes using a reproduction of the design created for this purpose by a copyist or ''hanshitagaki'' (版下書) - and use that as a guideline for carving out key blocks, showing just the monochrome outlines. ''Hangiya'' were professional artisans, and highly organized as such in craft guilds, working most often with publishers in a manner akin to independent contractors; some of the largest publishing houses had their own in-house blockcarvers, however. Once these initial blocks were cut, a printer (also a professional skilled artisan) would produce a number of impressions from the key block, and send them to the illustrator, or the publisher, who then indicated which colors should be applied and where. These drafts were sent to the blockcarver once more, who now carved separate blocks for each color, sending those to the printer, to produce the actual final commercial copies to be sold.<ref>Gallery labels, "Making Woodblock Prints," Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, December 2012.</ref>

Originally, cheaper and softer woods were used, and designs were cut more deeply, but the use of more expensive woods such as cherry, carved more shallowly into much thinner woodblocks was spurred by the popularity of prints by [[Suzuki Harunobu]] in the late 1760s in the new multicolor ''[[nishiki-e]]'' mode that he pioneered; by 1800 or so, materials and techniques previously used only for ''[[surimono]]'' and other much more expensive and exclusive publications came to be used more widely, and the costs of producing and buying works produced in this manner dropped dramatically.

Originally, cheaper and softer woods were used, and designs were cut more deeply, but the use of more expensive woods such as cherry, carved more shallowly into much thinner woodblocks was spurred by the popularity of prints by [[Suzuki Harunobu]] in the late 1760s in the new multicolor ''[[nishiki-e]]'' mode that he pioneered; by 1800 or so, materials and techniques previously used only for ''[[surimono]]'' and other much more expensive and exclusive publications came to be used more widely, and the costs of producing and buying works produced in this manner dropped dramatically. [[Cedar]] (''sugi'') continued to be used at times, but this was more expensive and more difficult to carve. The [[catalpa]] wood (梓, J: ''azusa'', C: ''zǐ'') typically used in China was never commonly used in Japan, but the character continued to be used to refer to the process of printing or publishing. For example, while most books used the character 版 ("printing") in the colophon to indicate the date, place, and/or publisher, many used the verb 上梓 (''jôshi''), meaning "to print" or "to publish."

Publishers owned the rights to reproduce works for which they owned the woodblocks. It was this possession of the woodblocks, known as ''zôhan'' (蔵版), whether physically or simply in name, by contract, that served as the rough equivalent to modern concepts of copyright, which were not introduced until the Meiji period. The idea of "intellectual property" as enforced today was not legally protected in any way at that time, and "artists," or, rather, illustrators hired by or otherwise working with publishers, had very little rights over reproduction of their works. In fact, publishers frequently repackaged illustrators' works, republishing them under new titles, sometimes mixed with illustrations from other publications, and sometimes cropped or otherwise altered; publishers also frequently sold woodblocks (or the ''zôhan'' rights to them) to other publishers, who might then reissue new editions.

Publishers owned the rights to reproduce works for which they owned the woodblocks. It was this possession of the woodblocks, known as ''zôhan'' (蔵版), whether physically or simply in name, by contract, that served as the rough equivalent to modern concepts of copyright, which were not introduced until the Meiji period. The idea of "intellectual property" as enforced today was not legally protected in any way at that time, and "artists," or, rather, illustrators hired by or otherwise working with publishers, had very little rights over reproduction of their works. In fact, publishers frequently repackaged illustrators' works, republishing them under new titles, sometimes mixed with illustrations from other publications, and sometimes cropped or otherwise altered; publishers also frequently sold woodblocks (or the ''zôhan'' rights to them) to other publishers, who might then reissue new editions.