Woodblock printing
The art reached a high level of technical and artistic development in East Asia and Iran. Woodblock printing in Japan is called "moku-hanga" and was introduced in the seventeenth century for both books and art. The popular "floating world" genre of "ukiyo-e" originated in the second half of the seventeenth century, with prints in monochrome or two colours. Sometimes these were hand-coloured after printing. Later, prints with many colours were developed. Japanese woodcut became a major artistic form, although at the time it was accorded a much lower status than painting. It continued to develop through to the twentieth century.