Profile of Young Girl in Kimono, Shôwa period, dated 1957

Depicting a young woman in profile wearing a kimono, this 1957 print engages the [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) tradition of beautiful-woman imagery while departing from its Edo-period conventions through the personal, observational approach characteristic of sōsaku-hanga. Sekino renders the silhouette and fabric with careful attention to the fall of cloth, likely employing delicate [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) to model the face and neck. The kimono's textile pattern would provide an opportunity for precise register-cutting, with each color layer demanding exact alignment. Rather than the idealized archetype of woodblock bijin-ga, Sekino's subject carries the specificity of a portrait, grounding the work in mid-Shōwa everyday life.