Maekawa Senpan: Ohara Maiden (Oharame)

Artist: Maekawa Senpan (1888-1960)
Title: Ohara Maiden (Oharame)
Series: Women's Customs of Japan   Date: 1946  Size: 25 x 19.7 cm

Charming portrait of a young Kyoto-area woman in traditional clothing who is deftly balancing a bundle of kindling on her head. She uses a rope to steady the load on either side. This traditional clothing ensemble has apparently been in use in the area since the Heian period (792-1185), and the artist has captured her unaffected charm. Senpan was an established caricaturist and illustrator before he started creating sosaku hanga in about 1919. He was active in Nippon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai and became one of the leading figures in the movement.  Please see the British Museum website for a more extensive commentary on this series. Lawrence Smith notes “Maekawa's English text in the accompanying pamphlet reads: 'The city of Kyoto is surrounded by mountains, and from the mountain villages, young girls come down to Kyoto to sell their wares. (Ohara is one of the villages, and "me" is an old word meaning "maid"). On their heads, these girl carry twigs for fuel. They wear very plain cotton clothes so that the few stripe [sic] of red cloth are an effective contrast.' Maekawa, who much disliked the sentimentalization of Japanese life and landscape by artists in the stables of publishers such as Watanabe Shozaburo, makes the most of his chance to redress the balance.”

The artist achieved Western recognition through inclusion in Oliver Statler's Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn (1956) and James Michener's portfolio and book The Modern Japanese Print. An Appreciation (1962).  He "was one of the great personalities of twentieth-century Japanese prints, a man of notable independence, and a political radical, yet a staunch traditionalist and supporter of Japanese folk life and customs."

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Publisher: Fugaku Shuppansha

Signature: Sealed with the artist’s seal "Han"

SKU: MKS002