Onsen Entrance

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 10s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The entrance to the onsen baths at the abandoned Kinugawa Kan hotel. Weathered tiles and peeling paint frame the darkened doorway, hinting at a past of relaxation and luxury.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Onsen Entrance
Series: Kinugawa Kan
Catalogue: KKA-016
Process: Giclée
Captured: 9 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 10s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Nikko, Tochigi, Japan
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Nikko, Tochigi, Japan

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The entrance to one of the onsen at Kinugawa Kan is a small lobby off the main corridor, with a stone-floored mat at the door and a row of timber shoe shelves along one wall. Above the shelves, a hanging noren curtain hangs at the threshold, the fabric faded and dusty. The walls of the lobby are timber-panelled to waist height, plastered above. A small sliding glass door beyond the noren leads into the changing area of the bath. The lighting is a single pendant fitting overhead, the bulb long since burnt out. Daylight reaches the lobby only through the changing-area door.

Onsen entrances at Japanese ryokans separated the bathing wing from the rest of the hotel through a graded series of thresholds: shoes off at the lobby, clothes off in the changing area, body washed before entering the pool. The noren at the threshold was the visual marker of the boundary. Kinugawa Kan's bathing facilities ran the full operational life of the hotel up to the June 1999 bankruptcy. The onsen entrance in this photograph still carries its noren, its shoe shelves, and the structural arrangement that managed the bath-day routine. The bath itself has been dry for over two decades.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Green carpet runs the length of a corridor on the upper floor of Kinugawa Kan. Broken plaster and splintered timber litter the ground. An electrical panel hangs open on the left wall. Wooden balustrade posts line the right side, where amber light pushes through discoloured perspex panels and throws a warm stain across the debris. A standing mirror sits at the far end, half visible. Japanese signage clings to the stained plaster above. The air looks thick and damp.

Brett Patman

The series

Kinugawa Kan

2016 · 22 photographs

Hoshi Takashi (星堯) incorporated Yugen-gaisha Kinukawa-kan Honten (有限会社きぬ川館本店) on 31 December 1942, on the Kinugawa River gorge in what is now Nikko City. The hotel grew to nine storeys, 70 guest rooms, one restaurant, and the Kappa-buro (かっぱ風呂) hot-spring bath on the river. In June 1999 the company filed for bankruptcy with debts of approximately 30億円, the first hotel at Kinugawa Onsen to fail in the post-bubble era.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.