Hatago Isen

Hatago Isen is a legendary traditional Japanese inn (ryokan) in Yugashima Onsen in the Izu Peninsula's mountain interior, Shizuoka Prefecture, whose sulfurous hot spring waters and intimate mountain setting have made it one of the most celebrated and sought-after small ryokan experiences in Japan. The inn is said to have inspired Kawabata Yasunari's Nobel Prize-winning novel The Izu Dancer, and its simple, authentic character — wooden architecture, private rotemburo, seasonal kaiseki cuisine, and the sound of the mountain stream — embodies the finest values of the Japanese traditional inn tradition. Yugashima Onsen itself is a secluded hot spring valley in the heart of the Izu mountains, accessible from the dramatic Nakaizu highlands, where the emerald-green waters of the Kano River flow through a gorge flanked by cryptomeria cedar and Japanese maple. Hatago Isen and Yugashima Onsen together represent some of the most refined and literarily resonant thermal culture in Japan — a destination for travelers who seek the deepest qualities of the onsen experience.