Jinba no Yu

Jinba no Yu—Sacred Horse Waters—takes its name from jinba, the divine horse (jin = god/sacred + ba = horse), the magnificent animal that in Japanese Shinto tradition serves as a mount for deities at sacred shrines and is associated with the sacred energy of Shinto's most powerful divine presences, particularly at mountain shrines where white horses were kept as divine intermediaries. The combination of divine horse and hot water (yu) creates a spring of mythological resonance, suggesting thermal waters blessed by the sacred presence of the horse deity or discovered by a divine horse whose instinct led it to the spring—a variant of the ancient Japanese spring discovery legend that credits animals with finding the volcanic waters that humans then inherited. This spring's sacred horse name invests thermal bathing with the energy of Shinto's most powerful animal symbol, within a long thermal tradition.