Tohoku · Obanazawa, Yamagata

♨ Ginzan Onsen

Wooden inns along a river. Magical with evening lamps and snow.

About Ginzan Onsen

Taisho-era wooden inns line both banks of a narrow river. The gas lamps come on around 4 PM, and the view is at its most magical in winter snow. Take the Yamagata Shinkansen to Oishida Station, then a local bus to the onsen (about 35–40 minutes). In winter there are traffic restrictions and buses can be delayed. Never walk the road in a snowstorm; use the shuttle.

The water

A sodium chloride-sulphate spring: clear, neutral (about pH 6.6), slightly salty, with a faint sulphur smell. Miners are said to have soaked in it to ease their aches.

History

The town began around 1600 as Nobesawa Ginzan, one of Japan's three largest silver mines, with about 15,000 people at its peak. Miners discovered the hot springs. When the mine closed by 1689, the town reinvented itself as a hot-spring resort. Today's riverside inns are in the Taisho-era (1912–1926) style.

Getting there

Famous for (meibutsu)

• Obanazawa watermelon (food): Yamagata's best-known summer watermelon
• Obanazawa soba (food): hand-made buckwheat noodles served in Ginzan
• Tendo shogi pieces (craft): Yamagata makes most of Japan's shogi pieces

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