Kakegawa: Mountain-top Kannon

Sekino Jun'ichiro's New Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido is a beloved theme in Japan, made famous in the nineteenth century in prints by Hokusai (1760–1849) and Hiroshige (1797–1858). These artists delighted viewers by depicting the colorful scenery of the fifty-three post stations along the Tokaido, the major transportation route between the cities of Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto.

In the twentieth century, printmaker Sekino Jun'ichiro revived the Tokaido theme in a series produced over a period of fifteen years, from 1959–1974. Sekino worked in the mode of sosaku hanga, the "creative print" movement, in which the printmaker is directly involved in all steps of the printmaking process—from design, to carving blocks, to the printing itself. This process differed from that of earlier artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige, who relied on specialized artisans for carving and printing. This gives many sosaku hanga prints an artless, folksy quality; however, in this series Sekino demonstrates both his technical expertise and his sophisticated design sensibility.

Some of the prints were given to the AsianArt Museum by the Hisatsune family and bear the artist's personalinscriptions.