Lotus Garden

This print depicts a garden scene centered on lotus plants — likely showing the broad floating leaves and rising flower stems characteristic of a pond planted with Nelumbo nucifera, a common feature of Buddhist temple gardens and aristocratic landscape gardens throughout Japan. The lotus carries deep iconographic weight in Japanese culture as a symbol of purity and enlightenment, and the subject connects this print to a long tradition of kacho-e (flower-and-bird prints) while Sekino's sosaku-hanga approach gives it a distinctly personal character. The composition would exploit the structural contrast between the large circular lily pads rendered in flat greens and the more delicate, upright flower stalks with their pink or white blooms, rendered across multiple closely registered blocks. The reflective water surface beneath the leaves allows for further tonal complexity, with Sekino's control of bokashi creating depth and atmosphere in the pond ground.