Japanese Woodblock Print, 1940s, self-published by Senpan Meakawa

SIZE IN INCHES: 2.375 X 3.75 inches

MAEKAWA SENPAN (1888-1960) was born in Kyoto on October 5, 1888 with the name Ishida Shigezaburo. In 1905 he took the name Maekawa from a relative on his mother's side after his father's death. He attended Kansai Fine Art Academy in Kyoto studying with Asai Chu (1856-1907) and later with Kanokogi Takeshiro (1874-1941). He moved to Tokyo in 1911 where he became popular as a caricaturist, publishing his works in newspapers such as the Yomiuri shinbun and the Kokumin shinbun and in the satirical magazine Tokyo pakku (Tokyo Puck). His cartoons dealt with the habits and customs of ordinary people and he traveled throughout Japan gathering material on local customs for his work. He became interested in prints after seeing the work of Minami Kunzo (1883-1950), a sosaku hanga artist, in 1911. Like many sosaku hanga artists Maekawa was self-taught and experimented with printmaking for a number of years before publishing his first print in 1919 and showing at the Nippon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai exhibition. In later years he commented that "It took me ten years to learn technique; later I got acquainted with some artisans and found they could have taught me the same thing in a few hours." Maekawa was active in the Nippon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai and became "one of the stalwarts of the sosaku hanga movement." He was an active member of the Japanese Print Association from 1931 to 1960.

Fine, no flaws