Okutsu Onsen

Okutsu Onsen—Inner Haven Spring—in Iwate Prefecture takes its name from the okutsu, the inner port or sheltered haven that provides protection from wind and wave at the deepest recess of an inlet, a topographic image translated to the mountain landscape as a spring situated in the innermost, most sheltered recess of a valley where thermal water accumulates with particular concentration. Iwate's volcanic landscape produces springs of considerable geological diversity, and the inner haven name suggests a spring whose protected topographic setting concentrates the thermal and mineral output of the surrounding volcanic geology into a particularly rich and sheltered emergence point. This spring's harbor-naming connects the protective enclosure of the cove to the geological sheltering of the valley that concentrates volcanic thermal energy in the most inwardly situated portion of the mountain landscape.