As for sources, try
Paragon Books
(the best online collection of Asian art books, with a very
large stock),
Advanced Book Exchange
(spotty as to availability of any given volume, but often cheaper than
Paragon, and if Paragon doesn't have it, your only hope), and
Ronin Gallery
(they have a few books, and also sell woodblock prints, but their
prices for the latter are quite high).
Richard Lane, "Images from the Floating World", Chartwell Books, Secaucus, 1978Definitely the book to start with - not only does it have the best overview of the whole history of ukiyo-e, but it also has a most valuable really large glossary/artist-list/print-listing in the back; it takes up almost half a large quarto-sized book.
James Self, Nobuko Hirose, "Japanese Art Signatures: A Handbook and Practical Guide", Tuttle, Rutland, 1987Another very important book. It allows someone who doesn't know Japanese to learn to read signatures, dates, etc. It also contains the best description of the system of censor seals, so important in dating woodblock prints, to be found.
Frank A. Turk, "The Prints of Japan", October House, New York, 1966An older introductory work, but with many useful tables in appendixes in the back, particularly signatures of lesser artists, and publishers' seals. Hard to find, though.
Merlin C. Dailey, David Stansbury, "Utagawa Kuniyoshi: An Exhibition of the Work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi Based on the Raymond A. Bidwell Collection of Japanese Prints", Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, 1980This is included not because it's a collection of Kuniyoshi prints (it's reasonably decent, for that), but because it contains an essentially complete list of the seals of Kuniyoshi's many publishers - and it seems that he worked with just about every active publisher during the golden age of ukiyo-e in the mid-nineteenth century.
Often, without going through the effort (for non Japanese speakers) of reading the title, knowing the publisher can help you identify a print. Moderately easy to find.
"The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints", Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, 1990Although the images are small, and black and white only, and no commentary is given on the prints, this collection contains an immense number of Hiroshige prints, including complete sets of many of his series, including all of the major ones, along with many by other artists, and has proved to be a big help in identifying prints; especially useful for identifying any Hiroshige prints you come across.
Matthi Forrer, "The Baur Collection: Japanese Prints", Collections Baur, Geneva, 1994This is a fairly expensive two-volume set, (US$375 for the set), but one to buy fairly quickly, because it is a limited editions (3000 copies). The price may seem high, but it is not a lot, compared to what one will pay for a single original print, and it is a most valuable reference work.
It contains many prints by a wide range of artists, many from the golden age
of ukiyo-e in the mid-nineteenth centuries (including many by the poorly
documented artists Kunisada), all shown in color, in reasonably large size,
with useful commentary on each print. The largest collection of complete
triptychs anywhere.
Charlotte van Rappard-Boon, Willem van Gulik, Keiko van Bremen-Ito, "Catalogue of the Van Gogh Museum's Collection of Japanese Prints", Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 1991A fairly eclectic collection of mostly later prints, this catalog is mostly good in that it has a large collection of prints by Kunisada, and also contains illustrations of Hiroshige's complete "Upright Tokaido" series in reasonably large format.
Edward Fairbrother Strange, "The Color-Prints of Hiroshige", Cassell, London, 1925, Dover, New York, 1983The best reference work on Hiroshige. Does not contain many reproductions, but it has an execellent list of his prints in the back; for many series, each individual print is listed.
Howard A. Link, Kobayashi Tadashi, "Prints by Utagawa Hiroshige in the James A. Michener Collection", Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, 1991A fairly large number of prints, reproduced in good color, and fairly cheap.
Edythe Polster, "Hiroshige", Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, 1983A fairly obscure catalog, but it contains complete lists of a number of obscure series.
Robert Schaap, Timothy T. Clark, Matthi Forrer, Inagaki Shin'ichi, "Heroes and Ghosts - Japanese Prints By Kuniyoshi: 1797-1861", Hotei, Leiden, 1998A good reference work on this artist, which contains listings of all the prints in all his major series, and illustrations of sample prints from each series.
Eric van den Ing, Robert Schaap, "Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892", Havilland, Eindhoven, 1992From the same series as the one above, it contains listings of all the prints in all his major series, and illustrations of sample prints from each series.
John Stevenson, "Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon", San Francisco Graphic Society, Redmond, 1992Good not only for the data on the this reasonably common, and very good, artist, but also for the fascinating descriptions of the story/myth illustrated in each print (the complete series is shown, in full-page color folio format).
A handful of the prints illustrated are not in very good condition, however.
Henry D. Smith II, Amy G. Poser, "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo", Thames and Hudson, London, 1986One of Hiroshige's two greatest series, and one that is still fairly easily found today. Contains a page of explanation for each print (the complete series is shown, in full-page color folio format).
Also useful because it illustrates a first-edition set, and using very
high-quality reproductions, and thus gives a good sense of what a very good
print should look like.
"Hiroshige: The Fifty-Three Stages of The Tokaido", Tokai Bank Foundation, Nagoya, 1984This one is probably impossible to find, but it gives complete listings, in color, of the three best "Tokaido" series; the so-called "Hoeido", "Gyosho", and "Reisho" editions.
Ichitaro Kondo, (translated Charles S. Terry), "The Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido by Hiroshige", East-West Center, Honolulu, 1965Probably hard to find, but the best reference work on the "Hoiedo" edition, with large color reproductions of the set in the Michener collection.
Muneshige Narazaki, "Masterworks of Ukiyo-E: Hiroshige - The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido", Kodansha, Tokyo, 1968If you can't find Kondo, this one is easy to find, and reasonably good; contains the complete "Hoeido" edition, along with a few from other editions.
Ichitaro Kondo, (translated Charles S. Terry), "The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai", East-West Center, Honolulu, 1966Listed only because one often finds this sold as a set with the Hiroshige volume. Prints from this series are now very rare, and quite expensive, so the chance you'll be able to use it is small. It's worth having because the prints in this series are fabulous.
Muneshige Narazaki, "Masterworks of Ukiyo-E: Hokusai - The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji", Kodansha, Tokyo, 1968Again, if you can't find the Kondo, this one is easy to find, and reasonably good.