Kansuiro (Agano)

Kansuiro, a Hot-Spring Inn in the Gozu Foothills

Kansuiro (環翠楼, also written Kansuirō and spelled Kansuirou by the inn) is a hot-spring ryokan in Murasugi, Agano City, Niigata Prefecture, founded in the late Edo period, whose Taisho Room building was entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2016, followed by the Rinsenkaku and the Central Hall in 2021.

All three buildings were registered under the criterion that they contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The Taisho Room holds registration number 15-0424 from the 83rd round; the Rinsenkaku (15-548) and the Central Hall (15-549) joined together in the 98th round. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database leaves the owner field blank for all three. A different, unrelated inn of the same name stands at Tonosawa in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture.

From Rokuzo Ryokan to Kansuiro

Murasugi Onsen is a radium spring at the foot of Mount Gozu, one of three villages, with Deyu and Imaita, that make up the Gozu Onsen area. The inn repeats the local founding legend: in 1335 a warrior of the Ashikaga camp, Araki Masataka, fled the fighting, reached this valley and found the spring after a revelation from Yakushi, the healing Buddha. The often-quoted figure of roughly 700 years of bathing here counts from that story.

The inn itself dates from the late Edo period. It first traded as Rokuzo Ryokan, taking its name from Rokuzo, a personal name that each master of the house inherited, and locals called it Maruroku-san after its circled-six mark. The present name arrived in the Taisho era. Chiba Taneaki (1864 to 1953), a court poet who judged verses at the imperial New Year poetry readings, stayed here and described the place as a hall encircled by green; Kansuiro is that phrase in three characters.

The grounds cover about 6,000 tsubo, close to 20,000 square metres. An avenue of old cedars, said to be where Murasugi ("village cedar") got its name, still stands, and the inn keeps only nine guest rooms, every one of them a detached wing in the garden. The main house, which the inn dates to about 130 years ago, is not one of the registered buildings.

The Three Registered Buildings at Kansuiro

Each of the three belongs to a different period and does a different job. The oldest is the Rinsenkaku, dated by the Agency to the late Meiji period (1898 to 1912). It is a two-storey pavilion on a rise at the centre of the grounds, reached by stone steps. For years the inn called it the Meiji Room, and in 2023 it reopened as a guest wing rented as a whole.

The Taisho Room is a two-storey guest building of 1915 holding four units, two on each floor. The inn presents it as its signature accommodation, and in 2016 it became the first of the three to be registered.

The Central Hall is, by the Agency's record, a single-storey building of 1968 linked to the main house by a corridor, and it serves as a detached banquet room. According to the inn's own account it is a Meiji-period farmhouse brought here from Muramatsu. The official description notes how it shapes the northern part of the grounds.

Corridors connect the main house to the wings, and the inn lays tatami not only in the rooms but along every corridor. Interiors are finished in solid timber and earthen plaster, the inn says.

Visiting Kansuiro: Access and Conditions

Kansuiro is a working inn and does not advertise sightseeing visits. The way into the registered buildings is to stay in the Taisho Room or the Rinsenkaku, or to book a day dining plan. Day plans require a group of six or more and a reservation, with lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Bathing alone without a meal is not offered.

Check-in runs from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and check-out is at 10:00 a.m. The website states no policy on photography indoors or in the garden, so ask the staff, and keep other guests out of frame. Prices and conditions change; check the official site before travelling (checked 5 October 2026).

The nearest station for Kansuiro is Suibara on the JR Uetsu Line, about 15 minutes away by car or taxi; the inn puts the taxi fare at around 3,000 yen. From Niigata Station, take the Shin'etsu Line to Niitsu and change to the Uetsu Line; with a good connection the trip to Suibara takes about 30 minutes. The Agano City bus on the Gozu Onsen-kyo route runs from Suibara Station and stops at Murasugi Onsen (Kansuiro Iriguchi). Drivers can reach the inn in about 10 minutes from the Yasuda interchange on the Ban-etsu Expressway; there is free parking for 40 cars. The inn does not run a shuttle. Telephone: 0250-66-2131.