Iizaka steps to the public bath

This print of stone steps leading down to a public bath in Iizaka focuses on a single architectural motif typical of an old onsen town: a worn flight of steps descending between plastered walls toward the entrance of a communal bathhouse. Sekino frames the scene with the strong vertical and diagonal geometry that recurs across his sosaku-hanga landscapes, using the receding flight to draw the eye into deep shadow. Carving directly into his own blocks, he favors firmly bounded color areas — earthen wall tones, slate-grey stone, and the deeper sumi blacks of doorways — printed on washi with a hand-pulled baren. Soft bokashi at wall bases and along the treads gives the masonry weight without modeling. The subject sits within his ongoing record of provincial Tohoku, where bath culture, narrow lanes, and weathered townscapes provided material for an entire strand of his work distinct from the celebrated Faces of Japan portrait series.