is a coastal

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

, or hot spring, located in

Nachikatsuura file:Nachikatsuuracho.jpg, 270px, Nachikatsuura town hall is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 14,420 in 7622 house ...

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

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 north ...

. Originally known as "Katsuura Onsen", the "Nanki-" was added to distinguish it from another onsen in

Katsuura, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 16,872 in 8566 households and a population density of 180 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Katsuura City is famous for Katsuura Fishing Por ...

. Known as the " Matsushima of Kii", Nanki-Katsuura Onsen is one of the most popular hot springs in Japan due to its location along the coast and springs within caves. The spring is listed as the "Top 100 Onsens" by Kankokeizai News.

Overview

Nanki-Katsuura Onsen is located within

Yoshino-Kumano National Park is a national park comprising several non-contiguous areas of Mie, Nara, and Wakayama Prefectures, Japan. Established in 1936, the park includes Mount Yoshino, celebrated for its cherry blossoms, as well as elements of the UNESCO World Heritag ...

and Nanki-Kumano Geopark. The area surrounding Nanki-Katsuura Onsen has a very long history, and many of the temples nearby are protected as the

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Kii Peninsula in Japan. Selection criteria The locations and paths for this heritage site were based on their historical and modern imp ...

. The onsen town itself, which dates back to the

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, has more than one hundred springs overlooking the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. These springs are scattered among the rugged terrain, including a peninsula known as and an island known as . Most '' ryokans'' are only accessible by boat from Katsuura Harbor. Aside from its hot springs, Nanki-Katsuura Onsen is also known for

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...

. Nanki-Katsuura Onsen has a character within

Onsen Musume Onsen Musume (japanese: 温泉むすめ) is a Japanese multimedia project featuring anime characters within the theme of onsen (Japanese hot springs). The characters anthropomorphize onsen as entities in anime, manga, and video games about them. T ...

named voiced by Maya Yoshioka.

Transportation

Nanki-Katsuura Onsen can be reached via

Japan National Route 42 , also called Kumano Kaidō or Tropical Route is a national highway connecting Hamamatsu, Shizuoka and Wakayama, Wakayama in Japan. Part of the route requires crossing Ise Bay on the Ise-wan Ferry. It is the 8th longest national highway in Jap ...

by road, or through

Kii-Katsuura Station is a passenger railway station in located in the town of Nachikatsuura, Wakayama, Nachikatsuura, Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Kii-Katsu ...

on the

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Ce ...

References

Hot springs of Japan Nachikatsuura Tourist attractions in Wakayama Prefecture {{Wakayama-geo-stub