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Nikko NP, Tochigi
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In September 1966, a typhoon-triggered landslide sent a 5-meter boulder through the old Yakushi Hall. The temple says its Buddha statue survived, found sitting on the boulder; the temple was rebuilt near the spring in 1973.
The spring water starts pale emerald green, then turns milky white when fresh water is added. At 71.4°C, it is far too hot to bathe in undiluted; the bath uses a continuous flow of spring water.
Temple tradition says that in 788, the monk Shōdō Shōnin discovered the spring, named it Yakushiyu (“Medicine Buddha’s Hot Spring”), and enshrined Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha associated with healing.
A dip once required permission from both the Chūzenji priest who administered the sacred spring and the Nikkō magistrate. Today, the temple welcomes visitors to bathe as part of a devotional visit.
After a Buddhist service at the temple, yamabushi mountain ascetics head to Lake Yunoko’s shore for a fire ritual. Prayers there ask for safe summer hikes and well-being for local people and visitors.
Visitors can copy a 16-character passage from the Yakushi Sutra and offer it to the healing Buddha. The temple later burns the collected copies in the August 8 fire ritual, joining visitors’ prayers to the ceremony.
