Public Bath

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 1/80 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Sunlight illuminates the tiled walls and empty pool of a public bath within Kinugawa Kan. Peeling paint and water stains mark the surfaces, revealing years of decay.

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: Public Bath
Series: Kinugawa Kan
Catalogue: KKA-018
Process: Giclée
Captured: 9 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 1/80 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 public bath at Kinugawa Kan is a tiled wet room with a large rectangular pool set into the floor, the pool drained and the tilework exposed. The tiles around the pool are pale stone, sloping gently to the central drain. Stone benches line one wall for the pre-bath wash, with small individual taps and hand-mirror stations. Above the pool, the ceiling carries the original timber framing, the painted finish flaking where steam worked at it for decades. Tall arched windows along one wall admit the daylight. The water has been gone long enough that the tile grout has dried out completely. There is no smell of sulphur left.

Public baths were the central facility of any Japanese ryokan, with bookings often made specifically for access to a particular onsen. Kinugawa Kan's public bath drew water from the local thermal springs that gave Kinugawa its trade. Guests bathed here at scheduled times: morning, afternoon, late evening. Towels were provided. The hotel ran the bath for the full operational life of the property up to the June 1999 bankruptcy. After the closure the bath was drained and the water supply isolated. The pool tile and the bench stone remain as they were, dry, intact, and inaccessible.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A pale blue swimming pool sits buried under dense green growth. Shrubs and young trees push through the deck. The pool walls are stained with algae and mineral deposits, their colour fading to grey at the edges. A steel ladder still stands at the far end, its chrome long gone to rust. To the left, a multi-storey glass facade disappears behind vines. Beyond, the concrete high-rises of Kinugawa Onsen's hotel district rise against heavy cloud.

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.