Shionoha Onsen Hot Spring (入之波温泉)
Shionoha Onsen Hot Spring (Shionohaonsen) is a hot spring in Kawakami Village, Yoshino County, Nara Prefecture (former Yamato Province).
Access
Public transportation: take a bus of Nara Kotsu Bus which is bound for Yumori Onsen Sugi no Yu, at Yamato-Kamiichi Station of the Kinki Nippon Railway Company, get off the bus at `Yumori Onsen Sugi no Yu (Cedar Hot Spring)' to transfer to a bus bound for Shionoha Onsen Hot Spring, and get off the bus at the last stop, which is close to Shionoha Onsen Hot Spring.
By car: approximately 90 minutes from Nishimeihan Jidoshado Expressway Koriyama Interchange (Nara Prefecture).
Spring quality
Alkaline carbondioxated springs (Yamabatoyu hot spring)
Spring source temperature 39.0 degrees Celsius.
Simple thermal hot spring (Goshikiyu hot spring)
In every hot spring, the source temperature is low.
Hot spring resort
There are two Japanese-style inns, one is `Yamabatoyu hot spring,' the other is publicly-owned `Goshikiyu hot spring,' on the banks of Osako dam, deep in mountains close to the headstream of Yoshino-gawa River. Spring quality of each of these two hot springs is completely different from each other.
Yamabatoyu hot spring is famous as an opaque hot spring which includes many constituents. Brownish yellow calcareous deposits adhere to the inside of a bathtub to the extent that people cannot recognize that the bathtub is made of wood. Especially, an open-air bath made of a huge Japanese zelkova stump is covered with a lot of deposits. The point where hot water drops has a cliff that consists of hot spring constituents, which looks like the calcareous sinter of Futamata Radium Onsen Hot Spring. It springs 500 liters every minute.
On the way of the climbing trail up to Mt. Odaigahara, there is a site of Goshikiyu hot spring, which was a hot spring cure site in the Edo period, and hot spring still comes out even today. However, the hot spring water which comes out here is not used in Goshikiyu Ryokan Inn.
History
It has been known as kusuriyu (medicated bath) since ancient times, and it was opened as a hot spring as early as the Heian period. Many people visited for a hot spring cure in the Edo period.
The hot spring sank under water when the construction of Osako dam was completed in 1973, but the hot spring revived later in Yamabatoyu Ryokan Inn when the source was struck by boring.
Aside from Shionoha Onsen Hot Spring, there are hot springs that revived after being sunk under water due to a dam including Nichu Onsen Hot Spring, Tsurunoyu Hot Spring (Tokyo), Omaki Onsen Hot Spring, Sarugakyo Onsen Hot Spring, and Oshio Onsen Hot Spring (Fukushima Prefecture).