Profile

The 1948 Profile—a figure seen from the side in close-up—shows Saito exploiting the woodblock medium's natural affinity for silhouette. The profile view reduced the face to its essential contour, eliminating the complexity of frontal three-dimensional form and allowing him to concentrate on the precise relationship between forehead, nose, lips, and chin. This reductive strategy—the face as pure outline—was one of the approaches he tested in the productive years immediately after the war.