Photo by 663highland, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇯🇵 Japan · Kaga and Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture
Photo by 663highland, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇯🇵 Japan · Kaga and Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture
♨ Temperature
65°C
⛰ Altitude
—
⚗ pH
—
💧 TDS
—
🌊 Flow rate
—
📅 Established
725 CE (traditional founding of Yamashiro Onsen, attributed to the monk Gyoki)
✓ Verified on 2026-07-28
Kaga Onsen (or Kaga Onsenkyo) is the collective term for four hot spring towns within about 8 km of each other in Ishikawa Prefecture: Yamashiro, Yamanaka, and Katayamazu in Kaga city, plus Awazu in Komatsu city. Yamashiro Onsen, the largest, traces its traditional founding to 725 CE and the monk Gyoki, and its source water is a slightly alkaline sodium-calcium sulfate-chloride spring reaching 65°C. Its historic Ko-soyu public bathhouse recreates Meiji-era (1868-1912) bathhouse architecture. Poets Matsuo Basho and Akiko Yosano both wrote about visiting the Kaga springs, and Yamanaka Onsen in particular was praised by Basho for its penetrating heat.
Yamashiro Onsen, the largest of the four Kaga springs, traditionally traces its founding to 725 CE, when the monk Gyoki is said to have found a crow bathing its injured wing in the waters. The four towns developed historically around communal public bathhouses (soyu), a bathing culture more than 1,300 years old.
Yamashiro Onsen's Ko-soyu bathhouse recreates the architecture and bathing culture of the Meiji era (1868-1912), standing alongside the modern Soyu bathhouse as a living symbol of the town's communal bathing tradition.
Websiteen.yamashiro-spa.or.jp/
AddressYamashiro Onsen, Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan