Shima Onsen

Located in the upper reaches of the Shima River, which originates in the Mikuni Mountains and is situated in a lush national park, Shima Onsen is a famous hot spring with a history of over 1,000 years. It is said that a military commander of the Minamoto clan（Genji） was guided by a child (an incarnation of a god) who appeared out of nowhere, heard an oracle that he would be given a sacred spring that would cure the illnesses of Shima (Yonman / 40,000 diseases), and found a hot spring that gushed forth.

It gained fame as a therapeutic hot spring, and the Sanada clan, which ruled the area, continued to repair and maintain the roads and bridges that had been ruined by warfare. Shortly after the war, when the Jomo karuta (Japanese traditional playing cards with pictures and writing) was created, the name was read as "Shima Onsen for washing the dust of the world," and the area attracted attention as a hot spring for families to enjoy together.

The first of its many benefits is "gastrointestinal diseases". It has been selected as one of the "three best hot springs for gastrointestinal diseases in Japan. It has also long been famous as "Kusatsu's finishing hot spring" because of its location near Kusatsu Onsen. The name was derived from the fact that after a hot-spring cure in the highly acidic Kusatsu hot water, the patient would bathe in Shima Onsen, a sulfate spring with moisturizing and whitening effects, to complete the cure. Japan's oldest wooden bath house architecture remains, and there are many historic and long-established inns with their own hot spring sources, making this hot spring resort a valuable place to learn about Japan's hot-spring cure culture.