Twenty-Two Cherries (XVII. someones married their everyones)

This color mezzotint belongs to a numbered series and incorporates a title drawn from e. e. cummings's poem 'somewhere i have never travelled,' reflecting the literary and cosmopolitan sensibility Hamaguchi cultivated during his long residence in Paris. The composition likely presents twenty-two cherries—stems, fruit, and cast shadows rendered with the luminous precision that mezzotint's velvety burr enables—arranged with the mathematical deliberateness the numbered subtitle implies. Hamaguchi's cherry subjects exploit the medium's capacity to render the translucency of fruit skin and the subtle blush of coloring through selective burnishing of the copper plate. The extended production date of 1988–91 reflects his methodical working practice, in which a single plate might be reworked across multiple printing campaigns. The Roman numeral designation situates this impression within a larger thematic or serial project, suggesting Hamaguchi was exploring variations in arrangement or color temperature across related compositions.