Bakchos [=Bacchus] (Bakkasu)

Bakchos — Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, ecstasy, and creative inspiration — appears in Hagiwara's mythological series as a subject uniquely suited to his investigation of surface, color, and release from rational constraint. The god of intoxication and the liberation of the senses had obvious affinities with the sosaku-hanga artist's commitment to personal expression over academic convention. Hagiwara renders the deity through the bold, textured surfaces of his mature carved-block technique, the grape-clusters and vine forms that traditionally accompanied Bacchus translated into abstract pattern.