Because it takes time and effort to make wooden movable type and because wood block printing was easier to deal with when reprinting again and again, wooden movable type soon fell out of use and the history of printing in Japan appeared to progress backwards from wooden movable type to wood block printing.
制作に手間がかかり、また繰り返し版を重ねるには木版印刷の方が容易であることから、やがて木活字は衰え、日本の印刷の歴史は活字印刷から木版印刷に逆行するような形となった。