The History of Print: Okumura Masanobu

by Pippa Phillips 
Editor of Prune Juice Journal of Senryu and Related Forms

Okumura Masanobu (奥村 政信; 1686 – 13 March 1764) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who was the first to devise a system for creating multi-color prints. He is most famous for his depictions of Noh actors and beautiful women (bijin-ga), erotic art (shunga) as well as comic scenes and parodies of Japanese mythology. He also provided illustrations and text for popular novels (ukiyo-zōshi) and librettos for puppet theater (banraku), notably illustrating an 18-volume version of Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Gengi.

Masanobu was a self-taught painter who did not belong to any school in particular, although his early work followed the Torii school, likely drawing from the work of Torii Kiyomasa and Hishikawa Moronobu. In 1721, Masanobu opened his own shop, Okumura-ya, in Tokyo, abandoning previous publishers.

Masanobu was one of the first artists to create urushi-e prints, using brass powder sprinkled on ink to create a lacquer effect. As well, he invented the hashira-e, a narrow print designed the fit the wooden pillar of a house. He is an intermediary between black-and-white woodblock printing and full-color printing. Instead of hand-coloring his prints, he invented a two-color printing process known as benizuri-e, or “red-printed pictures”. Using multiple blocks of woodcuts, he would press pinkish-red and green pigments onto inked surfaces instead of hand-painting black-and-white prints—a technique that parallels techniques used by screen-printers today. He passed away before before the development of full-color nishiki-e in 1765.

An example of his red-painted pictures can be found below. The print depicts the famous actors Onoe Kikugorō and Nakamura Kiyosaburō, in their roles as Yaoya Oshichi and Kichisaburō, her page and lover. Note the graceful lines—Masanobu was known for a preoccupation with movement.