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  Pillar Prints Blog  
 

In the mid-1700s Japanese printmakers started to make hashira-e 柱絵 (i.e., pillar pictures). They were long, narrow woodblock-prints which could be attached to pillars that supported the roof of a Japanese house of the time. Most pillar prints were made in the late 1700s but in the early 1900s a few printmakers also used this format for their art. The Reader Collection of Japanese Flower-and-Bird Art includes a number of pillar prints. Two examples, one from the late 1700s (on the left) and one from the early 1900s (on the right), are shown below.

 
  Pillar Print Examples  
 

To see more pillar prints from the Reader Collection click here.

 
 

Additional Reading

Pins, Jacob. 1982. The Japanese pillar print Hashira-e. Robert G. Sawyer Publishing, UK.

 
 

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