Mystery and History of Beppu Hot Spring

MYSTERY OF BEPPU HOT SPRING

When you talk about Beppu, it's Hot Spring! Over 4 million people visit and stay overnight in Beppu year round. Also over 2,000 spas in Japan entertain more than 100 million people through the year. Commonly used thermal waters have various types of quality and medicinal benefit. Beppu especially boasts the greatest output in Japan. The vast area stretching from Beppu Bay through Kujyu・Aso to Shimabara Peninsula is a rift valley. Around 30,000 years ago the active volcano brought the geothermal activities that later caused two big faults on the landform. These faults and the volcanic activities of Mt. Tsurumi and Mt. Garan caused the underground magma to gush the heat upwards to make high temperatures and high-pressure puddles of water thousands of meters underground. The rainwater, once it has seeped into the soil, reaches this puddle of volcanically-heated waters and gushes out again absorbing various minerals on the way. It is said that it takes an estimated 30 years for rainwater to surface as hot springs.

HISTORY OF BEPPU HOT SPRING

According to "Iyonokuni Topography" written in the beginning of 8th century, "Once in the age of the Gods, when Sukunahikonanomikoto and Okuninushinomikoto visited Iyonokuni (Ehime Pref.)
Sukunahikonanomikoto fainted from illness. With a deep sorrow Okuninushinomikoto placed a long pipe at the bottom of the sea all the way through from Dogo (Matsuyama) to Beppu to supply therapeutic thermal waters for him to bathe, by the grace of which he was saved.” Also Bungo Topography tells you about Akayusen (Chinoike Jigoku).

It is reported that in the Kamakura period Yoriyasu Otomo established some sanatoriums in Beppu, Kannawa and Hamawaki to cure samurai wounded by the war against Gen. In the Edo period (the 7th year of Genroku) Dr. Ekiken Kaibara wrote about prosperity of Beppu Hot Spring. From the Meiji period downward Beppu Hot Spring has made great progress with the boring technique of Kazusa, thanks to which, more than 1000 wells were completed by the end of Meiji. In the 30th to 40th year of Showa, after WWII, Beppu Hot Spring has made a rapid development with social stability and economical revival.

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