Background
Sekino Jun'ichirô ( 1914–1988) was the leading Japanese figurative printmaker to emerge from the circle of Onchi Kôshirô (1891–1955). Highly skilled in drawing, composition, and printing, Sekino assimilated traditional and modern art from Japan, Europe, and the United States in his portraiture, still life, and landscapes. A prolific artist, he worked for nearly six decades, producing well over a thousand prints, drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings. Sekino's best works, especially those around the mid-twentieth century, stand out as notable achievements in modern Japanese printmaking.1
Sekino was also a prolific book illustrator and designer, following a model established by his mentor Onchi who designed 1,000 to 2,000 books and book covers, magazine, and sheet-music designs. We don't, at the moment, have a reliable count for all of Sekino's book projects, but he must have had a hand in many hundreds, and possibly more than 1,000 books, ranging from providing a single illustration for a volume of poetry to creating many images and texts for his own books, for which he designed all the contents from cover to cover. These works were often inventive in style and represent a substantial commitment to the art of the Japanese book in the twentieth century.
For more about this artist, see Sekino Jun'ichirô Biography.
Design
Nishijin in Kyoto is a famed weaving area, and the birthplace of nishijin-ori (西陣織), a high-quality, well-known silk-brocade fabric, woven with colourful silk yarn and gilt or silver paper strips. Following the end of the Ōnin War (1467–77), nishijin-ori weaving began to thrive. The weaving community supplied materials for both the Imperial Courts and the samurai lords. In 1837, production came to a halt following the unavailability of materials due to crop failures. This loss was compounded by the relocation of Japan's capital to Tokyo in 1869. In 1872, however, the production of nishijin-ori began to flourish once again, following a trip by some weavers to Europe in order to learn from the European weaving trade.
Nishijiin is also noted for its old townhouses (machiya 町家).
Snow at Nishijin (Nishijin yuki Kyoto 西陣雪京都) features a grouping of traditional Japanese-roof close-ups. Rooftops were a favorite theme of the artist. He was fascinated by the geometry and depth of space perceived through unusual aerial viewpoints, which can be seen in the print we are offering here. The repeated patterns of roof tiles were also intriguing aspects of design. In foreign lands, Sekino produced prints of roofs in Florence, Korea, Lima (Peru), Moscow, Paris, and Toledo (Spain), to name just a few. In Japan, there are rooftop views from Kyoto, Hokkaido, Karadera, Miyajima-chô, Nagasaki, Okinawa, and Ryûkyû, among others. In many instances, Sekino found new ways to test the limits of composition with representationla-abstract lines, forms, shapes, and figures.
This design was also included later as one of six in Sekino’s Hanga-shû Kyoto (Collected Sekino Prints of the Ancient Capital 関野準一郎 版画集 古都) published in 1980, edition of 80.
Art works by Sekino can be found in numerous public collections, such as the Art Institute Chicago; British Museum; Cincinnati Art Museum; Cleveland Museum of Art; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Portland Art Museum; and University of Oregon.
This design is quite fine, and the print is sought-after by collectors of Sekino. The condition of this impression is excellent — a welcome change from the usual impressions damaged by poor framing practices and excessive light exposure.
References:
- Aomori Museum of Art (Aomori Kenritsu Bijutsukan: 青森県立美術館), ed. Akira Kanno (担当菅野晶): Sekino Jun'ichirô ten: Seitan hyakkunen (Exhibition of Sekino Jun'ichirô: 100th Anniversary of His Birth": 関野準一郎展 ・ 生誕百年), Oct. 4 to Nov. 24, 2014 (exhibition catalog).
- Fiorillo, John, "The art of Sekino Jun'ichirô: Expressive realism and geometric formalism," in: Andon, 2017, no. 104.
- Kuwabara, Sumio (ed.), Jun'ichirô Sekino, the Prints (関野準一郎版画作品集 Sekino Jun'ichirô hanga saku shina-shû "Collected prints of Sekino Jun'ichirô," 1994; ed. ©1997 Katsuko Sekino, no. 525, p. 105.
- Smith, Lawrence. Japanese Prints during the Allied Occupation 1945-1952 — Onchi Kôshirô, Ernst Hacker and the First Thursday Society (London: British Museum, 2002).
- Amanda Zehnder: Modern Japanese Prints — The Twentieth Century (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Art, 2009).
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