Hiratsuka Unichi

A portrait of Hiratsuka Unichi, the pioneering sosaku hanga artist and mentor who profoundly shaped the creative print movement in Japan. Kobashi Yasuhide depicts his fellow printmaker with a directness that suits the subject—Hiratsuka was himself known for bold, uncompromising woodcuts. The carved lines convey both physical likeness and a sense of the sitter's forceful personality. As a tribute from one sosaku hanga practitioner to another, the print functions simultaneously as portraiture and as a statement of artistic lineage within the self-carved, self-printed tradition.