Man in Armor No.20 鎧へる人（20）

On graduating from the Oil Painting Section of Tokyo Fine Arts School, Hagiwara joined Takamizawa Woodprint Corporation, where he was exposed to the techniques of traditional Japanese woodcut, including those of Ukiyo-e. He then took ill and was confined to a hospital. But he in a way benefited from the secluded life during, since it gave him time to depart from realistic representation and to pursue more subjective expression in abstract styles, and also to produce woodcuts himself. Ever since, he has carried on the traditions of woodcut print and at the same time invented new techniques and styles to broaden the scope of contemporary woodprint. In "Stone Flower: Red" which won a prize at "The 8th Tokyo International Biennial of Prints" and Fantasy in White which was given a prize at "The 5th Ljubliana International Print Biennale", repeated prints of transparent watercolors were made on both sides of the paper while cleverly making use of seeping colors and forms to create a clean effect that results from the colors being held within the paper and not lying upon its surface. Combining this process with the innovative technique of "kimekomi"(pressed relief) and local decoloration, he succeeds in further enriching the picture with a sculpted effect and clear white lines that traverse the fuzzy areas of color. In the following years, Hagiwara experimented in variously styled lines in woodcut, producing such works as Man in "Armor No. 20" and "Unknown Monument C". In these works, both intaglio and relief blocks were used to produce lines subtler than those found in copperplate. These innovative efforts of the artist came together magnificently in "Thirty-Six Views of Mt.Fuji" of the 1980s. This mountain, which always has been one of the central motifs in Japanese art, has fascinated the master woodcut artist Hokusai, and has long been part of the artist's life as a component of the landscape of Hagiwara's hometown.rnrn