Sekino Jun'ichirō

Sekino Jun'ichirō

関野準一郎

Sekino Jun'ichiro

printmaker

painter

Sekino Jun'ichirô was originally from Aomori in northern Japan. When the Sekino family moved to Tokyo, it was to the same neighborhood as Munakata, and Sekino grew up padding after Munakata's steps in his studio. His lifelong reverence for the senior printmaker is apparent in his portrait of Munakata. Later, he found another mentor in Onchi Kôshirô, and worked closely with him for fifteen years. Less well known is the importance he attached to the time he spent in Corvallis, Oregon. Gordon Gilkey, on the faculty of the Art Department at Oregon State University, invited Sekino to teach as a visiting artist for a year. Gilkey pushed him to experiment with new techniques and shared his vast personal collection of contemporary prints from around the world. Sekino gave Gilkey many of his prints and printed books. Inside one of the books he tucked a pencil drawing in which he portrays himself bowing deeply to Gilkey, with the caption, "Think you very much [sic]." Gilkey later became curator of prints and drawings at the Portland Art Museum, and he donated sixty-two works by Sekino to the Museum.

In traditional ukiyo-e prints, the variations from one impression to the next are usually slight; the printer's charge was to create a uniform product. For Sekino, as with other artists in the Creative Print movement, who did their own carving and printing, it was important that each impression be unique.

Male

Associate of: Gordon W. Gilkey (American, 1912-2000)

Student of: Munakata Shikō (Japanese, 1903–1975)

Student of: Onchi Kōshirō (Japanese, 1891-1955)

Father of: Sekino Yowsaku (Japanese, born 1944)