Higashiyama Onsen

Higashiyama Onsen depicts the hot spring district in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima, one of the regional onsen towns Maekawa Senpan documented across his long engagement with bathing culture. The image likely shows a bathhouse scene or a view of the inn-lined valley, rendered in the broad planes of muted color and visible carved line typical of his self-printed sosaku-hanga work. Senpan's onsen subjects consistently focus on the social texture of the bath — the unposed bodies, the steam, the proximity of strangers in shared water — treated with humor and warmth rather than idealization. The palette would favor warm browns, indigos, and the cream of unprinted washi over the saturated reds and blues of commercial nishiki-e. Working outside the publisher system that supported shin-hanga artists, Senpan carved his own blocks and pulled small editions by hand, accepting the variability that came with the process. The print extends his project of treating regional onsen as continuous, dignified subjects of modern Japanese art.