Visit the Exhibition
October 2 – November 1, 2026
Art House SF · 2324B Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
Wed–Sat 11–7 · Sun 11–5 · Free admission
Gallery Talk — October 29 & 31
Thursday, Oct 29, 6:30 pm · Saturday, Oct 31, 2 pm
A small-group talk in front of the prints: ukiyo-e to sōsaku-hanga, Van Gogh to Steve Jobs, and what each flower on the wall is saying. 15 seats per talk. $10, credited toward any purchase. Free for newsletter subscribers.
Yowsaku Sekino
Yowsaku Sekino is a contemporary Japanese printmaker known for his refined, decorative woodblock prints that blend traditional Japanese technique with modern design.
Yowsaku Sekino was born in Tokyo in 1944. He is the son of Jun’ichirō Sekino (1914-1988), a towering figure in the sosaku hanga movement.
Sekino started his career as a chemist, but after 3 years, he decided to become his father’s printmaking assistant. In 1976, Yowsaku opened his own European-style printing workshop. In the early 1980s, he decided to become an artist himself.
Yowsaku regularly participates in the annual College Women’s Association of Japan (CWAJ) exhibition, one of Japan’s most respected.
At the 2015 opening reception of the 60th exhibition of the CWAJ, Empress Michiko purchased his print “Sakura” for the Imperial Palace.
Yowsaku Sekino’s style can best be described as a refined fusion of Japanese tradition, modern minimalism, and quiet luxury. His prints invite contemplation — less narrative than emotional, more about harmony, craftsmanship, and material beauty.
“Yowsaku Sekino’s prints feel like moments of stillness translated into light and texture.”
Creative prints
SŌSAKU-HANGA
Yowsaku Sekino is part of the Japanese post-war sōsaku hanga movement.
The sōsaku-hanga (creative prints) art movement sprouted in early 20th-century Japan, but it really took off in post-war Japan.
As Japan was going through a major transition in its role in the world, sōsaku-hanga artists saw themselves in opposition to the more traditional ukiyo-e and shin-hanga. They wanted to experiment and be more creative (thus, the name "creative prints").
Sōsaku-hanga brought the individuality and creativity of the artist to the forefront. While in ukiyo-e and shin-hanga, a group of artisans worked on inexpensive art for the masses, sōsaku-hanga artists wanted to elevate their work to the Western definition of fine art. Sōsaku-hanga artists followed the principle of "jiga jikoki jizuri" (self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed), where an artist was the sole creator of the artwork.
Sōsaku-hanga freed the artists to experiment with materials, techniques, and methods to express themselves fully.
Pictured: Yowsaku Sekino. Only One, 2018
Jun'ichirō Sekino
We can't talk about Yowsaku Sekino without mentioning his father, Jun'ichirō Sekino, a prominent Japanese printmaker and one of the major postwar artists of the sosaku hanga ("creative print") movement.
Jun'ichirō Sekino (1914 – 1988) immersed himself in the study of printmaking from a young age. He studied intaglio printmaking and lithography in 1930s Japan.
Jun'ichirō Sekino was influenced by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer and stated that, "one of the things I like most about him is his thoroughness, his corner-to-corner completeness."
Jun'ichirō Sekino created over 400 prints. His years of studying printmaking techniques enabled him to produce work of consistently high quality.
His works are in the LA County Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum, and many others.
Pictured right: Jun'ichirō Sekino. The Puppet Manipulator Bungorō in the Dressing Room, 1947.
Technique vs. Expression
"In modern creative prints, the most important thing was the artist's original 'expression,' an idea of modern art, but in exchange, the 'technique' of woodblock printing was lost.
However, creative printmaking has a 100-year history, and some printmakers have emerged who believe that in order to achieve the 'expression' of printmaking, it is first necessary to establish 'technique.'
It can be said that the printmaker who currently possesses the most complete command of technique and expression is Yowsaku Sekino."
--- Tatsuo Matsuyama (松山龍雄)
Wood block carving
As a sōsaku-hanga artist, Sekino draws, carves, and prints every print himself.
Sekino attempts to recreate very fine and delicate lines of the copperplate (intaglio) etching process his father used, but with woodblocks.
While most modern woodblock artists use a more affordable, easier-to-work-with (i.e., softer) basswood, Yowsaku insists on using a harder, harder-to-work-with wood.
He uses hard cherry wood to achieve this level of precision — the same wood used by the Ukiyo-e masters.
With cherry, each block takes longer to carve, but, as with better knives, the wood block keeps the edge longer, so more prints can be made with the same quality as the originals.
Mixing colors
"If you look at Yowsaku's actual works, you will see that they are made up of an average of 10 or more layers of printing. Ukiyo-e prints are made using the "main printing method," which means that there is an ink block that forms the outline, and then the color blocks are separated from there, so as a rule, the colors do not mix.
