Photo by Soica2001, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
🇯🇵 Japan · Mutsu, Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori Prefecture
Photo by Soica2001, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
🇯🇵 Japan · Mutsu, Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori Prefecture
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✓ Verified on 2026-07-28
Yagen Onsen is a cluster of ryokan set along the Ohata River within the Shimokita Hanto Quasi-National Park, surrounded by old-growth forest, including the region's noted Aomori hiba (cypress) trees. The area is tied to a local legend in which a kappa (water spirit) is said to have rescued and healed an injured traveling priest at the spring. Visitors can also see the remains of a forest railway that operated in the valley until 1963.
Local legend holds that about 1,100 years ago the priest Jikaku Daishi, founder of nearby Osorezan, was injured falling from a cliff near Oku-Yagen and was carried to the hot spring by a kappa, waking the next morning healed and covered in butterbur leaves.