Koyado Suhara Onsen

A five-room inn on the mikan slopes above Yuasa that called itself Kishu no Kakure-yu (紀州のかくれ湯), the hidden bath of Kishu. How it became an onsen at all is the good part: in early Meiji, when few houses had a bath of their own, neighbours took turns heating one, and people kept noticing that the bath at this house left you warm long after you climbed out. Officials came to check and confirmed it: there was a hot spring under the place. Neighbours asked the family to open it up for everyone's health, and they did, in November 1892. The water was colourless, odourless and soft with metasilicic acid, from the family's own source directly behind the bathhouse, and two of the five rooms had it piped to a tub of their own. Dinner leaned on Yuasa Bay, with kue (クエ) grouper through the winter. The inn closed at the end of March 2024 after five generations, and the premises now run as a restaurant, Sendo (千堂).