Shirahama Hot Spring on the Wakayama coast is a subject that combines natural scenery with the Japanese onsen tradition. Asano captures the seaside resort atmosphere with his usual attention to water and sky. This print typically sells for $150-$500, and its warm-weather coastal setting provides a pleasant contrast to his many winter compositions.
Shirahama Hot Spring presents the famous coastal hot spring resort on the Kii Peninsula — one of Japan's most celebrated onsen destinations — through what appears to be a figure subject (the nude tag suggests bathers rather than pure landscape). The hot spring bath, where visitors would sit in naturally heated mineral water while gazing at the Pacific, was a subject combining the sensory pleasures of immersion in warm water with the visual pleasure of sea and sky. Asano's rendering may capture the bath itself or the figures within it in a manner that blended genre and landscape.
Mutsu Tsuta onsen
1919
Color woodblock print; oban
1943
Color woodblock print
Autumn 1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
1924
Color woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Shirahama Hot Spring was created by Takeji Asano (浅野竹二).
Shirahama Hot Spring uses Bokashi, Nishiki-e, and Moku-hanga, on woodblock print.
Shirahama Hot Spring was published by Unsodo.
Shirahama Hot Spring depicts nude.
