SAITO TAKASHI (B.1943) SHOWA ERA, DATED 1982 A Japanese drawing, pencil on paper, depicting the upper half of a grimacing face, the hauntingly distorted features resembling a gnarled tree trunk, sealed, framed and glazed, with a label to the back dating the work to the month of February, Showa 57 (1982), 64cm x 44cm. Figures in Saito Takashi's works are often described as ghost-like, tormented and eerie. Living in almost complete solitude on top of a mountain in Fukushima, Saito first exhibited his work in 1963 at the Yomiuri Independent Exhibition. With no affiliation to any Japanese school, Saito continues to produce and display his idiosyncratic work around the country. In 2020, Sagawara Art Museum dedicated an exhibition to his art and to earthenware pieces by Raku Kichizaemon XV, illustrating their shared interest in depicting the truth of life and the many complexities of the human condition.