History
The onsen was opened in 1615. It was discovered by an ally of Hideyori Toyotomi, who retreated here after the defeat of the Toyotomi forces at the summer siege of Osaka Castle. The onsen was named after a tool used in the making of traditional herbal medicine, which it resembled.
Oku-yagen Onsen was opened even earlier. In 862, Jikaku Daishi, who discovered Osorezan, suffered a great injury after he got lost. The story is that he was saved by a kappa (water imp) who immersed him in the waters of the 'Kappa-no-yu' bath, thereby healing his injury.
Read more about this topic: Yagen Valley
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)