kakeawase 懸合せ

Lit. overprinting. Superimposing two different colors to achieve a third on a woodblock print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵. This was done sometimes in response to government edicts limiting the number of color blocks that could be used, and sometimes simply to cut printing costs. Increasingly, however, overprinting came to be used for purely aesthetic reasons; superimposing two printed colors achieved expressive effects not available using other techniques.