Kaminoyama Onsen Kakuokan
- Location
- Kaminoyama, Yamagata (Tohoku), Japan
- Water type
- sodium chloride
- Temperature
- 43 °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.
Kaminoyama Onsen Kakuokan is part of the historic Kaminoyama Onsen district in Kaminoyama City, Yamagata Prefecture, one of the Tohoku region's most distinguished traditional spa towns with over five centuries of bathing history and the literary prestige of having received the haiku master Matsuo Basho during his 1689 journey through the north of Japan, his visit commemorated in the famous poem he composed in the town in the late summer of that journey before continuing north toward the Japan Sea coast. The remains of Kaminoyama Castle stand on a hilltop overlooking the hot spring district, while the surrounding farmland produces some of Yamagata's finest rice and cherries in the broad basin below the ruins, and local breweries use the spring's pure water to craft sake that has been a source of regional pride for generations. The chloride thermal waters of Kakuokan continue the centuries-long therapeutic and literary tradition of Kaminoyama in an onsen district where history, poetry, and the genuine pleasure of Japanese hot spring culture combine in a setting of great cultural resonance.