Hot spring at Yugano in Izu

Yugano is a small onsen village in the mountainous interior of the Izu Peninsula, set along the Kawazu River and ringed by traditional ryokan. The print likely renders the cluster of inns amid wooded hills, a setting Hiratsuka revisited during his travels through Japan's rural hot-spring regions. His mature mokuhanga method works through bold contrasts of carved black against the unprinted washi, building form from negative space rather than from line or graduated tone. The Spring designation suggests blossoming branches or early foliage as seasonal markers. As with most of Hiratsuka's Showa-era landscapes, the work follows sosaku-hanga principles—the artist designed, carved, and printed it himself—distinguishing it from the shin-hanga prints of similar subjects produced through the publisher-led division of labor inherited from ukiyo-e. The Izu region appears repeatedly across his catalog and was a frequent destination for postwar print artists working in rural genre subjects.