Turkish Brass Donkey (Toruku shinchu no roba)

A Turkish brass donkey — a folk art figurine rendered with Hiratsuka's characteristic attention to non-Japanese craft objects — is here titled with its full Japanese transliteration (Toruku shinchu no roba). Made in 1976, when Hiratsuka was eighty-one, the print reflects his continued curiosity about objects from beyond Japan. The brass figurine's simple form suits his direct knife work.