Let’s take a moment to go back to the beginnings of Wakura Onsen──

1200 years ago, the Wakura Onsen’s source was not located here at Yumoto but rather in the mountainside area of Yu-no-Tani. The local people wanted to show thanks for the gods who supplied these springs and built a small shrine to commemorate them. This god was Sukunahikona Mikoto, and this shrine was the predecessor to Sukunahikona Shrine.

At the time, the people of Japan didn’t differentiate between Shintoism and Buddhism and Sukunahikona Shrine was also called Yakushi-do with a stone statue of Bhaisajyaguru enshrined here. Bhaisajyaguru is known as the Buddha of medicine and was perfect for the local area. It is not hard to imagine after going to pay their respects to Bhaisajyaguru, visitors soaking their bodies in the waters of the Onsen and heal their illnesses and scars.

Even after the main hot springs moved from Yu-no-Tani to Yumoto, the Bhaisajyaguru Hall still remained. However, on the island of Benten-shima, which was closer to Yumoto, the statue of Benten-sama was enshrined.

And so, why don’t you travel from Sukunahikona Shrine to Yumoto to Benten Shrine, seeing how one line connects them on a map. This is the path the Wakura Onsen’s spring water flows. In fact, an attempt to bore a line a bit off from this path ended in failure.

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