It is said that you can learn all there is to know about a person from their maiden work. Produced when he was 22 years old, Space can probably be described as being Taro Okamoto’s maiden work and in it we can perceive a condensing of the lyrical melancholy of youth. The first work he created after the war, Melancholy bore the following poem:

My barren heart flutters, Like a banner, a symbol of my grief. From my right temple to my left, One banner after another…

After this work he began boldly challenging society, preaching the principle of polar opposites. There is a strong image of him as being an audacious, intense warrior but underlying this there existed a delicate sorrow, a gentle innocence of character that provides the basic tone of his work. this can be discerned here too.