Details

Koshiro Onchi Lyric No. 9, Distant Hope radiates a quiet, abstract solemnity. With its overlapping forms—stone-textured grays, deep teal, blood-red, and a pure blue disc—the work creates a spatial tension that is contemplative and weightless. These biomorphic shapes do not suggest narrative, but rather emotional tone. The print evokes memory and interiority, a visual rendering of the intangible through texture, color, and form.

Part of Onchi’s seminal Lyric series, this work exemplifies his devotion to the expressive potential of abstract composition in printmaking. The “distant hope” of the title resonates through the gentle asymmetries and the fading quality of the inked surfaces, suggesting both passage and perseverance. Printed with a delicacy that belies its conceptual weight, the work reads as a visual haiku—spare, quiet, and emotionally charged.

Connoisseur's Note

This print was created for the final Ichimokushū portfolio of 1950, the last issued by the Ichimokukai, a society founded and hosted by Onchi himself. Beginning in 1941 and continuing through the difficult wartime years, the First Thursday Society served as a vital space for the exchange of ideas, techniques, and support among Sosaku Hanga artists. Monthly meetings in Onchi’s home were not only sites of artistic discourse, but also essential lifelines—especially during the war, when Onchi, better provisioned than most, offered both materials and sustenance to his peers.

Each year, members of the society submitted an original print to be included in a small, hand-assembled edition equal to the number of members that year. In 1950, only 20 impressions of Lyric No. 9 were produced, rendering this print exceptionally rare. Onchi’s leadership during this period kept the Sosaku Hanga movement alive and vital; his home became a symbolic and literal refuge for creative survival. The appearance of this work in the closing chapter of the Ichimokukai imbues it with historical poignancy and affirms Onchi’s role as the spiritual anchor of Japan’s modern printmaking renaissance.