Onsenji Temple

Onsenji, the Temple of the Hot Spring, stands at the heart of Arima Onsen, the ancient hot-spring town tucked into the hills behind Mount Rokko within the city limits of Kobe. Reached by climbing the atmospheric stone steps that thread up through the old village, the temple is the spiritual heart of one of Japan's three oldest and most revered onsen resorts, and its history is woven directly into the story of the springs themselves.

Arima Onsen has been famous for its healing waters for well over a thousand years, celebrated in Japan's earliest chronicles and beloved by emperors, monks and warlords - the great unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi was especially devoted to it. According to tradition, the springs owe their fame to the wandering monk Gyoki, one of the most important religious figures of the Nara period, who is said to have discovered or revived the hot springs in the early eighth century and founded Onsenji around the year 724 to enshrine Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing and Medicine. The connection is deeply fitting: the Medicine Buddha presides over a town whose entire identity is built on the curative power of its waters, and pilgrims and bathers alike have prayed here for health and recovery for centuries.

The temple is modest in scale compared with Kobe's grand mountain monasteries, but rich in atmosphere and meaning. Its hall enshrines Buddhist images associated with healing, and the precinct, set on the slope above the town, gives lovely views over the tiled roofs of Arima and the surrounding wooded hills. The approach - up the stone steps past traditional shops, inns and the little lanes of the old spa town - is itself a pleasure, full of the nostalgic charm that makes Arima such a beloved retreat. Nearby stand other spiritual sites, including the shrine dedicated to the tutelary deities said to have first revealed the springs, so the temple anchors a small cluster of sacred places at the town's core.

The visiting experience is short and easily combined with the town's main attraction: bathing. A visit of half an hour lets you climb to the temple, pay respects to the Healing Buddha, take in the view, and absorb the layered history in which religion and hot water are inseparable - then descend to soak in Arima's celebrated kinsen (gold spring), an iron-rich, reddish-brown water, or the clear ginsen (silver spring). Autumn is a particularly beautiful time, when the hills around Arima blaze with color, and spring brings blossom to the valley.

Getting there is simple: take the Kobe Electric Railway Arima Line to Arima-Onsen Station, or a direct bus from Sannomiya, and walk about ten minutes up into the village and its steps. The temple grounds are free to enter. For travelers making the classic pilgrimage to Arima Onsen - and everyone who loves Japanese hot springs should - Onsenji provides the historical and spiritual context that turns a simple bath into a thousand-year-old tradition, honoring the monk and the Medicine Buddha who, legend says, gave the town its healing waters.