Miyoshi Onsen Oboke

Miyoshi Onsen Oboke is a mountain hot spring in Miyoshi City at the western entrance to the Iya Valley, Tokushima Prefecture, the gateway to one of Japan's most dramatic natural landscapes where the Yoshino River carves through the crystalline schist bedrock of the Shikoku Mountains in the spectacular Oboke Gorge — a deep canyon of translucent emerald-green water flowing between vertical cliff faces and massive boulders in a setting of such dramatic geological beauty that it rivals any river gorge scenery in the Japanese archipelago. The Iya Valley beyond Oboke is celebrated as one of Japan's three great hidden regions (kakurezato), a rugged mountain landscape of near-vertical vine bridges (kazurabashi) woven from mountain vines by the Heike clan warriors who fled here after their defeat in 1185, traditional thatched farmhouses perched improbably on steep hillsides, and the dense cedar forest atmosphere of a valley that has maintained its profound isolation from the outside world through centuries of difficult terrain. The sodium-bicarbonate thermal spring waters of Miyoshi Onsen offer restoration after exploring the extraordinary natural and cultural landscapes of the Oboke gorge and Iya Valley, warming river rafters and canyon hikers in a gateway community whose access to some of Shikoku's most spectacular scenery makes it an essential base for exploring Japan's most dramatically hidden valley culture.