Okumura Masanobu 奥村政信

A prolific Japanese print designer, painter, book illustrator and publisher, Masanobu's career spanned six decades. While little is known about his personal life, his high volume of artistic output and innovative style have led him to become one of the leading figures in early Japanese woodblock printing.

Masanobu began his artistic career in 1701 with the production of Keisie ehon (a black-and-white album of depictions of Japanese courtesans). His first sumizurie (black-and-white pictures) demonstrate the style and choice of subject-matter of the Torii school. Masanobu also wrote short works of fiction, allowing him to develop a pictorial method as a means for depicting literary works. His style gradually evolved from that of the Tori school into one which emphasized the importance of line and composition.

By 1721, Masanobu had become widely-known throughout Japan for his skills as an artist. He eventually opened his own printing business, called the Okumuraya. At this time, Masanobu had stopped working with books and begun to experiment with new wood-block printing techniques. In the late 1730s Masanobu tired of wood-block printing; he transferred management of the Okumuraya to another artist and returned to book illustrations. In the next two decades he produced multiple paintings, prints and picture-books, all of which display a more mature style characterized by sophisticated lines and compositions and sensually depicted figures.

Masanobu died in Japan in 1764.