Dai Onsen

Dai Onsen is a hot spring in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, part of the rich thermal bathing landscape of a city that contains one of the highest concentrations of hot springs in Japan and is deeply associated with the beloved poet and author Kenji Miyazawa, whose ecological and spiritual vision of the Tohoku landscape was shaped by the natural beauty and rural community of his native Hanamaki. Hanamaki is known as a city of flowers and hot springs, with more than sixty distinct onsen sources distributed across the city and its mountain hinterland, and the bicarbonate and naturally carbonated mineral waters of Dai Onsen represent one of the many distinct spring types that contribute to this exceptional thermal heritage. The carbonated bicarbonate character of the waters produces the pleasantly effervescent sensation associated with sparkling mineral springs, valued in Japanese medicine for their circulatory benefits and the fresh, skin-tingling quality that distinguishes naturally carbonated springs from still mineral water baths.