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Dake Onsen from the series More, More, More, and More Hot Spring Notes

White Plum from the book Nihon no Hana
 

Japanese Color Woodblock Print

Dake Onsen

from the series More, More, More and More

Hot Spring Notes

by Maekawa Senpan, 1959

White Plum from the book Nihon no Hana


IHL Cat. #1411

About This Print

From Senpan's fifth and last set of prints picturing Japanese onsen.  This print depicts a gentlemen's bath at Dake hot springs in Aomori Prefecture, Tohoku Region, Honshu Island.

About the Series Hot Spring Notes
One of his most famous series of prints, Woodblock Prints, Hot Spring Notes (Hanga yokusen fu), depicts various hot springs around Japan. It was published in five volumes of twenty prints each, with each print having an accompanying commentary sheet (see example below), over an 18 year period, starting in 1941 when Maekawa was evacuated to Okayama in southwest Honshu and ending in 1959.

A page from Woodblock Prints, Hot Spring Notes 版畫浴泉譜1941

Merritt states that most of the prints were started during the war but could not be published until the war was over.  She notes that although his countrymen are depicted at one of their favorite pastimes, spa going for rest and relaxation, "the feeling is not joyous," due to Maekawa's use of somber colors.1  The general demeanor of the spa goers is also somber in many of the prints. 

However, writing in 1955, Oliver Statler found Senpan's spa prints "some of his pleasantest prints" and praised Senpan's "connoisseur's selection from the country's hundreds of hot spring resorts."2

1 Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints - The Early Years, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1998, p. 221.
2 "Modern Japanese Creative Prints," Oliver Statler, appearing in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 11, No. 2 (July, 1955), Sophia University, p. 27. 


A Listing of All the Prints in the Five Sets
See Tsuta Onsen from the series More, More and More Hot Spring Notes.


Print Details

 IHL Catalog #1411
 Title/Description untitled (Dake Onsen 嶽温泉)
 Series More, More, More and More Hot Spring Notes (続 続 続 続 浴泉譜 Zoku, zoku, zoku, zoku hanga yokusen fu)
 Artist 
 Maekawa Senpan (1888-1960)
 Signature 
 not signed (None of the prints in this series are signed or sealed.)
 Seal
 not sealed
 Publication Date 1959
 Publisher Nihon Aishokai 日本愛書会 
 Note: Nihon Aishokai was owned by Shimo Tarō.  The firm's oirignal name was  Aoi Shobō アオイ
書房 and it was renamed Nihon Aishokai after moving to Okayama during WWII.
 Impression excellent
 Colors excellent
 Condition good - diagonal fold along bottom margin
 Miscellaneous 
 Genre sosaku hanga (creative prints)
 Format 
 H x W Paper 15 3/8 x 11 1/2 in. (39.1 x 29.2 cm )
 H x W Image 8 5/16 x 8 3/8 in. (21.1 x 21.3 cm)    
 Reference Literature Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 253-255. 
 Collections This Print
last revision:
2/9/2019
11/30/2018