Gallery Talk: Japanese Woodblock Prints & the Language of Flowers
Ukiyo-e took three craftsmen. Yowsaku Sekino is all three. A small-group talk at his gold-leaf prints. 15 seats, $10 credited to purchase.
On October 29, 2015, Empress Michiko of Japan walked through a print show in Tokyo and chose one woodblock print to take home to the Imperial Palace: Sakura, a cherry tree outlined in gold leaf by Yowsaku Sekino.
Eleven years later to the day, 20 of Sekino’s prints are on the walls of Art House SF in San Francisco. These are his only solo exhibitions outside Japan. Gallery founder Max Khusid will lead two small-group talks standing at the work.
What we’ll cover
- Ukiyo-e, shin-hanga, sōsaku-hanga. Three ways Japan made woodblock prints: from workshops where three craftsmen split the work, to postwar artists, Sekino’s father among them, who drew, carved and printed every sheet themselves.
- Shozaburo Watanabe and Steve Jobs. How a Ginza publisher revived the woodblock print in 1915, and how his prints ended up on a California wall where a young Steve Jobs fell for them.
- Japonisme. What Van Gogh, Monet and Klimt took from Japanese prints, including Van Gogh’s sunflowers next to Sekino’s.
- The son of a “demon of printmaking.” Sekino spent 17 years as his father’s assistant and still says his father was the genius. Hanga Geijutsu, Japan’s leading print magazine, profiled him in 2011 and 2026.
- Hanakotoba, the language of flowers. What each flower on the wall is saying: peony, orchid, plum blossom, sunflower, rose, pansy, cyclamen.
- Q&A at the prints.
Details
- About 60 minutes plus Q&A, limited to 15 people.
- $10 admission, credited toward any purchase that day.
- The exhibition, Hanakotoba: The Language of Flowers, is free and open Wednesday to Sunday through November 1. Hours: Wed–Sat 11 am–7 pm, Sun 11 am–5 pm.
- Exhibition page: arthousesf.com/pages/yowsaku-sekino-the-language-of-flowers
About Art House SF Gallery
An independent San Francisco gallery on a mission to introduce more people to art from the most remote and undiscovered parts of the world. Founder Max Khusid finds its artists by traveling to meet them where they work, from Bukhara and Tbilisi to Sapporo and Lo Manthang, Nepal. We're located in the famous Castro District - a neighborhood of freedom, acceptance, creativity and diversity.
2324B Market St, San Francisco, CA 94114
Hours: Wed-Sat 11-7, Sun 11-5
info@arthousesf.com | www.arthousesf.com | @arthousesf
Good to know
Highlights
- 1 hour
- In person
Refund Policy
Location
Art House SF
2324B Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
How do you want to get there?
