The Japanese term for ukiyo-e prints made with two or three colors before full-color nishiki-e is benizuri-e.
Benizuri-e means “crimson printed pictures” and refers to early multicolor woodblock prints that commonly used red and green or blue-green alongside black. The limited palette was produced by registering separate carved blocks, but the process remained simpler than the many-block technique of later full-color prints.
These prints belong to the development of Japanese color printing during the eighteenth century. They followed earlier monochrome and hand-colored formats and helped prepare the way for the sophisticated nishiki-e prints associated with Suzuki Harunobu and the 1760s.
Benizuri-e is easily confused with sumizuri-e, which means black-ink prints, and aizuri-e, which emphasizes blue. The defining feature here is the restricted use of several printed colors, especially crimson.