Benkei Bridge

Benkei-bashi spans the moat at the southwestern edge of the former Akasaka palace grounds in central Tokyo, taking its name from the legendary warrior-monk Benkei, retainer of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. The bridge has been repeatedly rebuilt; the current stone arch dates from the early twentieth century and is a familiar landmark beside the moat's reflective water and surrounding willows. Sekino's print likely frames the bridge from one bank, registering the curve of the arch, the balustrade, and the wooded embankment behind. His urban architectural subjects characteristically employ a strong black keyblock to articulate stonework and railings, with overlaid color blocks supplying the ochres of masonry and the muted greens of moat foliage; bokashi is often used in the water itself to suggest depth and reflection. The Benkei-bashi print belongs to Sekino's sustained engagement with the bridges, gates, and shrine precincts of Tokyo and surrounding regions, a project that gave the sosaku-hanga movement a body of meisho-e in a deliberately modern, twentieth-century key.