Okabe: High Speed Tunnel
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Honolulu Museum of Art
Typical Price
$500–$6,000. Common subjects: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Sekino's prolific output keeps prices accessible. Portrait prints are most collected.
Description
The Shinkansen bullet train's tunnel beneath the Utsunoya Pass — the "High Speed Tunnel" of the title — represents Okabe station's modern transformation: where Edo-period travelers walked and climbed, the Shinkansen passes through the mountain in minutes. Sekino's interest in the contemporary Tokaido — the old highway's route overlaid by the railway, the expressway, and the bullet train — gives his series prints a temporal depth that Hiroshige's originals could not anticipate.
More Prints by Jun'ichiro Sekino
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Okabe: High Speed Tunnel was created by Jun'ichiro Sekino (関野準一郎).
Okabe: High Speed Tunnel depicts urban scenes, travel scenes, and mountains.