ONSEN is a series that Japanese photographer Yusuke Yamatani has been working on for about 15 years. This series is based on his visits to wild hot springs that are unaltered. Captivated by the bare scenery created by the hot springs area, where this world and the next intersect, Yamatani has continued to visit hot springs, recruiting participants from his friends, family and through online communication platforms like SNS. Hot spring culture has a long history, and is described in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki as places where men and women could eat and drink together, exchange songs, and deepen friendships.
His previous work, ONSEN I, was a collection of photographs that captured the overwhelming beauty of the natural beauty surrounding the hot springs and the people who accompanied him there.
The book ONSEN MMXXIV contains 130,000 characters, and includes images of desolate landscapes, mountains, the ground, sulfur, volcanic smoke, people as well as photos taken from train windows, meals, and fellow travellers along the way. The text includes conversations that took place during the different journeys which has spanned over 200 days. Yamaya focuses not only on the beauty of nature's forms, but also on the timeless human activities through primitive communication between strangers who happen to come together using SNS. The expedition of searching for wild springs is an attempt to explore memories that transcend time and place, that is, landscapes that once existed.
320 pages, 22 x 14.7 cm, softcover, Flotsam Books (Tokyo).