Artist Birthday: Sekino Junichirō

Sekino Junichirō was a woodblock printmaker in the sōsaku hanga movement, in which the artists draws the subject, cuts the woodblock, and prints the image themselves. These artists often incorporated influences from Western art.

Artist Birthday for 23 October: Sekino Junichirō (1914-1988 Japan)

Sekino Kunijirō, Japanese Inn, 1958, color woodcut print on paper, 44.5 x 54 cm Brooklyn Museum, © 2025 Artist or Estate of Artist (BMA-331)

Although distinctly modern, Sekino's Japanese Inn, from a series of images of Japanese traditional inns, has features that connect it to the earlier Ukiyo-e tradition of woodblock printing. The composition is dominated by shapes making up the forms, there is no distinguishing light source, there is a consummate contrast between horizontal and vertical forms. Western influence on this design is the reduction of the building to an abstraction of shapes.

Background

Two Japanese print movements arose after the Ukiyo-e style had more or less run its course during the Meiji period (1868–1912). An effort by groups of artists in the early 1900s to resurrect the spirit of Ukiyo-e resulted in the shin hanga (new print) and sōsaku hanga (creative print) movements. Ukiyo-e persisted after the Edo Period, particularly in landscape and cityscape prints.

The artists of the shin hanga movement, which flourished between 1915 and 1947, emphasized the traditional hierarchy of artist, woodblock carver, and publisher as separate entities in the process of producing prints. This was in contrast to the sōsaku hanga artists who made sketches, drew the design, cut the woodblock and printed it themselves. Sōsaku hanga evolved as an idea in the 1890s, and is sometimes assigned the “starting date” of 1904 with publication of creative prints in Myojo magazine.

Sōsaku hanga as a genre flourishes to the present day and is sometimes referred to as “New Hanga.” Both print movements reflected Western influence in style. Ironically, both shin hanga and sōsaku hanga prints had more appeal abroad than in Japan.

Junichirō Sekino was a prominent member of the sōsaku hanga. Born in Aomori prefecture, he began making woodblock prints while in middle school. His first print was published in 1931 by the Sōsaku Hanga Kenkyukai (Creative Print Study Group). He studied under Kon Junzō (1895-1944), an artist very much influenced by Western art. Under Kon, Sekino learned Western printmaking techniques such as etching and lithography. In 1939 he moved to Tokyo to pursue more studies in etching, and also trained in oil painting. Around 1940 he met Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955) the so-called "father of sōsaku hanga", who greatly influenced his woodblock prints. In 1953 Sekino was one of the founders of the Japanese Etchers' Society.