Expo '70

Expo '70, held in Osaka from March to September 1970, was Japan's first world exposition and a landmark event in the country's postwar cultural assertion. Numerous Japanese artists produced commemorative works, and Hagiwara's contribution brings his abstract woodblock sensibility to bear on a subject defined by futurism, technological optimism, and international exchange. The exposition's Tower of the Sun by Tarō Okamoto provided an iconic visual anchor that many artists incorporated. Hagiwara's version likely translates the exposition's energy into geometric and chromatic abstraction — circular or radial forms suggesting the exposition's domed pavilions, with a palette that may reference the vivid graphic identity of the event. The print participates in a long tradition of artist responses to world fairs as occasions for formal experimentation.