Armoured Men (Yoroeru otokotachi)

"Armoured Men" (Yoroeru otokotachi), from 1974 and edition 8 of 50, brings human figures into Tajima's characteristically fragmented compositional language. Armored warriors are reduced to angular, interlocking shapes that read as much as abstracted pattern as figurative subject, their martial weight rendered through forceful woodblock gouging and layered color. The work reflects Tajima's interest in Japan's cultural past filtered through a modernist visual consciousness.