Graveyard and New York

Among the more striking works from Sekino's American period, this print juxtaposes a graveyard — likely one of the historic burial grounds visible from Manhattan streets or the outer boroughs — against the skyline of New York City. The pairing of the dead and the living city is a memento mori image recast in a contemporary urban context, and Sekino's sosaku-hanga approach would have allowed him to push the graphic contrast between weathered stone markers and the hard verticals of skyscrapers. The use of multiple carved blocks permits tonal separation between the grassy or shadowed foreground of the cemetery and the mid-distance geometry of the cityscape. Such works demonstrate Sekino's capacity to bring the observational habits of the Japanese landscape print tradition into dialogue with distinctly American subjects, finding in New York's visual complexity material as rich as the hills of Aomori.