Aichi Seto Onsen

Seto, in the northeastern Aichi Prefecture in the Seto River valley, is Japan's most celebrated ceramic city, its deep red clay and abundant pine forest fuel sustaining one of the world's most important ceramic producing traditions since the thirteenth century when the great Toshiro established his kilns here — so fundamental to Japanese ceramic culture that the word setomono (Seto-ware) became the Japanese generic term for ceramic dishes and bowls. Aichi Seto Onsen draws on chloride-rich thermal waters from the geological resources of the Seto River valley, offering restorative baths in Japan's ceramic capital whose extraordinary pottery heritage is celebrated at the Seto City Museum, the Morisanjin ceramic artist complex, and the traditional kiln districts preserved throughout the city. The Seto City Museum's comprehensive ceramic heritage documentation, the Akazu and Ohama traditional kiln districts where ceramic craft continues across centuries of unbroken tradition, and the Seto River valley's forested landscape of clay pits and pine woods that supplied the raw materials for over eight centuries of ceramic excellence make Seto one of the most culturally distinguished and craft-centred spa destinations in the entire Tokai region.