Japanese Woodblock Print by Okumura Masanobu '奥村政信'

About the Item

Okumura Masanobu (????) (artist late 1680s - early 1760s) Signed: Hogetsudo shomei Okumura Bunkaku Masanobu shohitsu ????????????? Artist's seal: Tanchosai ABOUT THE ARTIST Okumura Masanobu (????) (artist late 1680s - early 1760s) ALTERNATE NAMES: Baio (go - ??) Bunkaku (go - ??) Chikatai (family name) Gempachi (nickname - ??) Genroku (nickname - ??) Hogetsudo (go - ???) Masanobu (go - ??) Shidoken (go - ???) Tanchosai (go - ???) Okumura Shinmyo (family name - ????) BIOGRAPHY: Common name: Genpachi (Genpachiro); go Shinmyo (from 1707), Baio (from 1707), Hogetsudo (from Genbun era, 1736-41), Tanchosai and Bunkaku (both from Enkyo era [?], 1744-8). Ukiyo-e painter, print artist and innovative print publisher, also author and illustrator early in his career. Studied haikai poetry under Tachiba (Shogetsudo) Fukaku (Sen'o, 1662-1753). Said to have been influenced by the work of Moronobu. and Kiyonobu., and his earliest dated work is a copy of Kiyonobu I's Illustrated Book of Courtesans of 1700. published by Kurihara Choemon in the eighth month of 170a. From 1703 to 1711 he designed illustrations for at least 22 ukiyo-zoshi novels and puppet theatre playbooks, notably three works also written by him that parodied Tale of Genji. In the Hoei and Shotoku eras (1704-16) Masanobu designed o-oban prints of beautiful women, horizontal oban sumizuri-e 'parody pictures' (mitat-e) and actor prints, and hosoban tan-e actor prints - all influenced by the prevailing Torii and Kaigetsudo school styles. Masanobu's later actor prints concentrate on female roles, leaving leading male parts to the Torii artists. The most complete listing of sets of sumizuri-e by Masanobu contains fourteen items, each of which probably originally comprised twelve designs and was sold as a folding album. These established the range of subjects and treatments for mitat-e by many later 18th century artists. From 1718 Masanobu produced hosoban beni-e for various publishers and, by the following year at the latest, was publishing designs himself under the Okamura-ya imprint from premises located at Torishio-cho (subsequently adopting as his trademark a gourd-shaped publisher's seal). The beni-e often used the new decorative technique of painting deer glue (nikawa) over areas of black to produce a sheen resembling black lacquer (urushi-e, 'lacquer pictures'). Masanobu credited himself with many other innovations in technique, format and style made in ukiyo-e printmaking during the second quarter of the 18th century, but, as with his frequent claims that his 'genuine' works were being pirated, it is hard to judge to what extent this was advertising hyperbole. Certainly, from the early 1740s he was very active in two new important print genres: 'pillar pictures' (hashira-e) and perspective pictures (uki-e, 'floating pictures'). The earliest benizuri-e (two-colour prints, generally in red and green) known by him is a picture calendar (egoyomi) of 1742. From c. 1750 he also used the new larger oban print format. Other innovations with which he may have been connected were triptychs of hosoban prints and so-called 'stone print pictures' (ishizuri-e) - woodblock prints featuring white outlines in reserve against black backgrounds, like a stone rubbing. His erotic masterpiece in the print medium is the album of hand-coloured oban designs Neya no hinagata, which is generally dated to the Genbun (1736-41) or Kanpo (1741-4) era. In the early 1740s Masanobu may have handed over the running of his publishing business to a successor, Okumura-ya Genroku, and seems to have ceased artistic activity altogether during the later Horeki era (1751-64), perhaps after 1756. More than 30 paintings by Masanobu have been published, mainly of courtesans but including a few actors. His most notable erotic work in this medium is a handscroll given the title Neya no iro-goromo (Museum of fine Arts, Boston, 09.241), dated to the Shotoku era. Several paintings treat or parody joruri themes encountered in his printed mitate-e, including the meeting between Princess Shokushi and Fujiwara no Teika at the latter's villa at Mount Ogura, and Matsukaze, Murasame and Yukihira at Suma. Also of note is the half-Size, six-panel folding screen Performance at the Nakamura Theatre (Nakamura-za kabuki shibai byobu, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo), which was painted in the seventh month of 1731 and records that year's New Year performance at the Nakamura Theatre.".

Dimensions:

Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 11.125 in (28.26 cm)Depth: 0.15 in (3.81 mm)

Materials and Techniques:

Paper,Hand-Painted

Place of Origin:

Japan

Period:

Mid-18th Century

Date of Manufacture:

1740s

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.