Nagaragawa Onsen Kani

Nagaragawa Onsen Kani in Gifu city draws sulfate-chloride geothermal waters alongside the Nagara River — Japan's most famous cormorant fishing (ukai) river, where traditional fishermen using trained cormorants to catch sweetfish (ayu) by torchlight on summer evenings have practiced an art form unchanged for 1,300 years and patronized by the Imperial Household. The Nagara River's extraordinary clarity and cleanliness — it is one of Japan's last pristine natural rivers — reflects the exceptional environmental standards of Gifu prefecture, where ayu sweetfish habitat protection has driven water quality improvement across the entire watershed. Gifu's position at the intersection of the Hida mountain culture of Takayama, the Mino pottery tradition of Tajimi, and the World Heritage thatched farmhouses of Shirakawa-go creates an onsen destination in Japan's cultural and geographical heartland.