Aki Onsen Kochi

Aki Onsen Kochi is a thermal facility in Aki City on the Pacific coast of Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku, a provincial castle town whose historical claim to national significance rests on its role as the birthplace of Iwasaki Yataro, the ambitious and entrepreneurial son of a rural samurai family who founded Mitsubishi in 1870, transforming a small Tosa shipping business into one of the world's largest industrial and financial conglomerates and becoming one of the architects of Japan's Meiji-era industrialization in a story of personal ambition and national transformation that resonates throughout the cultural identity of Kochi Prefecture. The surrounding Tosa Province culture of Kochi is celebrated for the Tosa Inu, the province's distinctive fighting dog breed, the tosa katsuo (skipjack tuna prepared as straw-seared tataki), and the deep-rooted sake drinking culture symbolized by the yosakoi traditional drinking game that has accompanied Kochi's vibrant and convivial festival and party culture for centuries. The chloride thermal spring waters of Aki Onsen provide relaxation in a coastal city whose industrial heritage, ancient samurai culture, and direct connection to the founding of one of Japan's greatest corporate dynasties give even a simple hot spring bath the weight of the extraordinary Meiji transformation that created modern Japan from the energy and ambition of young men from Tosa province.