Kawayu Onsen Fujiya

Fujiya is a long-established ryokan on the bank of the Oto River in Hongu-cho, Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture, about three kilometres southwest of Kumano Hongu Taisha. Founded during the Edo period, it is the oldest inn in Kawayu Onsen and a member of the Japan Association of Secluded Hot Spring Inns. Many walkers on the Nakahechi route of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trails, a UNESCO World Heritage site, use it as a base.

The water is a sodium bicarbonate-chloride spring, described as neutral by the Wakayama Prefecture Onsen Association. Sources differ on temperature: the inn's own website cites a 70°C source rising from eight metres underground, while both the prefectural association and the Japan Association of Secluded Hot Spring Inns record 62°C. The water emerges too hot to enter, so cold water is added, but nothing is recirculated or filtered and every bath in the building is free-flowing.

There are five baths in total, two indoor and three open-air, including one lined with Kishu maki cedar, one finished in marble and a deliberately rustic outdoor bath facing the river. A private open-air bath can be reserved after check-in. Of the 31 guest rooms, three have their own open-air tub. Day-use bathing is not offered, but from December to the end of February the Sennin-buro, a public open-air bath roughly 50 metres wide, is dug into the riverbed directly in front of the inn.