Yusaya Ryokan

About Yusaya Ryokan

Yusaya Ryokan (ゆさや旅館) is an inn founded in 1632 at Yumoto in Naruko Onsen, Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, whose main building, rebuilt in 1936, and a Taisho-era storehouse were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property structures on October 18, 2000. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the family has served as keepers of the Taki-no-yu, the bath regarded as the origin of Naruko Onsen.

The inn describes itself as a house with 380 years of tradition whose two-storey traditional Japanese building is a registered cultural property (Yusaya Ryokan).

Two Buildings

The main building is a two-storey timber structure with a hip-and-gable (Irimoya-zukuri) tiled roof and sheet-iron lean-tos around it. It is eleven and a half bays wide; the ground floor centres on rooms for long-stay bathing guests, and the best guest rooms are upstairs on the street side (Agency for Cultural Affairs), preserving the two-tier layout of a spa inn.

The storehouse, of the Taisho era, stands at the back of a plot across the road from the main building. Its structure is described as "timber-reinforced concrete"; the base is finished in washed artificial stone and the openings are arched (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The main building was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, the storehouse as difficult to reproduce.

Staying at Yusaya Ryokan

Yusaya Ryokan is still in business, and the main building's interior is seen by staying there. The inn offers three baths: the alkaline Unagi-yu, the sulphurous Taki-no-yu and a private open-air bath, Akane-no-yu. The address is 84 Yumoto, Naruko Onsen, Osaki City; telephone 0229-83-2565 (Yusaya Ryokan). We found no official information on visits by non-guests.