Azechi’s oeuvre is also part of a larger movement known as the 創作版画 (sōsaku-hanga). Meaning ‘creative print’, the sōsaku-hanga – self-directed and highly individual works – can be seen as a natural successor to the 浮世絵 (ukiyo-e) tradition, whose division of artistic labour characterised previous centuries. Ukiyo or ‘floating world’ prints dealt heavily with themes of the modernisation, urbanity, and hedonism that accompanied rapid economic growth during the Edo period. In contrast, the works of sōsaku-hanga artists tended towards quieter, more reflective scenes. Following a broader, somewhat global shift towards abstraction, postwar Japanese printmaking approached a more international style. Though diverging stylistically from the aesthetics most associated with Japanese art, sōsaku-hanga remains firmly anchored in the ‘Japaneseness’ of its medium, the woodblock print.

            The relationship of Azechi’s postwar work to its medium is all-encompassing. As the artist began experimenting with greater degrees of abstraction, the figures and landscapes he depicts seem almost to take on the qualities of the wood they are printed with. Fully articulated human figures become looser, further simplified, as if built from wood themselves. In「雪の中の男」(yuki no naka no otoko, 1958) a ‘mountain man’ stands upright, his face emerging from a succinct and limbless body. We can make out the swell of his shoulders below the neck, but, ultimately, his form is concealed. His arms presumably obscured under warm winter clothing, the Man in the Snow’s limbless figure, itself rendered with wood-grain texture, becomes totemic. Upright posture, watchful eyes, and a neutral expression recall 埴輪 (haniwa) figures of the Kofun Period (4th-6th century CE).