About the artist
Active during the 18th century, Masanobu Okumura was an ukiyo-e painter, printmaker and publisher in Edo. He is particularly known for his beauties and shunga (erotic pictures). Largely a self-taught artist, Masanobu’s work reflects the influence of the Torii school, Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1751), and Moronobu Hishikawa (1618-1694). Masanobu owned a book and print shop, illustrating his first book in 1701. As he opened his own publishing house circa 1724, he stood at the vanguard of deluxe printing techniques, print formats, and two-color printing. He is considered the one of the first artists to produce urushi-e, using sumi ink and animal-glue to mimic the appearance of lacquer, as well as an innovator of the pillar print format (hashira-e) and perspective prints (uki-e). He not only published his own prints, but also those of his student Toshinobu Okumura (fl c.1716-1741). While Masanobu was one of the first artists to make the shift from hand coloring to the early experiments with printed color, he passed away before the development of full-color nishiki-e (brocade pictures) circa 1765.