Nishiiyayamamura Onsen
- Location
- Miyoshi, Tokushima (Shikoku), Japan
- Water type
- bicarbonate
- Temperature
- 40 °C
- pH
- 8
Water profile
Relaxing — deep, immediate muscle release.
Loaded with major ions — the essential minerals (Ca, Mg).
Soft water — natural, classic buoyancy.
Nishiiyayamamura Onsen is a thermal facility in the western Iya Valley area of Miyoshi city in Tokushima Prefecture, deep in the mountainous interior of Shikoku Island where siliceous hot spring waters emerge from the ancient Sanbagawa metamorphic belt — one of Japan's most significant geological formations — in one of the most remote and dramatically scenic valley systems in the Japanese archipelago. The western Iya valley preserves an even more authentic atmosphere of traditional Shikoku mountain village life than its more visited eastern counterpart, with isolated thatched farmhouses perched on near-vertical slopes above emerald river gorges. Bathing in the siliceous onsen here connects visitors to an ancient, barely-changed landscape of extraordinary natural and cultural integrity at the geographic and spiritual heart of the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage.