Village Scene in Nara

Village Scene in Nara — the ancient deer-and-temple city that served as Japan's capital in the eighth century — depicts one of the historic city's residential neighborhoods with Maeda Masao's characteristic attention to the vernacular architectural fabric of traditional Japanese communities. Nara's famous deer wandering among ancient temple buildings was the city's most iconic image, but Maeda's village scene focus suggests interest in the more ordinary domestic landscape that surrounded the great monuments, where traditional wooden townhouses and small gardens preserved something of the ancient capital's spatial character.