However, Yowsaku's woodblock prints do not have a main plate, but are made by printing all the plates one on top of the other. As a result, the theoretical number of colors is 1,023 if there are 10 plates, says Yowsaku, who specializes in industrial chemistry and has studied dyes, and quickly calculates this astonishing figure."
--- Tatsuo Matsuyama (松山龍雄)
Printing
For printing, Sekino is using water-based inks mixed with Nori starch paste. He prints with the same color at least 3 times to build up enough body.
Sekino doesn’t mix inks as they tend to lose clarity. Instead, he layers colors.
For example, he prints one color with one block, the second color with the second block, thus creating the third color.
For the vase print below, Sekino prints 21 times using 14 blocks in total.
To print different shades of blue on the vase, Sekino uses 7 different blocks. Layering them allows him to create tens of different shades of blue.
To produce 1 print, the whole process — from drawing a sketch to printing final impressions — takes about 3 months, as the ink takes a long time to dry between layers. He’s happy if he can produce 1 large-sized print and 2 medium-sized prints a year.
With his unique process, he aims to achieve the quality of an oil painting in woodblock prints. Sekino’s palette is quiet but rich, with muted yet elegant tones and tactile depth.
Gold Leaf Outlines
Outlining in gold is the technique uniquely his own. Sekino covers a carved block with oil-based ink to print the outlines and background.
While the ink is still wet, he presses the sheets of gold leaf on the whole surface of the paper. With the sticky ink serving as glue, the gold leaf adheres to the inked areas.
After leaving it to dry for about a month, he brushes the excess gold off the paper. Gold comes off easily from the non-inked areas, leaving only the gold outlines and background.
Hanakotoba
Hanakotoba (花言葉) is the Japanese “language of flowers.”
It’s a cultural system in which different flowers are assigned specific emotions, messages, or symbolic meanings. These meanings are used to express feelings without using words—a subtle form of communication rooted in Japanese aesthetics.
Cherry Blossom
For the Japanese, sakura (桜) are among the most meaningful symbols in the whole culture. They bloom brilliantly and fall within days, so they stand for beauty in impermanence: the bloom is more beautiful because it doesn’t last.
The language of flowers compares the cherry tree to a beautiful woman, and sometimes to a beautiful soul.
“How beautiful they are
The people brushing past me
As I stroll through Gion
To the Temple of Kiyomizu
On this cherry blossom moonlit night!”
— from “Disheveled Hair” by Akiko Yosano, English translation by Roger Pulvers
Sakura is also the flower closest to Sekino’s own story. In 2015, Empress Michiko chose his Sakura, a gold-leaf print in the same large 52 × 82 cm format as Door of 50 Years, for the Imperial Palace.
Thoughts and Contemplation
Pansies
Pansies symbolize 思い (omoi) or 物思い (mono-omoi) — “thoughts,” “deep thought,” or “a person who is often on your mind.”
Because the flower face looks contemplative, it came to represent thinking, reflection, and fond thoughts of someone.
The name pansy is said to come from the French word "pensee," which means "to think," because the flower's pattern resembles the face of a person lost in thought. The flower's language was also born for the same reason.
Color meanings (less formal but sometimes referenced):
Shine brightly, I only have eyes for you
Sunflowers
Sunflowers always face the sun, so they symbolize faithfulness, devotion, and admiration — often toward someone you look up to or care deeply about.
Their meaning in Hanakotoba is "I only have eyes for you," "adoration," and "worship."
The ancient Inca carved sunflowers into temples as symbols of the sun god, and women wore sunflower-shaped ornaments. Sunflowers are mentioned in a Spanish book from 1569, and it seems they were introduced to Europe around this time.
After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, sunflowers became a symbol of recovery and remembrance in Japan. Many were planted in affected areas to honor victims and express hope for new beginnings.
Sunflowers also evoke a sense of summer memories and fleeting youth — a common theme in Japanese art, anime, and literature. They often appear in scenes that capture the bittersweet feeling of growing up and moving on.
Plum Blossom
Nobility and Perseverance
Ume (梅) is the first flower of the Japanese year. It opens in the cold of late winter, weeks before the cherry trees, and until the Nara period it, not sakura, was the flower of hanami.
In Hanakotoba, the plum means “faithfulness,” “nobility” and “patience.” Red plum adds “elegance” and “allure.”
“Faithfulness” comes from the legend of Sugawara no Michizane, the Heian courtier exiled to Dazaifu, whose beloved plum tree flew after him overnight. Japan’s current era name, Reiwa, is taken from an ancient poem collection’s account of a plum-viewing banquet.
Wealthy and Noble
Peony
It has been praised since ancient times as "a noble one." Its flower language also comes from this. In China, it is also known as the royal flower, the flower god, and the flower of wealth.
