The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a marvelous piece of art which I really admire and get inspired from. It is a woodblock print which is also called 'ukiyo-e', it has a really delicate process.
First, the artist uses the wood plate for the print, attaches the painting and then carves it away to form the image. When the process has been done for all the separate colours, the printer would place each board on the paper consecutively. Some effects and tonal variations were produced by rubbing an implement called a 'baren' over the back of the sheets.
Information from: Wikipedia
