<b>OGINO IZABURO</b> / Okumura Masanobuc. 1720s<b>SOLD</b></em>

Details

Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764), an artist of great versatility, was a print designer, book illustrator, painter, book publisher, and fiction writer. He was active when new techniques and compositional trends in Ukiyo-e printmaking appeared in quick succession. He was involved in, if not the progenitor of, urushi-e ("lacquer prints," animal-collagen burnished-glue prints), and uki-e ("floating pictures," single-vanishing-point perspective prints). He also produced early habahiro hashira-e (wide pillar-pictures, approx. 72.0 x 25.0 cm); ishizuri-e ("stone-printed pictures”) in imitation of Chinese stone-rubbing prints; and benizuri-e ("red-printed pictures," red and green prints). The last genre represented the first widespread adoption in Ukiyo-e whereby the printing of two or three colors was made from separately carved woodblocks that would supplant hand-coloring for about two decades and ultimately lead up to nishiki-e ("brocade pictures" or full-color prints) in the mid-1760s. From 1724, Masanobu operated a publishing firm/bookstore, or as he put it, a “wholesale picture-shop” (etoiya) located in Tôrishiochô, Edo, which he named the "Okumura-ya Genroku." The shop’s location is identified on many of his prints.

Masanobu appears to have been largely self-taught, although he might have studied briefly with, or was at least influenced by, Torii Kiyonobu I (c. 1664–1729). No doubt, the works of Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1751) and the various Kaigetsudô-school artists were familiar to Masanobu as well. Even so, he set his own fashion for bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) in a style distinct from Kiyonobu I and other early Torii artists. Alongside his fine bijin-ga, Masanobu's designs of aragoto ("rough business") kabuki scenes were a vital aspect of his oeuvre, as were “softer,” more romantic episodes from the stage. His shunga ("spring pictures," or explicit erotica) are among the best of that type during the first half of the eighteenth century.

Masanobu's first works appear to be two untitled albums published in 1701 and 1702, respectively, when he was 15 and 16 years of age. These particular early designs were somewhat derivative of Torii Kiyonobu's Keisei Ehon (Picture-Cook of Castle-Topplers) of 1700. Nevertheless, they were not slavish copies, revealing a precocious talent that would ultimately produce one of the most important oeuvres ever seen in Ukiyo-e printmaking.

Over the course of his career, Masanobu's oeuvre was consistently high in quality and, at key moments, innovative, earning him the admiration of many modern scholars who consider him the most influential ukiyo-e artist of the first half of the eighteenth century. Some of his prints were copied or forged even during his lifetime, so he urged potential print customers to look for his red gourd seal, while to his signature, he sometimes added shô-hitsu ("genuine brush") or shô-mei ("genuine name"), or both.

Connoisseur's Note

The Actor and Performance:

Ogino Isaburô I (1703–1748).

Ogino, born in Ise, began his career in Kyôto as a disciple of the actor Hagino Yaegiri, who gave him the name Hagino Isaburô. During the early years, he performed koyaku roles (child roles). In 3/1723, Hagino relocated to Edo and took the name Ogino Isaburô I. Less than a year later, his ranking in the Edo (actor critiques (yakusha hyôbanki) in their wakashû-gata section (adolescent roles) was “superior - superior - excellent” (jô-jô-kichi), a ranking that he maintained throughout his career until his death in 1748. Thus, for more than two decades, Ogino was a popular wakashû-gata and waka-onnagata actor (young maiden or princess roles, beginning around 1728). He also had success in tachiyaku (leading-man) roles starting around 1738 and performed roles in the opposing styles of aragoto (“rough business”) and wagoto (“soft manner”). He also excelled in budôgoto (warrior roles).

In Masanobu’s print, Ogino, an adult male actor, is performing in a wakashû-gata, his attire and hairstyle signaling the feminized persona of the wakashû (young man or boy). Wakashû-kabuki (“Boy’s kabuki”), plays featuring male adolescents in the roles of women, were staged as early as 1617 as an alternative to onna-kabuki (“women’s kabuki”), which was banned in various provinces for its links to prostitution, lewd and drunken behavior, and occasional violence in the 1610s–1620s, and finally throughout the country in 1629. Boy’s kabuki became very popular in the 1630s–1640s, but as with onna-kabuki, the attractive adolescent performers also brought about extensive unlicensed prostitution and disruptive behavior. Boy’s kabuki was restricted at various times between 1642–1651 and finally banned in 1651–1652 (possibly in the summer of 1651) after the death on 4/20/1651 of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (who favored boy’s kabuki).

Ogino is shown placing a woven straw hat (amigasa) on his head. In Ukiyo-e, such headgear was typically used by patrons to conceal their identity while visiting the pleasure quarters. Ogino’s murasaki-boshi (purple headcloth) or covering of the shaved forelock signifies an onnagata on the kabuki stage. Ogino’s robe is a fine example of flamboyant kimono patterns often found in kabuki or, perhaps more frequently, in the imagination of print designers. The “swinging-sleeve” (furisode) style was, by convention, worn primarily by children and unmarried young girls, but here it becomes a semiotic emblem of the wakashû. A large, round jômon or fixed crest of the Ogino acting lineage decorates the right sleeve near its opening and the actor’s arm.

This is a fine specimen of Masanobu’s work in the hosoban format, published when he was at the height of his powers. The sweep of the kimono lines, the posture of the actor, and the numerous details in the generously decorated robes all combine to create a charming rarity with an important provenance from the early period of Ukiyo-e printmaking.

Written by John Fiorillo, ViewingJapanesePrints.net