In Japan, peonies (牡丹, botan) hold deep cultural and symbolic meaning. They are often called the “King of Flowers” (花の王).
Peonies appear frequently in ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), kimono designs, and tattoos, often paired with lions or waves to represent a blend of power and grace.
In samurai culture, peonies came to symbolize masculine strength balanced with beauty, reflecting the ideal warrior’s spirit.
In Japanese symbolism, peonies embody a balance between strength and beauty, prosperity, and honor — a harmony that’s deeply valued in traditional aesthetics.
Love affair
Red Rose
The red rose is the strongest symbol of romantic affection in Japan, as it is in the West. It conveys “I love you” directly and is often given on anniversaries or Valentine’s Day.
Originally, the rose was a red rose. It comes from the Celtic word rhodd (meaning red).
In pre-Christian Europe, the red rose was the flower of Venus, a symbol of love and sensuality, and its flower language comes from this. After Christianity spread, it came to represent the blood of Christ.
Numbers add meaning:
Secret Love
Mimosa
Mimosa blossoms are small, fluffy, gentle, easily overlooked unless you look closely.
Mimosa (especially Acacia dealbata) blooms in late winter or early spring in Japan. It appears before many other flowers, but doesn’t demand attention, doesn’t have a strong scent, and glows quietly in yellow clusters. This timing and subtle presence mirror a love that arrives early but isn’t confessed, or feelings someone carries silently.
In Japan, giving mimosa with the meaning of ひそかな恋 might express:
It’s a sweet, soft kind of secret — not scandalous, but heartfelt.
Phalaenopsis Orchid
In Japanese it’s kochōran (胡蝶蘭), the “butterfly orchid.” Each bloom looks like a butterfly caught mid-flight.
That shape gives it one of the luckiest meanings in Hanakotoba: “happiness flies to you.” White orchids add “purity.”
In Japan, this is the flower of celebration. It’s sent for shop openings, promotions and even election wins, and its blooms can last for months.
A Maiden’s Sincerity
Cosmos
Japan calls it akizakura (秋桜), the “autumn cherry blossom.” It’s the gentle pink flower of fall, as sakura is of spring. The name cosmos comes from the Greek kosmos, meaning “order” and “harmony,” for its evenly spaced petals.
In Hanakotoba, cosmos means “a maiden’s sincerity” and “harmony.” Each color has its own meaning:
Cosmos came to Japan from Mexico in the early Meiji era and soon spread across the country. In 1977, Yamaguchi Momoe’s hit song “Akizakura,” written by Sada Masashi, made the flower an emblem of a daughter’s love for her mother on the eve of her wedding.
In the Library of Congress
Black Peonies
The peony carries “the bearing of a king” and “wealth and honor” in Hanakotoba, but also, unexpectedly, “bashfulness.” Sekino’s black peonies lean toward the regal side: the deepest, most dramatic version of the King of Flowers, set against gold.
In 2005, Sekino exhibited at the 50th College Women’s Association of Japan Print Show in Tokyo. Afterward, he gave an impression of Black Peonies to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where it remains in the national collection.
Ten years later, at the 60th show, Empress Michiko chose his Sakura for the Imperial Palace. One of his prints went to the Library of Congress and one to the Imperial Palace, two of the most prestigious collections a living printmaker can enter.
Mount Fuji at Dawn
Beyond the flowers, Sekino returns to Japan’s most sacred subject. Fuji has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries, and in 2013 UNESCO named it a World Heritage site as “a place of worship and source of artistic inspiration.” Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji made it the most famous mountain in art.
Dawn carries its own meaning. Climbers walk through the night to reach the summit for goraikō (ご来光), the “arrival of the light,” the first sunrise seen from the top.
In Japan, the first dream of the New Year (hatsuyume, 初夢) is said to foretell the year ahead, and the luckiest thing to dream of is Mount Fuji. The name sounds like fushi (不死), “immortality,” and buji (無事), “safe and well.”
Empress Michiko
On 29 October 2015, Her Imperial Majesty Empress Michiko attended the opening reception of the 60th College Women's Association of Japan Print Show at the Tokyo American Club in Tokyo. It was her second visit to the annual fundraiser, which has run since 1956 and remains one of the most respected print exhibitions in Japan — a show that has introduced generations of Japanese printmakers to collectors at home and abroad.
From that year's exhibition she chose Sekino's Sakura, a large woodblock print in gold leaf measuring 52 × 82 cm, and bought it for the Imperial Palace. The work had been made that same year, and it shows the technique that is his alone: the outlines printed in oil-based ink, gold leaf pressed onto the wet surface, then a month of drying before the excess is brushed away and only the gold lines remain. The purchase is recorded on Sekino World.
References
Take a look at our currently available original paintings and prints
