Okumura Masanobu

Okumura Masanobu lived in Edo (now Tokyo) when the city was a flashy, fast-growing hub of theater, gossip, and new ideas. He started out designing prints for kabuki actors and courtesans, but he didn’t stay boxed in, he branched out into books, calendars, and even wrote his own short stories.

What sticks about him? He was the first to print calendars that lined up the months with pictures, and he loved playing with perspective. Some of his prints look like they’re floating or stacked in impossible ways, almost like early 3D tricks.

Look for his early prints: the faces of actors and beauties are clear and flat, like paper dolls. Later, his backgrounds get deeper. He used a soft, smoky shading called bokashi, like a cloud settling over the scene.

If you see a print where the edges feel a little warped or the color bleeds like it’s dissolving, that’s Masanobu bending the rules.