If you want to enhance the beauty of your skin, Ureshino Onsen is the place to go. Not only does it have silky smooth hot spring water, it also has a catfish goddess whose assistance you can invoke by visiting her shrine and washing a catfish idol.
We hopped off the bullet train from Nagasaki to bathe in the waters of Ureshino last weekend. A loquacious taxi driver took us on an impromptu tour of the town and dropped us off at the main spa (top photo), called Hyakunen no Yu - 百年の湯 - (Hundred Year Bath) for some reason. As I mentioned in my previous post, the spa water was silky smooth and lovely on the skin:
https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/enjoying-the-foot-spas-of-ureshino-onsen
Princess Toyotama and Namazu-sama the Catfish Deity
In that post I referred the high concentration of sodium bicarbonate that gives the water its silky quality, but in this post I can reveal the true source of the water's softness, which the benevolent blessings of the divine catfish, Namazu-sama.
After bathing at the Hundred Year Bath we strolled through the town centre and happened to visit a shrine that turned out to be dedicated to Toyotama-hime - 豊玉姫 - (Princess Toyotama), a sea-goddess and grandmother of the first emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu.
Close to the main shrine is a smaller shrine dedicated to Namazu-sama, a catfish-deity worshipped in these parts as the deity of beautiful skin, but more widely known in Japan as the cause of earthquakes; for it is Namazu-sama's thrashing about in the mud that is the cause of those disasters, but that is another story for another blog post...
According to the notice beside the catfish shrine, the way to worship the idol is this:
First, pour water on Namazu-sama with a ladle, then bow twice, clap your hands twice, and bow once again.
Then you can make a wish (presumably for beautiful skin), pay ¥400 for a wooden "ema" upon which you are to write your wish and hang it up along with all the other supplications.
Siebald's Footbath
This is where we stopped to bathe our feet for the second time. The superstructure is faux nineteenth century, similar in style to the main public bath-house, "Siebald's Bath," in the centre of town. Those two buildings are named after Siebald because he happened to visit Ureshino on his perigrinations through Japan and mentioned the quality of the waters.
The Bridges of Ureshino
We didn't find anywhere that took our fancy for lunch. The celebrated Ureshino Tofu restaurant was full, with some people waiting outside for a table, something neither of us fancied doing on a chilly day, so we kept going, and crossed an iron bridge, Ureshino Bashi - 嬉野橋 - (Ureshino Bridge) over the - Shiota Gawa 塩田川 - (Salt Field River) and came to a red-railed bridge, Onsen-bashi - 温泉橋 - (Hot Spring Bridge) - that is featured in photos of Ureshino, with the most famous building in the town, Siebald's Bath-house, in the background. The river banks are lined with cherry trees, so it must look quite beautiful during the hanami season.
As for lunch, we eventually found a ramen restaurant en-route to the station, but that will be the topic of another post!
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
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Hiya, @lauramica here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!Sounds like an interesting trip my friend hope you have a great mid week
@hirohurl
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I believe the bath is worth taking considering how fresh the water is, nice trip.
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It sounds and looks like you had a fun adventure, David! I appreciate the information on Japanese customs and culture! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