Higashi-Matsushima Onsen
- Location
- Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
- Water type
- sodium chloride
- Temperature
- 41 °C
- pH
- 7.3
Water profile
Relaxing — deep, immediate muscle release.
Loaded with major ions — the essential minerals (Ca, Mg).
Dense, salty water — you float without effort.
Higashi-Matsushima Onsen is a thermal facility in Higashi-Matsushima city in Miyagi Prefecture in the Tōhoku region, situated near the celebrated Matsushima Bay — one of Japan's three most beautiful scenic views (Nihon Sankei), where over 260 forested pine-covered islands punctuate the placid bay waters in a landscape immortalized by the haiku master Matsuo Bashō, who was so overwhelmed by its beauty that he reportedly could not compose a poem about it. The siliceous thermal waters emerge from the geological basement of the Pacific coastal zone of northern Honshu, providing restorative bathing near a coastline that was devastated by the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami — a disaster that profoundly affected Higashi-Matsushima while the famous Matsushima islands protected Matsushima Bay itself from the worst of the tsunami damage. The recovery and renewal of Higashi-Matsushima's thermal culture since 2011 embodies the resilience of Tōhoku communities in restoring the healing traditions of onsen bathing after one of Japan's greatest modern catastrophes.