Honke Bankyu

Honke Bankyu sits right on the Yunishigawa river, and every bath runs on kakenagashi water straight from the spring, clear and soft on the skin. The riverside outdoor baths, separate for men and women, sit close enough to touch the current; the indoor baths are in cypress-scented rooms with granite and Towada-stone tubs. Two private open-air baths can be booked by the session, one a plain rock pool, the other shaped like a boat. Some guest rooms come with their own outdoor bath looking over the water. The ryokan was founded in 1666 by descendants of the Heike clan who settled in Yunishigawa after fleeing the battle of Dannoura, and the inn's oldest bath still draws from that founding spring. A vine bridge crosses to a separate hall for dinner, cooked over an open hearth. The spring is known locally as a kodakara (child-blessing) spring, and a small Jizo shrine for that tradition still stands on the grounds.