28‏/09‏/2013

Nasu-onsen-jinja Shrine

Discovery of Hot Springs

By Tomoko Kamishima

Community writer

Front of the shrine’s beautiful Hall of Worship

Lanterns alongside the path to the shrine

Fresh water for purifying hands and mouth

Nasu-onsen-jinja Shrine is at the foot of Chausu-dake Mountain (1915m). Nasu-yumoto Onsen Hot Springs is very close to this shrine. In 630, a local official named Kano Yukihiro hunted a white deer, which was eating the crops in his field. He shot an arrow at, and hit the deer, but it escaped. He followed the deer into Nasu-yumoto, and eventually found the deer soaking in an unknown hot spring to heal its wound. Looking at the deer in the hot spring, Kano thought it was a blessing from God. And so he dedicated this shrine. This shrine is also famous for Nasuno Yoichi, in the Tale of the Heike.