Young Girl with pussycat

This print depicts a young girl with a cat, a subject Maekawa Senpan returned to repeatedly throughout his career. Children at quiet play occupied a central place in his [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) output, where the artist sought to convey the unguarded warmth of domestic moments rather than the formal portraiture of earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) traditions. The image likely employs flat areas of color set against simplified outlines, a hallmark of Senpan's mature style, in which the carver and printer were one and the same hand. Following sosaku-hanga principles, Senpan would have designed, cut, and printed the block himself, working on [washi](/glossary/washi) with hand-rubbed [baren](/glossary/baren) impressions that retain the slight irregularities of self-printing. The subject pairs human and animal companionship in a manner consistent with his broader interest in tender, observational scenes of ordinary Japanese life, free of the heroic or theatrical conventions that dominated commercial woodblock production.