Okumura Masanobu
Okumura Masanobu was an early ukiyo-e artist, whose career spanned the time from the early monochrome prints, marked by particularly expressive and bold black outlines, to just before the advent of nishiki-e full-color printing. He produced works in a wide variety of formats, from tall pillar prints to triptychs, and a wide range of subjects or standard themes, including Buddhist subjects, landscapes, and birds and flowers. He is perhaps best known for his albums of prints, however.
Believed to have been most likely largely self-taught, Masanobu's early work took inspiration from that of Torii Kiyonobu but was distinct and individual. His earliest extant work, referred to as (the) Courtesan Album, was published in 1701. In the years following, among many other works, Masanobu produced a number of albums and illustrated books parodying classic Chinese tales, the Genji monogatari, and stories from Noh and kabuki plays.
His early career, up until the 1730s, is marked chiefly by the production of numerous monochrome print albums. During that time, and in the decades following, he produced as well numerous bijinga prints, sometimes hand-colored, and paintings.
References
- Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1978. pp65-68.
