Senpan Maekawa

was a Japanese woodblock printer associated with the sosaku hanga "creative prints" movement.

Early life Born in Kyoto, his given name was Ishida Shigezaburō but from 1905 he went by Maekawa Senpan. He studied at the Kansai Fine Art Academy. In 1911 he moved to Tokyo and became famous as a caricaturist, working for the newspapers Yomiuri Shimbun, Kokumin shinbun, and the satirical magazine Tokyo pakku.

Printmaking Maekawa was inspired to take up woodblock printmaking by sōsaku hanga artist, Minami Kunzō (1883–1950). His first print was exhibited in 1919 at the Nippon Sōsaku Hanga Kyokai exhibition. In 1928 he joined with seven other sōsaku hanga artists to work on the 100 Views of New Tokyo series, to which he contributed twelve prints. From 1931 to 1960 he was an active member of the Japanese Print Association. Statler thought his "warm, human approach" to printmaking probably stemmed from his earlier career as an illustrator, and said of him: "He is one of those refreshing personalities who appears to be doing, without trumpeting, exactly what he wants to do. His work has a fresh, naive style, liberally salted with a sense of humor." The series depicts a variety of onsen ("hot springs") from around Japan and was published in five volumes of twenty prints each. Helen Merritt remarks that while the subjects are depicted enjoying one their favorite pastimes of spa-going, due to Maekawa's somber colors, "the feeling is not joyous." Oliver Statler stated that the series contains "some of his pleasantest prints", and lauded Maekawa's "connoisseur's selection from the country's hundreds of hot spring resorts."

The first series, Woodblock Prints, Hot Spring Notes (版画 浴泉譜 ), was published in 1941 by Shimo Tarō. Maekawa fell ill before the series was due so Sekino Jun'ichirō carved some of the colour blocks in his style. The edition size was 150.

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