Portrait of James Michner

James Michener — the American novelist and ardent collector of Japanese prints who championed Hiratsuka's work and helped introduce it to American audiences — is here rendered in woodcut portrait. The 1959 woodcut, ink on paper, depicts Michener with the directness of Hiratsuka's portraiture, the subject's strong features suited to the knife's bold line. The portrait documents a friendship that shaped how postwar America understood Japanese printmaking.