Yamanaka Onsen has soothed the illnesses and fatigue of countless people for centuries.
Its origins are said to date back some 1,300 years to the Nara period, when the eminent Buddhist monk Gyōki first discovered these healing waters.

Later, toward the end of the Heian period, Hasebe Nobutsura, a local feudal lord of the Noto region, witnessed a wounded white heron bathing in a stream flowing from the mountains, healing its injuries.
Moved by this sight, he dug at the spot, where a small statue of Yakushi Nyorai—the Buddha of healing—emerged along with a fresh spring of hot water.
It is said that this event led to the establishment of twelve bathhouses, marking the beginning of Yamanaka Onsen as a hot spring village.

Time passed into the Genroku era, when the renowned haiku poet Matsuo Bashō traveled throughout Japan.
In his famous travel journal The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Bashō composed the following verse about Yamanaka:

“Yamanaka—
I will not pick the chrysanthemum;
the fragrance of the hot spring.”

Through this poem, Bashō expressed that the scent of the hot spring itself was more precious than the flowers before him.
He praised Yamanaka Onsen alongside Arima and Kusatsu as one of Japan’s three great hot springs and is said to have stayed here for nine days, deeply savoring both the scenic beauty and the restorative waters that eased the fatigue of his long journey.

More than 300 years have passed since then, yet even today, the pure waters that continue to flow here in Yamanaka remain unchanged—quietly and gently offering healing to all who visit.