Yunoshimakan

What Yunoshimakan Is

Yunoshimakan (湯之島館, also written Yunoshima-kan) is a hot spring inn in Yunoshima, Gero City, Gifu Prefecture, opened in 1931, whose entrance, connecting corridor and main building were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2010.

The inn sits halfway up the hill that people in Gero have long called Gero Fuji, looking down on the town and its hot springs. By the inn's own account the grounds cover some 50,000 tsubo, and the buildings and gardens were threaded between cedar and cypress trees said to be several centuries old.

Gero Onsen was once known as Yushima, or Yunoshima. The old name survives in the district's name and in the inn's. Yunoshimakan still runs as a ryokan, which means the listed buildings are ones you can sleep in rather than simply visit.

A Nagoya Businessman's Mountainside Resort

The project began in 1927. Iwata Buhichi, a Nagoya businessman, wanted to give the people of the Chukyo region a proper hot spring retreat in the Hida mountains. He founded Hidagawa Onsen Tochi Co., Ltd. and secured drilling rights in Yunoshima. According to the inn's records, the source it struck in 1928 is the one that feeds Gero Onsen today.

Construction started on 1 October 1929. Rather than building on the flat ground of the spa town, the company piped the water up the hillside, and a cumulative workforce of some 60,000 people had finished it by November 1931. The total investment is recorded as one million yen at the prices of the day.

The architect Niwa Eiji designed and supervised the scheme. His aim, it is said, was to join Japanese timber architecture and modern Western building on one site. Alongside the Japanese-style main building with its guest rooms, a Western-style entertainment wing went up in the same year with a dance hall and a billiard room. At opening there was also a bar, a sun room and an outdoor tennis court, and the inn was run by a general manager in the manner of a resort hotel rather than a traditional ryokan.

In February 1951 Yunoshimakan became No. 8 on the government register of international tourist ryokan under the International Tourist Hotel Improvement Act. Emperor Showa and Empress Kojun stayed in the autumn of 1958, and the present Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita, then Crown Prince and Crown Princess, came in the summer of 1976.

The Three Listed Buildings and the Route Through Them

Only three buildings at Yunoshimakan are listed, all from the original construction: the entrance, the connecting corridor and the main building. The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended them in 2009, and they entered the national register of cultural properties on 15 January 2010 as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. Their register numbers run in sequence: 21-0177 for the main building, 21-0178 for the corridor and 21-0179 for the entrance.

The main building stands in the middle of the south-facing site. The corridor attaches to its west side, and the entrance lies beyond the corridor, further west again. The three form a rough east-west line. You come in through the west-facing entrance porch, walk east along the corridor and arrive in the main building, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the corridor in exactly those terms, as the approach to the main building.

The grounds for listing differ by building. The main building was listed as a model of design, the entrance and corridor for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Western-style entertainment wing, the annex and the high-rise Keizanso wing, which began taking guests in 1987, are not part of the registration.

Visiting Yunoshimakan

Yunoshimakan is a working inn, and its three listed buildings are in daily use as entrance hall, passageway and guest rooms. There is no admission ticket and no public tour. To go inside you either stay the night or book one of the day plans the inn offers from time to time, which have combined dinner with use of the large bath. Day plans need a reservation and availability changes with the season. Enquiries go to Yunoshimakan on 0576-25-4126, between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

For guests, the inn publishes a self-guided route called Yunoshimakan Meguri that lists photo spots through the building, starting with the exterior of the entrance and including the corridor. Keep other guests and their rooms out of frame.

The nearest station is Gero on the JR Takayama Line, about 5 minutes away by car. Staying guests can take the free shuttle from the station, with 5 departures listed between 1:35 p.m. and 5:25 p.m. By car, allow around 60 minutes from Nakatsugawa Interchange on the Chuo Expressway via Route 257. Parking is free.

The inn gives its address as 645 Yunoshima, Gero City, which differs from the lot number in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database (625 Hiraiwa, Yunoshima). Use the inn's address when heading there. The structure and details of each building are covered on the pages for the entrance, the corridor and the main building.