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.