chubuishikawa
Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen
Kaga is the country of onsen villages in the south of Ishikawa Prefecture, in the Chubu region, half an hour from Kanazawa, where Yamashiro Onsen and Yamanaka Onsen are home to some of the most admired ryokan in Japan.
- Prefecture
- Ishikawa
- Region
- Chubu
- Journeys
- One of our journeys
overview
Onsen towns of porcelain and lacquer in the hills of old Kaga, the province of the Maeda lords.
Kaga was the province of the Maeda lords, and the name is still worn with pride. Its southern corner, in the low hills behind the Sea of Japan coast, is a cluster of onsen villages known together as Kaga Onsen: Yamashiro, Yamanaka, Katayamazu and Awazu. Each has its own character, and between them they have ryokan of a quality few onsen towns in Japan can match.
Yamashiro Onsen is the heart of it. By tradition its spring was found in 725 by the monk Gyoki, who saw a crow healing its wounds in the water, and the village grew around a single public onsen, the soyu, with the ryokan arranged in a ring about it. The potter and gourmet Kitaoji Rosanjin lived here in 1915 and learned to paint porcelain in its kilns; the cottage where he worked still stands. Yamanaka Onsen, a few kilometres up the valley, follows the Kakusenkei gorge of the Daishoji River, and the poet Matsuo Basho stayed eight days there in 1689 on his journey to the deep north, writing that its water made all other springs unnecessary.
This is also craft country. Kutani porcelain, painted in deep greens, yellows, purples and blues, was first made in the hills above Yamanaka in the seventeenth century, and the workshops of Yamanaka still turn and lacquer wood with a precision known across Japan. The cooking is of the coast: snow crab and sweet shrimp landed at Hashitate, a few minutes away, and served on the porcelain and lacquer of the valley.
see and do
What to see at Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen
Kosoyu, Yamashiro Onsen
The old public onsen of Yamashiro, rebuilt in 2010 to the Meiji design, with coloured glass, wooden walls and an onsen of the village spring. It stands on the square at the centre of the village beside its larger companion, the soyu.
Kitaoji Rosanjin's cottage
The house in Yamashiro where Rosanjin lived and worked in 1915, with his studio, a small garden and the room where he first painted Kutani porcelain, now kept as the Iroha Soan.
Yakuo-in Onsen-ji
The temple of Yamashiro Onsen, founded by tradition by Gyoki with the spring itself, on the hill above the village square, its moss and stone steps quiet in the trees.
Kakusenkei Gorge
A path of about a kilometre and a half along the Daishoji River at Yamanaka Onsen, between the wooden Korogi bridge and the curving Ayatori bridge designed by the artist Hiroshi Teshigahara, past rock, green water and overhanging maples.
Yamanaka lacquer workshops
The woodturners and lacquerers of Yamanaka, whose turned bowls and trays, cut so fine the grain shows through, are made along the main street of the onsen village and in workshops nearby.
Ishikawa Prefectural Kutani Ware Art Museum
The museum of Kutani porcelain in Daishoji, the old castle town of a branch of the Maeda, showing the bold early Ko-Kutani pieces of the seventeenth century beside the work of the later kilns.
Natadera
A temple founded in 717 by the monk Taicho, in neighbouring Komatsu, its halls set among weathered rock pinnacles and caves, visited by Basho on the same journey of 1689.
Hashitate fishing port
The harbour on the coast of Kaga where snow crab and sweet shrimp are landed and auctioned, and the source of much of what is served in the ryokan of the valley.
experiences
The best of Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen
A ryokan with a room's own onsen
Two nights in one of the great ryokan of Yamashiro or Yamanaka, with an open-air onsen of your own, a garden or the gorge outside, and a dinner of the coast served in the room on Kutani porcelain.
Painting Kutani porcelain
An afternoon in a Kutani kiln at Yamashiro, painting a plate or a cup in the five Kutani colours under the eye of a potter, fired and sent on to you.
The lacquer of Yamanaka
Time with a Yamanaka woodturner, watching a bowl made from a block of zelkova on the lathe, then the slow layering of urushi that will make it last a lifetime.
Kaga cooking
Snow crab, sweet shrimp, nodoguro and the vegetables of Kaga, prepared as kaiseki in a ryokan kitchen that has cooked for generations of guests, and an evening that ends in the onsen.
plan your visit
Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- Two nights in a Kaga ryokan is the right measure, and The Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan gives it two, with a day for the gorge at Yamanaka, the workshops and the porcelain, and a second evening for the onsen and the table.
- Getting there
- Kaga Onsen station is on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, about three hours from Tokyo and about twenty-five minutes from Kanazawa. From Kyoto, the Thunderbird express and the Shinkansen take about an hour and a half with a change at Tsuruga. Komatsu Airport is about half an hour by car.
- Pairs well with
- Kaga lies half an hour south of Kanazawa, and from Kaga Onsen the journey runs on to Kyoto in about an hour and a half, or back to Tokyo.KanazawaKyotoShirakawa-goTakayamaTokyo
where to stay
Luxury hotels and ryokan at Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen
Yamashiro Onsen is home to the most distinguished ryokan of Kaga: a quiet, spare ryokan turned to a forest garden of red pine and maple, known for its tea and its cooking, and, on the square at the centre of the village, the ryokan kept by one family since 1639, where The Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan spends its two ryokan nights.
Yamanaka Onsen is the gorge village, and on the banks of the Daishoji River stands a ryokan of only a few rooms that is one of the most admired in the country, its rooms turned to the trees of the Kakusenkei and its dinners drawn from the valley and served on its crafts.
journeys
Tours of Japan that include Kaga, Yamashiro 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
Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen: questions answered
What is Yamashiro Onsen known for?
Its ryokan, among the best in Japan, its old public onsen at the centre of the village, and its Kutani porcelain kilns, where Kitaoji Rosanjin learned to paint in 1915.
How do you get to Yamashiro Onsen?
By the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kaga Onsen station, about three hours from Tokyo or twenty-five minutes from Kanazawa, then a short drive. From Kyoto it is about an hour and a half by train.
What is the difference between Yamashiro Onsen and Yamanaka Onsen?
Yamashiro is a village of ryokan around a central square and its public onsen; Yamanaka, a few kilometres up the valley, follows the Kakusenkei gorge and is known for lacquer and woodturning. They are fifteen minutes apart by car.
How far is Kaga Onsen from Kanazawa?
About twenty-five minutes by Shinkansen or forty-five minutes by car, which makes it the natural onsen stay after Kanazawa.
Is a ryokan stay in Kaga worth it?
Yes. Few onsen areas in Japan have ryokan of this standard so close together, and the cooking, the porcelain and the lacquer of the valley make the stay as much about craft as about the onsen.
What is Kutani ware?
A porcelain first made in the seventeenth century in the hills above Yamanaka, painted in strong enamels of green, yellow, purple, blue and red. It is still made in the kilns around Kaga and Nomi.
Which Luxury Japan Travel journeys include Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen?
The Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan spends nights at Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen. On dates of your own, a Custom Tour of Japan can include Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen too.
Can Kaga, Yamashiro 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, Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen included. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
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Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Kaga, Yamashiro Onsen, and we will answer with the journey that suits you best: one of our published tours, a journey of The Private Collection, or a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone.