Chikura Onsen Chikurakan

Chikura Onsen Chikurakan is a solitary inn near the Pacific coast in Minamiasai, Chikura, Minamiboso City, Chiba Prefecture. According to a story handed down at the inn, in 1180, after Minamoto no Yoritomo was defeated at the Battle of Ishibashiyama and fled to Awa Province, his horse Hagoromo injured its leg and recovered soon after stepping into a spring welling up beside the road. This episode is a legend passed down through the inn's own tradition, and no primary Kamakura-era historical source has been found to corroborate it. The inn describes itself as Chiba Prefecture's oldest hot spring.

The water is classified as a sulfur sodium-chloride spring, said to help with neuralgia, muscle and joint pain, gynecological conditions, fatigue, poor circulation, stiff shoulders, skin ailments, chronic digestive trouble, burns, and rheumatism. How the water is used differs by bath: the men's large bath, Shutsujin no Yu, and the women's large bath, Hagoromo no Yu, are diluted with roughly 50% fresh water, while the smaller baths, including the private open-air baths, use undiluted spring water at full strength, so the facility as a whole cannot accurately be called a pure source-fed flow-through onsen. The pH, source temperature, and details of heating, recirculation, and chlorination are not stated in official materials.

The inn offers separate large baths for men and women, plus two types of private open-air baths available by reservation. Day-trip bathing in the large baths runs from 12:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (last entry 6:00 p.m.), priced at 1,500 yen for adults and 750 yen for children, tax included. The private open-air baths are available from noon to 2:00 p.m. (last entry 1:00 p.m.) for 3,000 yen per party for 50 minutes. Overnight stays are also available, with kaiseki dinners featuring seafood from the Boso coast.