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Joshin’etsukogen NP, Nagano
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Shibu’s uzu-maki pan is a sweet-salty local classic: bread wrapped around margarine, topped with a custard spiral. A local confectioner’s grandfather invented it over 50 years ago; neighbors even shared it after cleanup days.
Just north of Shibu, the Shibu Jigokudani “geyser” never pauses between eruptions: it sends a continuous plume up to 20 m high, with water above 90°C. Japan designated this rare hot-spring feature a Natural Monument in 1927.
The famous macaque bath is not one of Shibu’s nine: at nearby Jigokudani, young monkeys kept visiting the human bath at Korakukan, so staff made a separate spring just for them.
After stamping a towel at all 9 public baths, bathers climb 78 steps to Shibu Takayakushi to complete the pilgrimage. The number 9 echoes “ku,” meaning hardship, which the baths are said to wash away.
No two baths are quite alike: iron-rich Shibu Oyu is brown, while Nanakuri-yu is clear with reddish mineral deposits floating in it. Different springs give the bath circuit its own little parade of colors.
Kanaguya’s 1936 Saigetsuro tower is supported by 13 through-posts about 15 m long. Its rooms were imagined as separate houses and its corridors as streets, with a Mount Fuji-shaped window and moon-shaped lights at the top.
They’re also part of everyday neighborhood life: local residents clean the 9 communal baths and manage their hot-spring sources. Overnight guests borrow a special key from their inn to use them.
Shibu once stood on a busy Edo-period route to Kusatsu, crossing the rugged 2,170 m Shibu Pass. Loads from Yamanouchi included rice, oil, sake and fish; the return trip brought wooden clogs, ladles, chopsticks, sulfur and tea.
Kanaguya built its 130-tatami hall for railway-era group tours; a Western-style truss lets it span without columns beneath Japanese tatami and shoji. Heavy snow collapsed part in 1945, and it was rebuilt in 1950.
Shibu Oyu puts its hot spring to extra use: underground source steam heats a steam bath, and the same spring feeds a footbath on the roof.
Local tradition credits the monk Gyoki with finding Shibu’s spring about 1,300 years ago. One story says he washed his mendicant’s bowl there; the bath once called Hachiyu, or “Bowl Bath,” became Hatsuyu, the first bath.
The summer street festival is made by the locals themselves: residents turn the lanes into a nightly fair with old-fashioned games such as menko, tops and ring toss.
The lanes feel timeless, but their present stone-paved look came from a streetscape project in 1990–92. Older inns give the town its historic character; the paving that ties the scene together is much newer.
