Artist: Okumura Masanobu(1686-1864)
Title: Shōki the Demon Queller
Date: c. 1745
Format: Woodblock printed; Pillar print (hashira-e)
23” x 3 5/8” 
 
Okumura Masanobu executes the Shoki in the trademark urushi-e style of thick flowing black lines of which he is considered a master. He is also the first artist to begin experimenting with the hashira-e format. Pillar prints became massively popular during the Edo period, as the narrow format created interesting design characteristics for artists to explore. Sadly for us, this also means that intact examples of pillar prints are scarce, due to the fact that people actually decorated their homes with them.