Motokawarayu Inn

Motokawarayu is fed by two separate springs, both kept flowing fresh with no added water and no recirculation. Downstairs, the reservable Kawara-yu (かわら湯) is a private bath filled only with the inn's own source: a soft, faintly reddish-brown water in a tub the owner had specially fired in Shigaraki, sized to fit a family of three. Upstairs on the fourth floor, the separate-sex Jizo-no-yu (地蔵の湯) and Kannon-no-yu (観音の湯) blend that spring with a second, hotter one from the local springs union, a cloudy, pale yellow water known locally as the 'beauty water' for how smooth it leaves the skin. Big windows there open onto the mountains and the river below. The inn's tagline is irori to gensen no yado (いろりと源泉の宿), 'the hearth and spring inn,' and dinner is served around an irori (囲炉裏) hearth. It's a member of Nippon Hitou wo Mamoru Kai (日本秘湯を守る会), the association for preserving Japan's secret hot springs. Hijiori (肘折, 'broken elbow') is said to take its name from a monk whose injury healed in these waters some 1200 years ago.