Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Arifuku Hot Springs in Iwami (Iwami Arifuku onsen) | Taisho period, early 20th century

The small towns populating the Kansai region charmed the artists and writers of the Taisho period (1912-1926), most notably Tanizaki Jun’ichiro (1886-1965) who fervently praised the character of the region in his novel Some Prefer Nettles (Tade ku mushi, 1929). The small mountain spa town of Arifuku, Iwami Province, certainly had a similar appeal for Hasui, whose sympathetic rendering of the quaint hot spring town at the onset of the evening is full of rustic tranquility. Warm lights filter from the interiors of the tiled-roof houses, steam from buckets of hot water gently rise beside the stone steps, and passersby in yukata wander languidly through the narrow streets. Kendall H. Brown notes that the composition bears an uncanny resemblance to Alfred Sisley’s (1839-1899) oil on canvas painting Louveciennes. Sentier de la Mi-côte (circa 1873), with its presentation of the quiet town viewed down the steps of its main street.¹

1. Kendall H. Brown and Hollis Goodall-Cristante, Shin-hanga: New Prints in Modern Japan, (Los Angeles, 1996), p. 78, fig. 104.

For a different impression of the same print in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 66.412, go to:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/261229

Also, for a further impression in the collection of the Edo Tokyo Museum, object number 93202444, go to:

https://museumcollection.tokyo/works/6250868/

For Sisley’s Louveciennes. Sentier de la Mi-côte in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, inventory number RF 1937 65, go to:

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/louveciennes-sentier-de-la-mi-cote-574