Sunflowers and Skyscrapers (Flowers and New York), Shôwa period, circa 1960

Produced around 1960, likely during or following Sekino's travels to the United States, this print juxtaposes the monumental geometry of New York's skyscraper skyline with foreground sunflowers, creating a compositional contrast between organic and industrial forms. The sunflower's radial structure and bold color—deep yellow against brown seeds—mirrors and ironizes the grid-like repetition of skyscraper windows rising behind it. Sekino exploits the woodblock medium's capacity for flat, saturated color fields to give both flowers and built environment equal graphic weight. The subject reflects a broader interest among postwar Japanese artists in New York as a site of cultural collision and visual energy. Within Sekino's practice, the print represents his testing of the sosaku-hanga vocabulary—developed in Japanese contexts—against the scale and visual density of the American city. The alternate title, Flowers and New York, emphasizes the intentional pairing as the conceptual core of the composition rather than mere scenic documentation.