$500–$4,000. Common subjects: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Maekawa's early sosaku-hanga works are historically significant. Bold, expressive prints are most valued.
The title Shin yagai shohin — new small works of the open field — frames the print as part of a sketch series drawn from outdoor observation. Maekawa, like many [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) artists, worked from direct study of fields, riverbanks, and city outskirts rather than from studio convention or [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) precedent. The print belongs to a portfolio in which each sheet captures a specific field motif: a cluster of rice stalks, a roadside tree, a farm shed, a stretch of plowed earth. The compositional vocabulary suits this kind of small-format work — economical line, restrained color, and reliance on the warm tone of the [washi](/glossary/washi) for atmosphere. Within Maekawa's output, sketch-based field series sit alongside his onsen prints and figure studies as part of a larger project to record the ordinary Japanese landscape with the immediacy of pencil drawing translated into the woodblock medium.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
New Sketches of the Field (Shin yagai shohin) was created by Maekawa Senpan (前川千帆).
New Sketches of the Field (Shin yagai shohin) depicts landscapes.
