Tsurugi Onsen

Tsurugi Onsen serves a community in the foothills of the Hakusan range, where the mountain known as Tsurugi-ho (Sword Peak) rises as one of the subsidiary summits of the Hakusan massif and the rivers draining its slopes provide some of Ishikawa Prefecture's clearest and coldest mountain water, collected in reservoirs that supply drinking water to communities on the Kaga Plain below. The Tsurugi area preserves the character of a mountain-edge community shaped by the dual influences of the sacred Hakusan mountain above and the agricultural plain below, where the spiritual traditions associated with the mountain pilgrimage routes intersect with the rice farming and craft traditions of the Kaga domain that has defined Ishikawa's cultural identity for centuries. The onsen's siliceous mineral waters, drawing warmth from the volcanic geology underlying the Hakusan range, provide thermal bathing that connects the living geothermal energy of a sacred mountain to the ancient Japanese tradition of bathing in the earth's warmth.