Yuwaku Onsen Kanazawa

Yuwaku Onsen, tucked into a quiet mountain valley just 30 minutes from central Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, is a secluded chloride hot spring resort that served as the private retreat of Takehisa Yumeji — the celebrated Taisho-era artist and poet whose romantic bijin-ga paintings defined an era of Japanese aesthetics — whose memory is honoured at the Kanazawa Yuwaku Yumeji-kan Museum within the onsen district. The gently saline chloride waters, rising from the geology of the Hakusan volcanic system, are used in ryokan and inn settings that preserve the intimate mountain-resort atmosphere attracting artists and intellectuals to Yuwaku throughout the Meiji and Taisho periods. Kanazawa itself — Japan's best-preserved Edo-era city outside Kyoto, with its extraordinary Kenroku-en garden, Higashi Chaya geisha district, and 21st Century Museum — makes Yuwaku Onsen an ideal combination of traditional thermal culture and access to one of Japan's finest historical cities.