Pomegranate

A still life of pomegranate (zakuro), a fruit with deep iconographic resonance in East Asian art for its many seeds, traditionally read as a symbol of fertility and abundance. The split pomegranate revealing the cluster of seeds within is a contemplative subject and a difficult one for woodblock: the small individual seeds require either fine carving or a graphic shorthand that reads the cluster as texture rather than enumerated detail. Maeda would likely choose the latter, using a single dense color or a layered impression to render the inner mass while reserving sharper line for the leathery rind and split edge. As a [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e)-adjacent subject the pomegranate connects to the bird-and-flower tradition while sitting comfortably in a modernist still-life mode — Munakata Shiko produced fruit and vegetable prints in similar territory through the 1940s and 1950s. The single-fruit format keeps the design intimate and concentrated, suited to a self-printed [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) edition rather than a large publisher project.