Kunimi Onsen (Oita)

Kunimi Onsen—Land Viewing Spring—takes its name from the Japanese tradition of kunimi, the act of surveying and taking in the full breadth of one's land from an elevated viewpoint—a practice with roots in ancient Japanese poetry and kingship ritual where standing on a high point to view the landscape was understood as both a poetic act and a form of territorial blessing. Rising in Oita Prefecture—Japan's thermal capital with the highest concentration of spring volume and variety of any prefecture in the country—this sulfurous spring exists within one of the world's most concentrated geothermal landscapes, where looking out across the land means looking across a terrain perpetually steaming with volcanic thermal output. The land-viewing name gives this Oita spring a perspective of breadth and overview that complements the extraordinary geological richness of Japan's most prolific hot spring prefecture.