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Ginzan Onsen
Ginzan Onsen is a small onsen town in the mountains of Obanazawa, in Yamagata Prefecture, in the Tohoku region of northern Honshu, where wooden ryokan of three and four storeys line both banks of the Ginzan River.
Ginzan Onsen at dusk
- Prefecture
- Yamagata
- Region
- Tohoku
- Journeys
- One of our journeys
overview
Gas lamps along a narrow river, and wooden inns rising on either bank.
The town grew from a silver mine. Nobezawa Ginzan was worked from the fifteenth century and at its height, in the early seventeenth, was one of the great silver mines of Japan, with a town of many thousands around it. When the silver ran out, the hot spring the miners had known became the reason to come.
What you see today was built in the 1920s and early 1930s: wooden ryokan with balconies, carved timber and plaster relief on their facades, rising three and four storeys from the water's edge. Cars stay at the entrance to the valley. In the evening the gas lamps along both banks are lit, steam rises off the river, and the street of inns, under snow or green with summer, looks much as it did a century ago.
The town is small, a few hundred metres from end to end, and its pleasures are the onsen, the walk along the river and the food of Yamagata: Obanazawa soba, cut thick and served cold, the marbled beef of the region, and the rice and sake of the Mogami basin. Ginzan was a setting for the television drama Oshin, which made the town known across Japan in the 1980s.
Our tours stay overnightOur tours visit for the dayOn a Custom Tour of Japan
see and do
What to see at Ginzan Onsen
The river street
Some three hundred metres of wooden inns facing each other across the Ginzan River, joined by small bridges, with gas lamps along both banks.
Shirogane Falls
A waterfall of about twenty metres at the head of the town, falling white into a pool below the forest, a few minutes' walk beyond the last inn.
The Nobezawa Ginzan mine
The remains of the silver mine in the forest above the town, where a section of the old tunnels is open to walk through, cool and lit, about fifteen minutes on foot from the inns.
The plaster facades
The reliefs on the fronts of the inns, modelled with a trowel by master plasterers in the 1920s: cranes, pines, landscapes and each inn's name.
Shirogane-yu
A small public onsen by Kengo Kuma, its narrow timber front lit from within as dusk falls on the street.
The foot onsen
A foot onsen beside the river, where the spring water runs warm, a place to sit for a few minutes between the inns.
The Mogami River
One of the three swiftest rivers in Japan, about an hour from Ginzan, where wooden boats carry guests down a green gorge, the boatman steering and singing the songs of the river. Basho travelled it in 1689 and wrote one of his most quoted haiku of its gathered rains.
Yamadera
The mountain temple of Risshaku-ji, about an hour away, founded in 860, its halls set among the cliffs at the top of a long stone stair, where Basho wrote his haiku of the cicadas and the stillness of the rock.
Obanazawa soba
The country around Ginzan grows its own buckwheat, and its soba, thick, firm and served cold on wooden trays, is among the best in Yamagata.
experiences
The best of Ginzan Onsen
The street after dark
An evening walk along the river in yukata once the lamps are lit, from one end of the street to the other and back to the inn.
The table of Yamagata
A kaiseki of Yamagata at the inn: Obanazawa soba, the marbled beef of the region, river fish and mountain vegetables, with sake of the prefecture, the first in Japan whose sake carries its own geographical indication.
The Mogami by boat
A wooden boat down the Mogami River, the gorge and its waterfalls passing slowly on either side.
A private onsen
Many of the inns keep private onsen that can be reserved for a couple or a family, some of them looking over the river.
plan your visit
Ginzan Onsen on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- One night is enough to see the lamps lit and the town in the morning; two allow the Mogami River or Yamadera, and a slower evening, and The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan ends here with two.
- Getting there
- By the Yamagata Shinkansen from Tokyo to Oishida in a little over three hours, then about forty minutes by private car. Yamagata Airport is about an hour away by car, and Sendai about two hours.
- Pairs well with
- Ginzan Onsen pairs with Yamadera and the Mogami River in the Yamagata basin, with Sendai and Matsushima two hours to the east, and with the sacred mountains of Dewa Sanzan on the way to the Sea of Japan.YamaderaDewa SanzanSendaiMatsushimaKakunodateYamagata
where to stay
Luxury hotels and ryokan at Ginzan Onsen
There are only a dozen or so inns in the town, and staying in one is the point: the lamps, the river and the onsen are at the door, and the street belongs to its guests once the day visitors have left. The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan stays at one, behind a preserved facade on the river, rebuilt inside by the architect Kengo Kuma in 2006, with screens of fine bamboo, a tall atrium of light, and a series of small private onsen.
The other inns of the street keep the older style, wooden ryokan of the Taisho era with tatami rooms over the river and onsen of their own. Each has few rooms, which keeps the town quiet.
journeys
Tours of Japan that include Ginzan Onsen
Open a journey below for its route, its dates and its price. On dates of your own, a Custom Tour of Japan can bring you here and anywhere else in Japan you would like to go.
questions
Ginzan Onsen: questions answered
Can you visit Ginzan Onsen as a day trip?
You can, but the town is at its loveliest after dark, when the gas lamps are lit and the day visitors have gone, so a night at one of its ryokan is the better way to see it.
How do you get to Ginzan Onsen from Tokyo?
By the Yamagata Shinkansen to Oishida, a little over three hours, then about forty minutes by car. On our journeys a private car meets you at the station.
What is Ginzan Onsen known for?
Its street of wooden ryokan of the 1920s on both banks of a narrow river, lit by gas lamps after dark, and its history as the town of the Nobezawa silver mine.
How many nights should you stay at Ginzan Onsen?
One night to see the lamps and the town, and two with the Mogami River or Yamadera.
Is Ginzan Onsen the inspiration for Spirited Away?
There is no evidence that it was. The film's studio has never named it as a model, though the many-storeyed wooden inns and the lamplit street make the comparison easy to understand.
Did Kengo Kuma design an inn at Ginzan Onsen?
Yes. He rebuilt the interior of one of its inns in 2006 behind its preserved facade. He also designed Shirogane-yu, the small public onsen of the town.
Which Luxury Japan Travel journeys include Ginzan Onsen?
The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan spends nights at Ginzan Onsen. On dates of your own, a Custom Tour of Japan can include Ginzan Onsen too.
Can Ginzan Onsen be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with your own Tour Director, and it can go anywhere in the country, Ginzan Onsen included. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
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