U no Hama Onsen

U no Hama Onsen—Cormorant Beach Spring—takes its name from the u (cormorant), the diving water bird whose mastery of underwater pursuit has made it the star of ukai (cormorant fishing)—one of Japan's most ancient and aesthetically distinctive traditional fishing methods, practiced on rivers across Japan where trained cormorants dive for sweetfish (ayu) while restrained by a string held by the master fisherman in a torchlit summer-evening spectacle of extraordinary traditional beauty. The cormorant beach setting suggests a spring located at the coastal or riverside margin where cormorants hunt—a spring that shares its setting with the skilled diving bird whose mastery of the water element mirrors the thermal spring bather's complete immersion in the mineral waters. This spring's cormorant beach name connects thermal bathing to the Japanese tradition of appreciating the skill and beauty of water-mastery in both the diving bird and the thermal spring culture.