Wajima Asaichi Onsen

Wajima Asaichi Onsen takes its name from the Wajima Asaichi — the Wajima Morning Market — one of Japan's three great morning markets whose 200-year-old tradition of vendors laying out fresh fish, vegetables, pickled foods, and locally produced Wajima-nuri lacquerware along the main street before dawn creates a daily ritual of commerce and community that has defined Wajima's identity as the Noto Peninsula's most culturally significant town. The Wajima-nuri lacquerware tradition itself is among Japan's most distinguished craft forms — a technique of applying up to 76 individual layers of locally sourced urushi lacquer over a wooden base, producing pieces of exceptional durability, depth, and beauty that are designated National Traditional Crafts and command prices that reflect their extraordinary quality and the decades of skill required to master the art. Severely affected by the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, Wajima's traditional townscape and morning market are in the process of reconstruction — the onsen's siliceous mineral waters represent both the thermal heritage of a resilient community and a symbol of warmth and recovery for a place whose cultural treasures are being patiently rebuilt.