"A Boy and His Rooster (Artist's son, Jumpei, aged 12)"

This intimate [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) portrait depicts Sekino's son Jumpei at age twelve alongside a rooster, combining the artist's signature portraiture with his lifelong interest in animals and domestic life. Sekino's personal relationship with his subject lends the composition an unguarded quality distinct from formal portraiture. The rooster likely provides a bold counterpoint of warm reds and blacks against the boy's figure, with Sekino's characteristic directness of line and controlled color registration evident in the rendering of feathers and fabric. As a self-carved, self-printed work in the sosaku-hanga tradition, every mark reflects deliberate artistic choice. The pairing of a child with a cockerel carries associations with rural Aomori life, grounding the print in the northern Japanese folk culture that informed so much of Sekino's subject matter throughout his career.