A studio composition pairing a female nude with a vase, the kind of modern figure-and-still-life subject that [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) artists adopted from Western easel painting and translated into mokuhanga. Onchi Koshiro, Munakata Shiko, and Hiratsuka Un'ichi all worked nude subjects through the 1920s-1950s, treating the figure as a vehicle for compositional and tonal investigation rather than narrative or eroticism. Maeda's nude with vase likely sets the seated or reclining figure against a domestic still-life element, the vase functioning as a vertical counterweight to the curves of the body. The technique would favor visible block-cutting marks — chisel facets in the modeling of the figure, woodgrain registering through flatter areas of background — declaring the print's identity as a carved object rather than concealing the medium beneath illusionistic surface. This subject choice marks Maeda's clear participation in sosaku-hanga even as he continued to design conventional landscape prints for [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) publishers.
Mutsu Tsuta onsen
1919
Color woodblock print; oban
1943
Color woodblock print
Autumn 1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
1924
Color woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Nude and vase was created by Maeda Masao (前田政雄).
Nude and vase depicts nude and still life.
