Sukawa Onsen

Sukawa Onsen rises on the volcanic slopes of Kurikomayama (Mt. Kuriko) at the border between Akita and Iwate prefectures within the Kuriko National Park, where two ryokan—the Kurikomasanso on the Akita Prefecture side and the Sukawa Kogen Onsen on the Iwate Prefecture side—share access to the same volcanic spring system emerging at the same geological source straddling the prefectural boundary on one of Tohoku's most thermally active volcanic mountains. Simple alkaline waters provide the pure volcanic warmth of a highland spring at genuine mountain altitude, the spring's position at the intersection of two prefectures and two ryokan traditions giving it an unusually layered institutional character within Japan's thermal spring landscape. The prefectural boundary setting creates a spring that belongs simultaneously to two of Japan's great northern prefectures, its volcanic waters shared equally between two administrations in a geological democracy that the prefectural border cannot divide.