Arifuku Spa, Iwami

View of Arifuku Onsen, a hot spring town in former Iwami Province (now Shimane Prefecture) on the Sanin Coast. Hasui's Sanin subjects, drawn from the rugged northwestern coast of western Honshu, include prints of Matsue, Mihonoseki, and the surrounding inlets — an area of comparatively limited access in the prewar period and one that he used to extend the geographical reach of the meisho-e tradition beyond the Tokaido and other classically depicted routes. Arifuku itself is a small valley settlement with traditional wooden ryokan crowded along a stream. The composition likely depicts the inn buildings and bathhouses ranged along the watercourse, possibly under rain or mist — atmospheric conditions Hasui returned to repeatedly because they enabled tonal printing techniques such as overlapping bokashi, fine parallel rain lines cut into a separate block, and dampened washi yielding deeper saturation. The print belongs to the regional onsen subjects that punctuate his oeuvre, presenting working towns rather than scenic landmarks as the focus of meisho-e.