Ryokan Takeyashiki (Yakushiyu Onsen)

Ryokan Takeyashiki stands alone at the gateway to Okubo-ji, the 88th and final temple of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, in the mountain hamlet of Tawa in Sanuki City, Kagawa Prefecture. The inn's Yakushiyu hot spring is tied to a local legend: the Buddhist priest Kobo Daishi (Kukai) is said to have passed through this valley at age 42 and, sensing it to be a blessed land, opened a water source here with his ritual vajra staff. A statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing, watches over the bath's spout, and the inn has long welcomed pilgrims completing their 88-temple journey.

The water is classified as a sodium bicarbonate cold mineral spring (alkaline, hypotonic), meaning the source temperature is below 25°C by definition. The official website states that the water is heated to a comfortable soaking temperature and passed through a circulation filtration system for hygiene management, so this is not a source-fed, non-circulated (kakenagashi) bath. The spring is said to ease joint pain, neuralgia, and chronic digestive complaints, and can be enjoyed in a spacious bathing hall with wide windows overlooking the inn's garden.

Built in the sukiya style as one of Kagawa Prefecture's few remaining single-story ryokan of its kind, the property spreads across roughly 3,800 tsubo (about 12,500 square meters) of grounds. Beyond overnight stays with two meals, the inn offers day-trip courses that combine a seasonal kaiseki meal, a soak in the bath, and rest in a private room, available between 11:00 and 21:00 (bathing-only visits are not offered). As a temple-town inn at the end of the Shikoku pilgrimage and a quiet retreat in Kagawa, it offers a peaceful stay for travelers.