Child of the sea

This print combines two recurring threads in Sekino's work: figure studies of children and the maritime subjects he drew from coastal Japan. Likely depicting a child set against waves, fishing nets, or a beach, the composition would use the broad color fields and [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations that Sekino employed for water and sky. Trained in the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) tradition, he designed, carved, and printed his own blocks, an approach that gives even his quieter genre scenes a directness uncommon in commercially produced prints. His seascapes generally avoid the picturesque tone of earlier landscape printmakers, focusing instead on the working coastal communities of northern Honshu, the region of his birth in Aomori. The visible woodgrain in his color blocks often substitutes for descriptive detail, suggesting sand, weathered wood, or the surface of water. The composition situates a single small figure in a larger natural setting, a device he used throughout his landscape and portrait work.