Asamushi Onsen

Asamushi Onsen, a coastal hot spring resort on Mutsu Bay in Aomori Prefecture, was one of the destinations Maekawa Senpan documented in his prints of Japanese bathing culture. The print likely depicts bathers within a communal tub, rendered in the rounded, unidealised figures that distinguish Senpan's onsen work from the more polished bijin-ga tradition. His treatment of the nude body is characteristically direct and warm, often emphasising the relaxed, slumped postures of soakers rather than refined poses. Block carving in these prints tends toward broad planes of flat colour with bokashi gradations used to suggest steam, mist, or the surface of hot water. Senpan's onsen subjects formed a distinctive thread throughout his career and align with the sosaku-hanga ideal of jiga-jikoku-jizuri, the principle that the artist conceives, carves, and prints the work themselves. Asamushi sits within a broader project of recording regional bathing places that he pursued across Honshu, Hokkaido, and Kyushu.