Yunotsu Onsen Hot Springs
A secluded fishing village with a long and arcane past, Yunotsu Onsen offers therapeutic hot springs, ancient kagura Shinto dances, and a chance to enjoy nodoguro, one of Japan’s most prized seafoods.
Although it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, also, the only hot springs in Japan designated a Significant Cultural Streetscape by Japan’s Agency of Cultural Affairs, Yunotsu Onsen is not that well-known or often visited by outsiders. This may be because it is the most enigmatic town in Japan. It lies essentially hidden within the lush hills and coves of the Sea of Japan coastline of Shimane prefecture in western Japan. The old winding road that takes you to Yunotsu passes through a series of narrow tunnels hewn out of the rocky hillsides, and even then you come to only one part of the village—the town’s high street, lined with an eclectic mix of old-time hot spring spas and inns, clapboard sailors’ homes and shops, and grand Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. At the bottom of the road is the main port, mostly sleepy now. The rest of the town’s maze-like lanes and ancillary harbors line the sides of neighboring inlets and coves and are reached when you wander through other tunnels cut into the hills. Yunotsu’s isolated and picturesque setting make the town a welcome destination for visitors to Japan’s countryside who want to relax in its murky hot springs or swim in its pristine sea waters, hike its dramatic coastline, and sample its delicious seafood and ancient traditions, including Shinto kagura dance performances.
Yunotsu’s history stretches back to over 1,300 years ago when its mineral-rich waters were first found bubbling out of the rocks within its forest by a traveling monk. Back then the area was known as the Iwami Kingdom, one of Japan’s oldest settlements, whose exact origins are lost in the mists of time. It is believed that the whole of Shimane prefecture was once a separate society from Japan’s founding Yamato dynasty that was established in Nara in 660 BC. Instead, the region had strong connections with ancient Korea and China, which influenced its culture and is visible in the many unusual square-shaped kofun (burial mounds) in the area that date from the Yayoi Period (300 BC to 300 AD). Today Shimane prefecture is a fundamental part of Japanese mythology, known as the Land of the Gods. Izumo, about an hour’s drive north of Yunotsu, is considered to be the home of the Shinto god Okuninushi, the ruler of the invisible world of spirits and magic and lord of all of Japan’s other Shinto gods. Over the centuries, pilgrims en route to the Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, where he is enshrined, stopped at Yunotsu to benefit from its therapeutic hot springs during their long journey.
In the 16th century and continuing on into the Edo Period (1603-1868), Yunotsu became the secretive port for the nearby silver mines of Iwami Ginzan, which were once the third-largest producing silver mines in the world, shipping silver to other parts of Japan, Asia and Europe. It was essentially a garrison town under the direct control of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868), heavily guarded and governed on a strictly need-to-know basis to protect the silver shipments. The Naito family were in charge, and their compound, built in 1747 remains the oldest and largest residence in Yunotsu. Its imposing collection of austere structures continues to dominate the village’s main street.
The vitality and richness of Yunotsu’s past has left many intriguing artifacts and structures behind. There are still over four-hundred moorings carved into the rocks of Yunotsu’s harbors—ghostly reminders of when it was one of the busiest ports in the world. Everywhere there are mysterious looking storage niches cut into the hillsides, and stone stairways wind up into the encroaching forest. Yunotsu’s main Shinto shrine, Tatsu no Gozen Jinja (Dragon Mouth Shrine), on the main street is an unusually large and elaborately decorated shrine for such a small village. The gabled portico is hipped in the Chinese style and its eaves are floridly carved with images of a phoenix, a roiling sea, and flowers, reflecting both the town’s former wealth and the robust, artistically innovative times of the Aizu-Momoyama era (1573-1615) when it was built. Dedicated to sailors, fishermen and safe ocean voyages, there is a miniature copy of the shrine built high up into the cliff behind the main building for sea voyagers to see from afar.
Further down the main street is a large Buddhist temple complex built in 1521 and enlarged over the years. The temple on the left is Eiko-ji, part of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. The temple on the right is Sairaku-ji, and the two characters of its name “sai” and “raku” are probably meant to read ‘Western Paradise’ given that the temple belongs to the Jodo Shin sect of Buddhism. However, an alternative reading for “raku” can be “comfort or rest,” which would be appropriate given that today Yunotsu is primarily a spa town.
