Under the Wave off Kanagawa is perhaps the most well-known Japanese woodblock print, from one of the form’s masters, Katsushika Hokusai. Japanese woodblock printing was produced by carefully carving an image onto a fine grained piece of wood, then applying ink to the block of wood and stamping the block onto a piece of paper. This allowed for works of art to be copied onto multiple pieces of paper and distributed quite widely.

Image accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katsushika\_Hokusai,\_published\_by\_Nishimuraya\_Yohachi\_(Eijudō)\_-\_Under\_the\_Wave\_off\_Kanagawa\_(Kanagawa-oki\_nami-ura),\_also\_known\_as\_the\_Great\_Wave,\_from\_the\_series\_T...\_-\_Google\_Art\_Project.jpg

Ukiyo-e was the dominant form of Japanese art in the Edo period (1603-1867), and was aimed largely at the newly dominant upper middle classes by featuring images of geishas, sumo wrestlers, and kabuki actors. Ukiyo-e works were made from woodblock prints that allowed the artist to imprint a similar image on many different pieces of paper after creating just one block. Its handmade nature, however, allowed the pieces to be hand colored and shifted each time a new one was made.

Woodblock was characteristic of the Ukiyo-e style, particularly the lack of depth and shadow. Literary text was not characteristic of this period, as it was common in the Heian period (i.e. Tale of Genji).

Ink on parchment could be considered an answer, since many artists did render drafts and sketches on paper with ink; however, the period is known for the woodblock.

The woodblock format, popular throughout Asia, is an artistic format that is produced by having a large piece of wood cut into and dyed by the artist. Thereafter, this woodblock can be printed onto canvas or paper, making it extremely easy to duplicate the work of art again and again.

Chinese paintings, whether fashionable court paintings or more individualistic works from the literati, were traditionally presented on hanging silk scrolls. These scrolls were both easily portable and impressive in their scope, as they could be quite large. The manufacture of the scrolls themselves was considered an art form.