Yurinoyama Onsen

Yurinoyama Onsen is a public day-use bathhouse in the Yukawa hot spring district of Nachikatsuura, Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, standing beside the brackish lagoon known as Yukashigata. Yukawa is one of the older springs of the Nanki coast, and tradition holds that retired emperors and nobles travelling the Kumano pilgrimage routes bathed here in the purification rite called yugori. The bathhouse lies about 600 metres up a lane off National Route 42 along the lagoon, roughly a ten-minute walk from Yukawa Station on the JR Kisei Line, yet the setting is a quiet hamlet in the hills and the clientele is far more local regulars than sightseers. The present facility is said to have opened in 1975.

The source is named Yurinoyama No. 1. The notice in the bathhouse gives the water as an alkaline simple sulfur spring of the hydrogen sulfide type, with a source temperature of 37.8 degrees Celsius, a pH of 9.7 and total dissolved solids of just 0.166 grams per kilogram, making it a soft and very lightly mineralised water. Yield is a generous 120 litres per minute, and the bath runs entirely free-flowing from the source, with no added water, no heating, no recirculation and no disinfectant. The water is clear and colourless, carries a faint trace of sulfur and leaves a slippery feel on the skin. Because it never reaches 40 degrees it suits long, unhurried soaking, and there is so much of it that the washing-place taps run undiluted source water as well. Bathers widely report drinking from the taps, though no drinking-water permit notice could be confirmed, so follow whatever the signage on site says. The town of Nachikatsuura lists rheumatism, neuralgia and eye complaints among its benefits.

The building is a single-storey wooden structure with one indoor bath each for men and women. There are five or six washing stations, but no shampoo, no body soap and no showers, so anything needed must be brought along. Lockers are free and lockable, a hairdryer is available for a fee, and a rest room with a wood-burning stove serves for cooling down afterwards. Outside stands a spring-water dispenser where 100 yen buys about ninety seconds of flow, roughly 22 to 25 litres to take home. Admission is 400 yen for adults and 220 yen for children up to elementary school age. Hours are 09:00 to 22:00 with last entry at 21:30, closed Tuesdays except when a Tuesday falls on a public holiday. Parking for about twenty cars is free.