Yudanochi Onsen Minshuku Katayama

Onsen Minshuku Katayama is a small seven-room inn in Ohara, Totsukawa Village, Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, set within Yusenchi Onsen (Tousenji Onsen), one of the three hot spring areas that make up Totsukawa Onsen-go. Yusenchi has the longest history of the three springs alongside Totsukawa and Kamiyu: records at Toshin-ji Temple date its emergence to 1450, and a 1581 account tells of the warlord Nobumori Sakuma bathing here; it is counted among Japan's 100 Famous Hot Springs.

The water is a colourless, clear simple sulfur spring with a faint sulfurous scent. In June 2004 Totsukawa Village declared that all 25 lodging facilities and public bathhouses in the village would serve their water untreated, never heated, diluted, recirculated or chlorinated, and Katayama's bath is one of the facilities covered by that pledge. The bathroom itself is built from unvarnished local hinoki and maki wood.

The bath is a single indoor room split by gender, with no open-air pool and no private bath for hire, open from 15:00 to 9:00 the next morning. A night with two meals starts at 8,850 yen per adult (tax and the 150 yen bathing tax not included). Day-trip bathing is not offered; reservations are by phone or email only, and payment is cash only.