Ezo-style tatami mats

Ezo-style tatami mats draws its title from Ezo, the historical name for the northern island now known as Hokkaido and home to the Ainu people, whose textile and weaving traditions differ markedly from those of Honshu. The print likely depicts an interior scene featuring the distinctive woven mats associated with northern craft, with their bolder geometry and natural fiber palette. Maekawa's interest in such material aligns him with the mingei (folk craft) sensibility that animated many of his contemporaries, including Yanagi Sōetsu and the printmaker Munakata Shikō, who saw value in regional, anonymous, hand-made objects. The mokuhanga method is well suited to translating mat patterns: the parallel weave reads naturally as carved line, and flat color blocks register the matte, fibrous surface of the original. The interior framing is consistent with Maekawa's broader interest in domestic and lived spaces — bathhouses, country rooms, shop interiors — treated as worth careful looking, even when unaccompanied by a human figure.