Ryujin Onsen

The road into Ryujin Onsen follows the Hidakagawa River upstream from the coast of Wakayama, climbing through the Kii Peninsula's mountain interior for about ninety minutes by bus from Katsura Station on the Kisei Line. The valley narrows as you go, the cedar trees get taller, and the river stays visible below the road the entire way. By the time you arrive at the cluster of twenty or so inns that constitutes the town, you understand why Kobo Daishi supposedly received its location in a dream rather than finding it by walking around. It takes a specific kind of attention to reach this place on purpose.

Ryujin Onsen is one of Japan's three designated bijin-no-yu, hot springs classified as beauty waters. The water is a sodium bicarbonate spring with a weakly alkaline chemistry that has two effects simultaneously. First, it removes excess oil and dead surface skin cells, leaving the skin very smooth within a single session. Second, the alkalinity in the water softens its surface tension so thoroughly that the bath feels different from anything else, closer to a warm, slightly thick liquid than ordinary hot water. The water is completely clear, and there is almost no odor. It comes out of the source at 48 degrees, warm enough that the outdoor pools need no supplemental heating in most weather.

The legend attached to the place involves the dragon king Nanda Ryuo, who appeared to Kobo Daishi in a dream and instructed him to open a bath at this exact location. The name Ryujin means dragon god, and the inn called Kamigoten, upper palace, was built as the lodging for the Tokugawa lords of the Kii domain during the Edo period. The Tokugawa connection meant the spring was largely private for much of its early history, which explains why it stayed so small and why the road to it remained difficult for so long.

The outdoor bath at Kamigoten extends over the Hidakagawa River on a wooden platform. The water from the spring flows directly into the pool, and below the platform the river moves over dark stones. In autumn, the red maples on the opposite bank reflect in the river surface. In summer, dragonflies work the air above the water. The hair-washing legend that follows this spring comes from generations of women who noticed that washing their hair in the water left it softer and more manageable than any other water in the region. That claim has survived three centuries and is still repeated by every inn along the valley.