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The Painting:

Katsuko in a Hat, 1940, is an oil on canvas piece depicting a young Katsuko in a wide-brimmed hat, painted in the same year that she married Jun’ichiro Sekino. The work demonstrates Sekino’s early exploration of Western figurative painting, where he often balanced  Western methods with traditional Japanese sensibilities.

The Artist: 

Jun’ichiro Sekino (1914–1988) was a master of the Japanese sosaku hanga (creative print) movement. He is renowned for his versatile woodblock prints that blended traditional Japanese themes with modern, international aesthetics. Unlike traditional ukiyo-e, where artists only designed the work, Sekino typically designed and carved his own blocks, as well as handling the printing in his early days, emphasizing self-expression. He was known for his “corner-to-corner” completeness and meticulous craftsmanship. His works included realistic portraits and landscapes, as well as abstract designs and monochromatic compositions. He also mastered Western techniques like etching and lithography, and was well regarded as a painter. He frequently depicted urban scenes, sumo wrestlers, bunraku puppets, geishas, and domestic life – often featuring his own family and pets.

The Historical Context:

This piece was painted in the same year that Sekino married Katsuko. He also produced  a woodblock print and an etching of Katsuko in 1940, shown below (Cat. 22 and 23, respectively, Behind Paper Walls: Early Works and Portraits by Juni’chiro Sekino, 2010, published by Floating World Gallery.)  We believe that Sekino used Katsuko as an uncredited model for other woodblock prints, including a many of his 1940s nudes, based on the striking similarities of the faces.

Beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Sekino began producing portraits of Japanese artists, writers and performers, including  Koshiro Onchi (1952) Poets Kiyoshi Takahama (1946) and Konosuke Hinatsu (1952), Kabuki actor Kichiemon Nakamura (1947) and Bunraku puppeteer Bungoro (1947), while also creating many self-portraits. Sekino continued making new portraits throughout is career, and also released additional editions of his earlier portraits.  However, as Sekino became a more famous and successful artist, the printing of these was turned over to the artisans working with him in his studio.

Among his many landscape series, Sekino produced his own version of the stations along the Tokaido Road, originally made famous by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858), called The Tokaido 53 Stations, issued between 1959 and 1974. CLICK HERE to view a video of the complete set.

Sekino taught printmaking at major U.S. institutions, including the Pratt Institute (1958), Oregon State University (1963) and the University of Washington. His prints are held in many museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the British Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.