Yoyogi snowscape

Yoyogi, a district in central Tokyo bordering Shibuya and Shinjuku, occupied an unusual place in postwar visual culture. The area held the former parade ground of the Imperial Army known as Yoyogi Renpeijo, which became a U.S. military housing area called Washington Heights after the war and was eventually returned in time to serve as the Olympic Village for the 1964 Tokyo Games. Maeda's snowscape probably predates the Olympic redevelopment, capturing the open, semi-rural character of the district before its transformation. Snow on the Tokyo plain is uncommon and short-lived, which gave such scenes documentary as well as poetic weight in Showa-era printmaking. The mokuhanga medium handles snow effectively through reservation of the unprinted washi paper as the brightest tone, with sumi outlining of trees and structures providing the dark counterpoint typical of Maeda's sosaku-hanga practice.