Ginzan Onsen

Ginzan Onsen is a single narrow street of wooden inns facing each other across a fast mountain stream, and on a snowy evening it looks like a scene painted rather than built. The ryokan, three and four storeys high, date mostly from the Taishō era (1912–1926): bare timber frames and white plaster, their upper floors looking down on the Ginzan River and the small bridges that cross it. When darkness falls the street is lit by gas lamps whose warm light catches on falling snow and on the steam rising from the baths.

The village began as a silver-mining settlement. Tradition places the discovery of the hot springs by miners some five centuries ago, and the Nobesawa silver mine behind the village made it prosperous until production faded toward the end of the seventeenth century. What survived was the spring — clear sulphur and sulphate water with a faintly salty taste — and in the early twentieth century a revival of bathing tourism produced the tall wooden inns that give Ginzan its face today. Up the valley, the Shirogane waterfall adds a white thread of water to the walk beyond the inns.

Ginzan became famous across Japan through the television drama Oshin, and in recent years it has drawn visitors from abroad who find in its lamplit street an echo of the bathhouse world of Spirited Away. The village is pedestrian only, which keeps the scale intact: a quarter of an hour is enough to walk its length, but the pleasure lies in staying — watching the lamps come on, the snow settle on the balustrades and the river run dark between the facades.

Getting there

Ginzan Onsen lies in the mountains of Obanazawa in Yamagata Prefecture, about 12 km from the city centre. The usual route is by Yamagata Shinkansen from Tokyo to JR Ōishida Station, then by local bus, which runs roughly every other hour. Yamagata Airport (GAJ) is about 22 km away. Cars must be left in parking outside the village.