Ginzan Onsen
- Location
- Obanazawa, Yamagata, Japan
- Water type
- sodium chloride
- Temperature
- 41 °C
- pH
- 7.3
Water profile
Relaxing — deep, immediate muscle release.
Loaded with major ions — the essential minerals (Ca, Mg).
Dense, salty water — you float without effort.
Ginzan Onsen occupies a narrow river gorge in Obanazawa, deep in Yamagata Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The settlement is celebrated as one of the country's most photogenic hot spring villages: multi-storey wooden ryokan inns line both banks of the Ginzan River, their lanterns reflected in the rushing water below, while in winter the entire valley vanishes beneath deep snowdrifts that seem to muffle every sound.
The sodium-chloride spring flows at 41 °C with a neutral pH of 7.3, delivering a firmly warm, salt-inflected soak associated with a lingering warmth long after leaving the water. Ginzan — 'silver mountain' — takes its name from the silver mines that once drove the local economy; when the mines closed, the onsen sustained the valley instead. Bathing here, especially in the late evening when the ryokan facades are lit against the snow, is an experience in which atmosphere and water combine inseparably.