<b>PORTRAIT OF HAGIWARA SAKUTARO</b> / Koshiro Onchi1943, c. 1987$15,000</em>

Details

Koshiro Onchi emerged as one of the leading printmakers in 20th-century Japan, credited with creating the first work of abstraction in printed form in 1915. Comfortable in both abstract and representational formats, Onchi's prints showcased stylistic diversity. He infused his work with an expressive quality that was both thought-provoking and emotionally potent, crafting pieces that remain unparalleled to this day. Onchi's charismatic leadership nurtured the sosaku hanga movement during the tumultuous years leading up to and during World War II, urging artists to create prints purely for the sake of art.

Among his oeuvre, the portrait of Hagiwara Sakutaro stands out as Onchi's most celebrated representational work, embodying an icon of 20th-century Japanese prints and symbolizing the sosaku hanga movement. Hagiwara Sakutaro, a surrealist poet and Onchi's friend, crossed paths with him during their time in art school. Collaborating with his Tsukuhae colleagues—Tanaka Kiyokichi and Fujimori Shizuo—Onchi contributed images to Hagiwara's surrealist masterpiece, "Howling at the Moon" (1917). Tragically, Hagiwara fell victim to depression and alcoholism, passing away in 1942 amidst the shadows of World War II. Deeply affected by his friend's demise, Onchi produced Hagiwara's portrait posthumously a year later.

The portrait of Hagiwara serves as a poignant and introspective psychological exploration of a subject consumed by depression and angst. Perhaps it was Hagiwara's poetic soul and sensitivity to the prevailing darkness of the era that sealed his fate. As a poet himself, Onchi keenly understood the challenges of the period and his friend's anguish. He infused the portrait with an emotional depth and potency seldom seen in Japanese portraiture, let alone in printmaking.

Advocating for self-directed printmaking, Onchi harnessed the woodblock printing process to overlay a complex array of colors and tonalities, imparting the portrait with a profound interplay of light and shadow, enriching its psychological resonance. The portrait's success was such that, following the war, Onchi received numerous requests for it. Unwilling to mass-produce any given print, he delegated the task to his friend and disciple, Sekino Jun’ichiro, who created an edition of fifty impressions to meet the demand. Posthumously, the demand for this masterpiece grew, leading to the commissioning of an additional fifty impressions by Hirai Koichi as a tribute. By the 1980s, Japanese institutions sought to include a portrait of Hagiwara in their collections, prompting Onchi's son, Kunio Onchi, to produce further impressions using his father's original blocks, pigments, and paper, resulting in impressions closest to the original work.

Connoisseur's Note

This highly coveted piece is an impression meticulously crafted by the artist's own son, Kunio Onchi, in 1987. Executed with the original blocks, pigments, and paper used by his father, this print embodies the same distinct emotional qualities instilled by the artist himself. With no expense spared, Kunio painstakingly produced each of the ten impressions to faithfully capture his father's vision. As a result, Kunio's impressions stand as the closest rendition to his father's original masterpiece.