is a

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

resort in the city of Nikkō, Tochigi,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The place is named after the

Kinugawa River , is a river on the main island of Honshu in Japan. It flows from the north to the south on the Kantō plain, merging with . At 176.7 km in length, it is the longest tributary of Tone-gawa. From ancient times, it has been known to cause flood ...

(literally "angry demon river"), which flows through it.

History

Two hours by train from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, hot springs were first found in the area in the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

. The area was extensively developed for tourism in the 1970s, but has since experienced severe economic difficulties after a downturn caused by the 1990s recession, exacerbated by troubles at the insolvent

Ashikaga Bank Ashikaga (足利) may refer to: * Ashikaga clan (足利氏 ''Ashikaga-shi''), a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Minamoto clan; and that formed the basis of the eponymous shogunate ** Ashikaga shogunate (足利幕府 ''Ashikaga bakufu''), a ...

, a major local lender. In 2005, Waseda University urban planning professor

Shigeru Itoh Shigeru (written: , , , in hiragana or in katakana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, a Japanese architect *, a Japanese voice actor *, Japanese karateka *, Japanese sport wrestler *, Japanese socialist ...

's ( :ja:伊藤滋) ''Ugly Japan'' (悪い景観100景) listed Kinugawa Onsen as the third-ugliest place in the country.Leo Lewis, "Monuments to Ugliness and the Triumph of Cash over Culture," The ondonTimes, 31 December 2005. However, in 2008 the city's tourism industry received a boost as high car and airplane fuel costs have caused travelers to seek tourist destinations more easily reachable by train, such as the Kinugawa Onsen.

Local attractions

Close by is

Edo Wonderland Nikko Edomura is a Japanese cultural theme park in the Kinugawa Onsen area of Nikkō, Tochigi. The park resurrects and showcases the life and culture of the Edo period. Edo Wonderland spans a site area of 122.3 acres (49.5 hectares). The park's design is ...

, a traditionally themed culture and amusement park containing theatres, workshops, games, ninja and

oiran is a collective term for the highest-ranking courtesans in Japanese history, who were considered to be above common prostitutes (known as ) for their more refined entertainment skills and training in the traditional arts. Divided into a numbe ...

shows. It is populated with samurai, ninja, geisha and common folk. Within 8-minute walking distance from Kinugawa is the

Tobu World Square is a theme park in Kinugawa Onsen, Nikkō, Tochigi, Japan. The theme park contains over a hundred 1:25 scale models of famous buildings, including UNESCO-designated World Cultural and Heritage Sites, complete with 140,000 1:25 miniature people. ...

which boasts 102 exquisitely crafted 1:25 scale models of the most famous, UNESCO-designated World Cultural and Heritage Sites, complete with 140,000 1:25 miniature people.

Transportation

Both train lines run in parallel and stop at Kinugawa Onsen Station *

Tōbu Kinugawa Line The is a 16.2 km long Japanese railway line from Shimo-Imaichi Station to Shin-Fujiwara Station in Nikkō, Tochigi. It is owned and operated by the private railway operator Tobu Railway. At Shimo-Imaichi Station it connects with the T ...

Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line The is a third-sector Japanese railway company whose major shareholders include the Tochigi and Fukushima prefectural governments. It operates a single railway line, the . The name of the line comes from the kanji characters of the ancien ...

External links

* *
Nikko Kinugawa Travel Guide

Kinugawa River rapids ride
Tourist attractions in Tochigi Prefecture Spa towns in Japan Hot springs of Japan Landforms of Tochigi Prefecture {{Tochigi-geo-stub