The legendary Sugaru no Tojiba bathing site, perched on the rugged coast of Kumanoura in Kuroshio Town, Hata District, Kochi Prefecture, is a hidden mineral cold spring steeped in centuries of folklore. Tradition holds that fugitive Heike clan warriors once nursed their battle wounds here, and that the great Edo-period cartographer Ino Tadataka stopped to bathe during his historic surveys of the Japanese coastline. The source flows at roughly 19 degrees Celsius and is classified as an alkaline simple sulfurous cold mineral spring, carrying a faint sulfur fragrance and a notably silky touch. Local lore tells that those born in Sugaru possess unusually fair and smooth skin, a quality long attributed to the water. The site is also designated as the 49th sacred station on the Shikoku 88 Hot Spring Pilgrimage. The facility is an entirely self-service traditional Goemon-style iron cauldron bath. Visitors must gather driftwood from the beach, split it into kindling, light the fire themselves, and heat the cold spring water that is piped in black rubber hose from a source roughly 200 meters up the mountainside. Cold water is collected in polyethylene tanks and ladled into the cauldron with a bucket, allowing bathers to experience a primitive style of curative bathing now exceedingly rare in modern Japan. Featured on the Japanese television program Nani-Kore Chinhyakkei as the legendary bath where one cannot relax, it offers sweeping panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean from the tub itself. Spring discharge has decreased since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake due to crustal deformation, yet the site continues to be cared for by the goodwill of the Kuroshio Town Saga Branch Office and the private landowner.