Nozawa Kumanokouji
- Location
- Nozawaonsen, Nagano, Japan
- Water type
- sulfurous
- Temperature
- 44 °C
- pH
- 6.5
Water profile
Relaxing — deep, immediate muscle release.
Rich in active gases or metals — a strong mineral character.
Soft water — natural, classic buoyancy.
Nozawa Kumanokouji is one of the communal outdoor bath houses (soto-yu) of the celebrated Nozawa Onsen hot spring village in northern Nagano Prefecture, where 13 free public baths—owned and maintained by local villagers as a communal heritage institution for over 800 years—define a hot spring community culture of extraordinary authenticity and historical continuity designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Nagano Prefecture. The siliceous thermal waters of Nozawa emerge at high temperatures through the volcanic geology beneath the Madarao Kogen range, providing mineral-rich bathing in steaming outdoor pools that have warmed Buddhist pilgrims, farmers, and now skiers for centuries in one of Japan's most genuinely traditional onsen villages. The Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort's world-class powder snow, the August Bon Odori festival, and the dramatic January Dosojin Fire Festival—where villagers defend a straw tower from torch-bearing attackers in a Shinto fertility ritual—give this onsen village an intensity of cultural life unmatched in the Japanese Alps.