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Aso-Kuju NP, Oita
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The much-loved “Bōgatsuru Sanka” began in 1952 as 9 verses written by 3 Kyushu University students at nearby Asebiko Hut—not at the inn itself. NHK later broadcast a shortened version in 1978, carrying the wetland’s name nationwide.
The lodge’s handmade “mountain hut dumplings” use tofu in the dough, with azuki-bean or sweet-potato filling. A 2024 feature reported that sales pause during peak Miyama-kirishima bloom—“flowers before dumplings”—then resume with a cheerful “dumpling opening.”
In a 2024 interview, the lodge’s owners described receiving vegetables in truckloads from foothill farmers. Some pickles follow recipes taught by local farming grandmothers; surplus produce is preserved so it can be used rather than wasted.
In the Edo period, Hokkein Hakusuiji served the Oka domain as a prayer temple, asking for military success and household safety. Its clergy also had the unexpected responsibility of guarding the domain’s boundary.
After livestock farming declined, controlled burns stopped at Bōgatsuru in the late 1960s and scrub began to overtake the wetland. In 2000, 150 volunteers helped restart the burns after a 32-year break; the wetland joined the Ramsar list in 2005.
A 1770 chronicle preserved by Hokkein’s Kōzō family describes the mountains by season: black in spring, blue in summer, red in autumn and white in winter. Spring’s black was no mystery—the hillsides were darkened by grassland burning.
A chronicle of the site traces its sacred history to 1324, when 12 deities were enshrined here. In 1470, a monk from Hikosan established a Shugendō training temple called Hokkein Hakusuiji, the temple from which the mountain lodge’s story grew.
A fire in 1882 destroyed Hokkein’s main and branch buildings. As more people began climbing in the area, the temple’s 24th-generation head started welcoming them as mountain guests—beginning the inn that became Hokkein Onsen Sanso.
A local heritage account interprets “Bō” as the temple quarters of Hokkein and “tsuru” as a local word for flowing water. Streams from Mount Naka and Mount Taisen meet in the basin before flowing out as the Naruko River.
The spring at Hokkein is recorded at 43.2°C, at an elevation of about 1,300 metres. There’s no road access to the inn: reaching this high-altitude bath means walking in from a trailhead, with the journey taking about 2 hours.
