Daikin Onsen

Daikin Onsen—Great Gold Spring—takes its name from the precious metal whose color—the deep reddish-gold of iron oxide—is exactly the visual quality of ferruginous mineral spring water, where iron minerals color the rocks and bathing surfaces with the characteristic amber and rust tones that give iron springs their dramatic visual signature. The ferruginous waters carry the iron mineral richness prized in Japanese thermal tradition for the dramatic color it lends the bath, the iron content providing the visual foundation that makes these springs among the most distinctive in Japan's volcanic spring tradition. Rising in Tochigi Prefecture, this spring offers the assertive mineral experience of iron-rich volcanic water in a region where Nikko's volcanic heritage produces springs of considerable geological intensity.