Horse

A second horse composition by Nakayama, distinct from the artist's other prints sharing the same simple title. Within his sustained equine series, individual prints are differentiated by pose, scale, palette, and the relationship between figure and ground — a standing horse, a turned head, a horse from behind, a horse rendered primarily in silhouette. The repetition of the title across multiple prints reflects the sosaku-hanga practice of issuing variations on a theme rather than treating each print as a discretely titled work in the manner of nineteenth-century series like Hiroshige's Tokaido stations. Nakayama's carving across these horse prints maintained a consistent vocabulary: broad gouge work for the body, sharper cuts for the legs and hooves, and color blocks registered with hand-pulled baren impressions on washi. Variation came from the specific anatomy of each pose and from the pigment choices, which ranged across earth tones, blacks, and occasional saturated reds. Each horse print should be read as a discrete carving while belonging to the larger ensemble that defined his career.