Large Abstract lithograph

A non-figurative composition of larger scale, this work sits at a junction between media — the cataloged title references lithography while the print is identified as mokuhanga, suggesting either a hybrid technique or a cataloging crossover from Nakayama's broader graphic output. By the 1960s and 1970s many Japanese printmakers, including those who began in the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) woodblock tradition, were also producing lithographs and intaglio works, and the boundary between these media in artist's catalogues was often porous. As a non-representational piece, the composition relies on shape, color field, and the specific texture of whichever matrix carried it — the wood grain showing through in mokuhanga, or the granular tooth of the lithographic stone. Nakayama's abstract pieces are less common in circulation than his horses and figures but document his engagement with the international postwar print climate, where Japanese artists like Onchi Koshiro had already established abstraction as a legitimate woodblock subject. The work shows the breadth of his practice beyond the equine subjects most associated with his name.