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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Gunma
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Snowbound in Kazawa, Kyoto University climber Eizaburo Nishibori and 3 friends created “Yukiyama Sanka” to the tune of “Oh My Darling, Clementine.” Nishibori’s handwritten lyrics still hang in Koyo-kan.
Before a 1918 fire destroyed the old spa town, Kazawa drew about 5,000 visitors a year to 5 shared baths. Only Koyo-kan remained; the other inns rebuilt at today’s Shin-Kazawa, whose first 3 opened in 1919.
At about 40 km/h downhill, road grooves near Kazawa play “Oh My Darling, Clementine”—the melody behind its mountain anthem. Tsumagoi’s noon public-address chime uses “Yukiyama Sanka” itself.
At Koyo-kan, the fifth-generation chef serves Gunma’s Gin-hikari trout as sashimi. This locally developed rainbow-trout strain was selected to mature in 3 years rather than the usual 2, helping it retain firm flesh.
Nagano-side bathers once followed a rugged 12-km “hot-spring road” to Kazawa, guided by 100 Kannon statues spaced about 110 m apart. No. 81 stands at the mountain pass near the prefectural boundary; no. 100 is beside the old inn.
At 1,525 m, Kazawa’s natural spring yields roughly 480 L of 46°C water every minute. Koyo-kan serves it without adding water or heating—a remarkably generous hot bath high on the mountain.
In 1744, Kazawa had 15 bath huts; after a flood, 12 were operating again by 1760. Severe winter cold made this high-mountain spa seasonal: its huts typically opened in early April and closed in October.
For years, “Yukiyama Sanka” circulated among climbers and Kazawa locals. In 1950, a future Dark Ducks member heard a bus conductor humming it in Nagano’s Shiga Highlands; the group’s 1959 hit helped carry it nationwide.
Kazawa’s origins live in legend: an Edo-era account says Emperor Kōtoku found its spring in 650; another tells of Yamato Takeru following an injured white deer here. Written records point to a bathhouse by about 1562.
The 100 trail Kannon were a community project: a Kazawa resident proposed them, Shimbari villagers organized the work, and donors came from several prefectures. The stone markers were made over about 10 years, from 1864 to 1873.
Though Kazawa is now in Gunma, the spring lay in Nezu territory until early Meiji, across today’s Nagano border. A written dispute over the boundary survives from 1656.