There are two old-fashioned day spas in Yunotsu for the casual visitor and a range of comfortable ryokan inns that offer overnight stays in charming rooms, friendly service, hot spring baths, and traditional kaiseki course meals that feature local seafood delicacies. These include shiro-ika (white squid), known as the “o-toro of squid” because its sweet, creamy softness is similar to fatty tuna, equally sweet, small tenaga shrimp, and Matsuba crab. But what visitors come to Yunostu to eat is nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch), which is one of the most highly-prized seafoods in Japan. It gets its name from the black coloration in its throat, which also appears on the inside of its gills. A fish with a striking countenance, its other distinct characteristics are its reddish fins, black edges along its dorsal and caudal fins, and large red eyes. Nodoguro’s culinary appeal is its perfect combination of maritime delights—sweet, tender, and pure white flesh that is saturated with umami richness due to the fish’s fattiness, which is unusual for a white-fleshed fish.
Nodoguro is at its best in autumn and winter when the fish are sweetened and fattened by the cold, and the best nodoguro comes from the waters off Shimane and neighboring Yamaguchi prefecture because it is here that a rare oceanic phenomenon occurs—an upwelling of pure, mineral-rich, deep-sea water when the warm waters of the Tsushima Current from the south meet the invigoratingly cold waters of the Sea of Japan.
In Tokyo and other major cities, nogoduro is most often served raw, either as sashimi or as a topping on a sushi onigiri ball of rice. But along the coast of the Sea of Japan where nodoguro is more plentiful, it is served in a variety of preparations that enhance its deliciousness. Salt-grilling nodoguro highlights the fish’s flakiness and simmering it in a sweet-rich nitsuke sauce deepens its umami. An even more succulent preparation of nodoguro is lightly roasting a fish that has previously been salt-cured and air-dried as himono. All seafood served in Shimane prefecture is served with u-joyu, a local type of soy sauce whose name means “seafood soy sauce.” It is a thick, slightly sweet soy with an especially rich flavor brewed to complement the region’s rich seafood.
After dinner, on Saturday and Sunday nights, visitors can go to Tatsu no Gozen Jinja to watch Shinto kagura dances. Originating in the old Iwami and Izumo kingdoms and on Kyushu Island millennia ago, kagura literally means "entertainment for the gods. Masked performers in elaborately embroidered costumes accompanied by musicians playing drums, flutes, and cymbals dance out the stories of the ancient gods, such as the god Susa-no-Oo's defeat of the dragon—one the most famous and challenging legends performed by kagura troupes. The dances are also ceremonies in which the performers seek to curry the gods’ favor for a good harvest and plentiful hauls of fish (such as the kagura dance pictured in the title block above) by their performance.
While kagura nowadays is often performed in halls and auditoriums as a cultural exhibition, it is still very much a living tradition in Shimane prefecture. At Tatsu no Gozen Jinja they are performed traditionally—at night by the shrine’s acolytes in the Iwami Kagura style of a riotous and colorful dance with the performers threading through the audience who are seated on the tatami mat floor in front of the shrine’s stage.
The magic of Yunotsu continues after the performance as you walk the town’s largely deserted streets to the accompaniment of the rhythmic clip-clopping sound of bathers returning to their inns wearing wooden geta shoes.
Story & Photos: Tom Schiller
Yunotsu Onsen 温泉
Yunotsu Tourist Information Office
791-4 Yunotsu, Oda-shi, Shimane Prefecture 699-2501
Tel: +81 (0855) 65 2065
The Tourist Information Office is located next to Yunotsu’s main port. It has information about local events, festivals, trail maps, and times for guided morning walks along the coastline. There is also free wifi and a small museum about the town on the second floor. It is open daily from 8:45 am to 17:30.
Getting There
From the city of Matsue, the capital of Shimane prefecture, it takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes by the JR Sanin line train to get to Yunotsu Station. From there you can take a 7-minute bus ride to the Yunotsu Onsen area or walk down to the village in 15 minutes.
Iwami Ginzan UNESCO World Heritage Site
Yunotsu is part of the Iwami Ginzan UNESCO World Heritage Site which also consists of the ruins of the silver mine and the mining town of Omori about 20 minutes by car in the mountains behind Yunotsu. You can also walk between Omori and Yunotsu on trails that were the old roads that brought the silver down from the mine to Yunotsu’s port.
