Fukiage Onsen Nakashima Onsen Ryokan

Nakashima Onsen Ryokan stands in the hamlet of Yunoura in Fukiage, Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, a short drive from Fukiagehama, one of the three great sand dunes of Japan. Fukiage Onsen, formerly known as Isaku Onsen, is said to have been discovered some five hundred years ago by a farmer's horse. This particular spring once served as the private bath of Shimazu Tadayoshi, known by his honorific name Nisshinko, head of the Isaku branch of the Shimazu clan. He granted it to his retainer Kamata Kotaro as a reward for military service, and for generations it was known as Kamata-don-no-yu before the Nakashima family took it over; the present owners are the fourth generation. Before the Meiji Restoration the springs of Isaku were ranked by social class, and this one held the highest rank. Records show that Saigo Takamori bathed here in 1870, 1871 and 1874.

The water is a sulfur spring, classified as hypotonic, alkaline and hot, with a pH of 8.9 and a source temperature of 50.1 degrees Celsius. The spring rises within the grounds of the inn, and the water reaches the baths without boiler heating and without any dilution, in true free-flowing style. Listed benefits include neuralgia, muscle and joint pain, frozen shoulder, bruising, poor circulation and general fatigue, along with chronic skin conditions, chronic gynaecological complaints, cuts and diabetes.

There are separate men's and women's main baths open to day visitors, a private reservable bath called Saigo-don-no-yu for overnight guests, and Nisshinko-no-yu, an indoor bath with an open-air section reserved for guests staying in the detached annex. All are free-flowing and undiluted. Day-trip bathing runs from 6:00 to 21:00 and costs 380 yen for adults, 150 yen for primary school children and 80 yen for infants, with the inn closed on the first, third and fifth Monday of each month. The main building, now over seventy years old and steeped in Showa-era atmosphere, takes only three parties per day, giving each party three rooms: one to relax in, one to dine in and one to sleep in. Parking is available for thirty cars.