Herakles, Shôwa period, dated 1965?

The third print in Hagiwara's 1965 Greek mythology series takes Herakles — the hero defined by physical force, labor, and extremity — as its subject. Where Bellerophon suggests aerial movement and Glaukos aquatic transformation, Herakles invites a treatment rooted in mass, pressure, and concentrated energy. In Hagiwara's abstract vocabulary, these qualities might manifest as dense, tightly packed color fields with hard internal boundaries, forms that press against the picture plane rather than receding into it. The [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) method gives him tools to differentiate these heroic registers: block carving that varies between crisp edges and ragged, forceful marks, and ink densities that can build weight or release it. The mythological series as a whole demonstrates Hagiwara's interest in classical Western subjects as pretexts for purely formal investigation.