Portrait Of Hagiwara Sakutarô

A second mokuhanga portrait of the poet Hagiwara Sakutaro, part of the sequence of images Onchi produced of his friend across the 1940s. Variants of the Hagiwara portraits differ in palette, scale, and the degree of facial articulation, ranging from near-monochrome studies in deep blue and black to versions with broader chromatic range. Onchi typically built these portraits from a small number of color blocks, layering transparent pigments to achieve a velvety density on the washi and exploiting the texture of the woodgrain as part of the image's surface. There is no decorative line in the ukiyo-e sense; the head is constructed from registered planes, with the spectacles and mouth often the only sharply defined incident. As self-carved, self-printed sosaku-hanga, each impression carries small variations of inking and registration. Onchi's repeated return to Hagiwara's likeness reflects both private mourning — Hagiwara died in 1942 — and his conviction that the print could function as serious portraiture rather than commercial likeness.