Okutsu Onsen Okutsuso

Some 400 years ago, the local lord Tadamasa Mori placed a guard after locking the hot spring bath in order to make it exclusive for his family, which contributed to the naming of Kagiyu by villagers as kagi means lock and yu means hot water. Bubbling hot spring is naturally flowing in at 42.6 degrees Celsius so that additional water or warming are not needed at all, making constantly flowing natural hot spring water available 24 hours a day. This is very genuine hot spring while many drillings have been done to locate hot spring sources here and there throughout Japan. But, the original hot spring the Japanese has loved is supposed to be a true blessing of nature, in other words, hot spring should have natural gushing hot water without earthwork. Hot spring ingredients deteriorate due to temperature or pressure drop, or exposure to the air. Hot spring of Okutsuso gives you chance to enjoy the pristine condition of natural hot spring whose water does not touch the air at all owing to the direct natural gushing from the bottom of bathtubs. As of today, only few hot spring is left available in such a condition among hot springs nationwide. What differentiate Okutsuso hot spring from others is the silky and comfortable water which deliver the heat to your body core. This would have been the reason why the old-time lord of Tsuyama kept Kagiyu hot spring to himself, noticing something was different.