Details

In Germination No. 5, Hideo Hagiwara conjures a mysterious and meditative world—a place between deep space and fertile soil. The surface of the print, worked in tonal layers of indigo, black, and moss green, glows with a luminous texture. At the heart of this composition, embryonic forms in jewel-like colors—blue, emerald, ochre—hover against the void. These shapes suggest seed, cell, or spirit, as if floating just beneath the crust of the earth or suspended within the cosmic amniotic dark. There is quiet motion here—growth, becoming—yet it unfolds at a pace not of minutes but of millennia.

A master of abstraction within the Sōsaku Hanga (creative print) tradition, Hagiwara was deeply influenced by the inner rhythms of nature and the latent energy within silence. In this work, his technical sophistication is on full display. Multiple woodblocks create an intricate veil of color and texture, while the subdued palette evokes depth without density. The result is a visual atmosphere—at once earthy and celestial—through which Hagiwara invites us to witness the invisible.

Connoisseur's Note

Hagiwara’s Germination series—created in the mid-1960s—represents a period of conceptual and material refinement. Drawing on Buddhist themes of transformation and impermanence, these prints suggest not just biological germination but metaphysical emergence. They are meditations on thresholds: between darkness and light, spirit and form, silence and speech.

This impression, number 29 in the edition of 210, is particularly rich in its layering and surface detail. The fine speckling and irregular saturation of the dark ground evoke the mineral patina of oxidized copper, while the floating forms, slightly translucent, pulse with a soft inner glow. A quintessential Hagiwara print, it reflects his lifelong pursuit to express the unseen through materials that are as tactile as they are transcendental.