Portrait of Poet Hagiwara Sakutarō

"Portrait of Poet Hagiwara Sakutaro" — in its 1957 posthumous printing from a 1943 original — documents Onchi's most celebrated portrait project: his multiple images of the poet Hagiwara Sakutaro (1886-1942), whose tormented verse defined modern Japanese poetry. The posthumous printing in 1957 maintained access to this important work after both subjects (Hagiwara died in 1942, Onchi in 1955) had died, continuing the portrait's function as a visual memorial to one of the century's greatest Japanese poets. Each printing carried both artists' presence forward in time.