Shoichi Hasegawa, painter and printmaker, was born in Yazu, Japan in 1929.  After completing studies in drawing and painting at the Kokuga Institute in Kyoto he had his first solo exhibition in Yazu in 1957. While studying in Japan. Hasegawa became interested in the lyrical abstract works of American artists Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and Morris Graves.

In 1961 Hasagawa moved to Paris and began working with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. His work was soon included in collective exhibitions including the Salon des Jeunes Peintres, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, International Biennale of Engraving in Ljubljana, and the Biennale of Engraving in Cracow. He has had over sixty solo exhibitions of his work since 1957.

Hasegawa’s work is in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris; Museum of Modern Art New, York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Lowe Museum, Coral Gables; Oklahoma Art Center; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Norrköpings Museum of Art, Sweden; Museum of Modern Art, Lujbljana; and the Museum Fuji, Tokyo. Since 1975 he has lived in Vetheuil, in Val-d'Oise, France where Claude Monet had owned a house.