Hara - Tokaidô

Hara was the thirteenth post-station on the Tokaido road, situated on the marshy lowlands of Suruga Bay where travelers traditionally encountered open vistas of Mount Fuji. Sekino's Tokaido series, produced over decades beginning in the 1960s, reimagined the fifty-three stations through a sosaku-hanga lens, with every block carved and printed by the artist himself in keeping with the movement's self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed ethos. Where Hiroshige rendered Hara with calligraphic line and atmospheric haze, Sekino favored broad planes of flat color, simplified silhouettes, and angular geometry. This second variant likely represents a state proof or color trial recording his iterative refinement of palette. Bokashi gradation may appear in the sky to soften the contrast between mountain and ground plane, while the firm baren pressure on washi produces the matte, textural surface that distinguishes sosaku-hanga from Edo-period commercial nishiki-e.