Yurokawa Hot spring, Hokkaido

Yurokawa Onsen lies in central Hokkaido along the Yuro River, a remote hot spring resort set against a forested mountain landscape. Senpan was among the most committed artists of his generation to depict bathing scenes—communal public baths and outdoor onsen alike—as straightforward celebrations of the unguarded body and the pleasures of everyday life. In this print, figures likely soak in a steaming pool surrounded by Hokkaido's characteristic broad-leaf or conifer forest, the rising steam suggested through light bokashi gradation or areas of unpigmented washi. Senpan traveled extensively through Japan's regions on printmaking excursions, and his Hokkaido subjects balance topographical observation with his characteristic warmth toward the human figure. The work sits within a broader sosaku-hanga tradition of travel and landscape prints that replaced the commercial shin-hanga's polished finish with a more personal, hand-cut directness.