Tamatsukuri Onsen

About twenty minutes by bus from Matsue Station, the road crosses flat rice paddy country and then turns up a shallow valley carved by the Tamayu River. The valley holds a single long street lined with wooden inns and stone lanterns, with the river audible on the left side the entire way up. This is Tamatsukuri Onsen, and it is one of the oldest bath sites in Japan. The first written record of it appears in the Izumo Fudoki, an administrative survey of Izumo Province compiled in 733 AD, which describes crowds of people gathering at the spring as if at a festival. That document also records the claim that bathing here once restores youthful skin, and bathing twice heals illness. The document has not stopped circulating in 1,300 years.

The water at Tamatsukuri is classified as a sulfate spring, emerging from the earth at temperatures between 50 and 70 degrees Celsius. It is completely clear in the bath, slightly warm to touch before being cooled for bathing temperature, and the quality that earns it the nickname natural lotion is the metasilicic acid content, which is the same compound used as a base ingredient in commercial skin products. In 2012, a research study measured the spring's effect on skin moisture and found it increases hydration by 165% above baseline, with continued use pushing that figure toward 180%. Whether you find that impressive or you find the science beside the point, the water does feel different from ordinary hot water. You notice it especially on your face and hands. There is a light film left behind when you dry off, slightly resistant to the towel, that stays present for several hours.

The cultural moment unique to Tamatsukuri is the Tamatsukuri Kamiyu Shrine, a small Shinto compound at the top of the main street. The shrine is dedicated to the god Kushiakarutama-no-mikoto, who is specifically associated with the spring and with gem-cutting, and the name Tamatsukuri itself means jewel maker. You can walk up to the shrine in yukata borrowed from your inn and offer a cup of spring water at the altar, which is a practice the townspeople have been maintaining in some form for over a millennium. The small covered pavilion beside the shrine holds a stone in which, according to legend, a goddess left her handprint, and locals press their own hands against it to absorb some residual blessing. It is not a performance for tourists. The locals use it the same way.

The town is small enough to walk end to end in fifteen minutes, which means the rhythm of a stay here is simple: arrive, check in, walk to the shrine, eat the San-in coast seafood the inn serves in the evening, soak in the clear water, and repeat the next day. Lake Shinji, the brackish coastal lake famous for its sunsets and its endemic shijimi clams, is visible in the distance from the higher points on the valley road. On a clear evening, the light over that lake and the steam rising from the inn rooftops make Tamatsukuri feel exactly as old as it actually is.