Ikeda Shuzo (Ikeda Shuzo)

Ikeda Shuzo—a proper name as title—suggests a portrait of a specific individual, likely a fellow mountaineer or friend from the climbing community that Azechi inhabited. Named individual portraits appear occasionally in his output, companions and comrades given the same bold, simplified treatment as his archetypal mountain man figures. The named subject becomes both individual person and embodiment of the mountain type, the specific identity giving the universal figure a human anchor.