Yoshinoya Ryokan, Kaga Yamanaka Onsen, Ishikawa Prefecture, c. 1930.



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Yoshinoya Ryokan, Kaga Yamanaka Onsen, Ishikawa Prefecture, c. 1930. The area hot springs were thought to be therapeutic for chronic digestive disorders, beriberi, nerves, etc., and are said to have been discovered 1,300 years ago by a monk’s encounter with Bhaisajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha, who told the monk “Here there is a hot spring of just the right temperature that will cure people’s illnesses. You should dig it up.” The famous visitors who’ve traveled to Yamanaka onsen included the famed haiku poet, Basho, who composed haiku of the area for a travel diary considered to be one of the major texts of Japanese literature.

At Yamanaka
No need to pick chrysanthemums
With your scented waters.

– Basho

See also:
“Yamagata Palace” onsen-ryokan at Taka-yu, Minami-Murayama, Yamagata, c. 1920.
Menoyu Ryokan, Asama hot springs, Matsumoto, c. 1930.

“The spa I selected was Yamanaka, which is half-an-hour’s ride in an electric car from Daishoji Station on the main line.

“The inn of my choice at that place was Annex No. 1 of Yoshinoya. Upon arrival at the terminus of the electric tramway, I was annoyed to hear from a guide of the inn that his premises were full up. I, however, insisted on having accommodation in the inn, and I was at last given a choice between a European-furnished room and a tea-room in pure Japanese style.

“I chose the tea-room. I did not like to take a European room, for, putting aside the question of financial nature that would unpleasantly influence the bill, the occupation of such a room would make me feel like one who was nursing a patient in a hospital, sitting solitarily beside the bed. The picture was decidedly not a cheerful one.

“The tea-room was a combination of two compartments, each three mats in size, and a sliding paper door formed a partition. It was more like a toy than a thing for actual use.

“The entrances, one for each compartment, were no higher than my shoulder, and the ceilings were very low. Being of tall stature for a Japanese, the slogan ‘Safety first’ had to be conspicuously displayed in my mind for the protection of my head.

“It was snowing outside, and my toy combination-room was protected from the cold outside by nothing more substantial than shoji, those flimsy sliding-doors covered with paper, but that cheerful companion of a winter room, kotatsu, made me comfortable enough.

“The neighbourhood of Yamanaka is not wanting in places of interest, scenically and otherwise. There is Korogibashi, a picturesque bridge with a pretty stream running below in a deep gorge, and there is also a pottery, a visit to which will enable one to have peeps into the practice of the ceramic art for which the province has been celebrated for centuries, products of local kilns being the far-famed Kutani-ware of commerce.”

“In the Land of Snow”, by Eisaku Waseda, The Tourist, May 1922

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