Motoyu Bath, Hirayama Onsen (平山温泉 元湯) 平山温泉 元湯
Communal bath rebuilt in 2016: 400 yen, unrecycled spring water that feels slippery.
Hirayama Onsen, inland from Yamaga, is a hot-spring village with more than twenty establishments, including inns, drop-in baths and family baths. The name is written with the characters for ‘flat mountain’. Tradition says the water has flowed for about 1,300 years: according to one legend, around 790 the god of Aso levelled the area in a night and created the spring that cured a skin disease; another says that between 1573 and 1591 the villagers discovered the spring when a wounded crane stayed immersed in it until it healed. It is also said that Katō Kiyomasa, the lord of Kumamoto, went there to treat heat rash. The spring emerges at between 40 and 60 °C, simple alkaline with traces of sulphur, colourless. The Motoyu was rebuilt in November 2016 (the association's website); a 2019 review says it replaces the old hot-spring centre, which was moved to widen the road, a few steps from the old spot.
Kumamoto
