Ashizuri Onsen

Ashizuri Onsen in Kochi Prefecture flows with iodine-rich thermal waters near Cape Ashizuri, the southernmost tip of the Shikoku mainland and the dramatic geological conclusion of the Tosa Bay coastline where the Pacific Ocean's broad horizon and the rocky volcanic promontory create one of Japan's most geographically powerful coastal settings, associated with the pilgrimage to Kongofukuji Temple — one of the 88 temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage circuit — and with the mythological story of the founder Kukai who stood at this cape meditating on the infinite ocean. The spring's iodine mineral content reflects the marine geological heritage of a cape environment where the interaction of oceanic influences and volcanic geology produces iodine-bearing mineral water of the kind associated with the deep sea-floor sedimentary formations compressed and transformed by the subduction tectonics that have shaped the dramatic coastline of the Kochi Pacific shore. Ashizuri Onsen's iodine-rich waters and its Cape Ashizuri setting — where the Shikoku pilgrimage, the Pacific's limitless horizon, and the volcanic earth's geothermal energy meet at the southernmost point of the island — create a thermal bathing experience of extraordinary geographic and spiritual intensity unique among the hot spring destinations of Japan's sacred Shikoku island.