"Two Completely Different Waters, From Almost the Same Spot": What Japanese Say About Ikaho Onsen's Gold and Silver Baths
伊香保温泉の湯は宿によって違う——旅館で働く人の469いいねが説明した「黄金の湯」と「白銀の湯」、そして偽装の記憶
By Rakutaro · Tokyo, Japan
The most-liked comment under this 2023 walk through Ikaho Onsen (469 likes) is from someone who works at a ryokan there, and it answers the thing no booking page tells you: the town runs on two different waters. The brown Golden Water is rationed by pipe-width rights fixed generations ago, so old inns near the source use it freely while newer inns off the stone stairway may hold little or none, and the clear Silver Water, found in the Heisei era, is sold by volume by the city, heated, and is what usually fills the open-air baths attached to guest rooms. Around that sit an Ikaho native still hurt by the tap-water scandal (63 likes), a former hotel worker who watched staff drop homemade mineral flakes into a bath (17 likes), and the day baths a few people would send you to instead.
These comments are from a video published in 2023. Prices, rules and crowds may have moved since; anything we checked ourselves is marked with a source.
“Gunma resident here. Go and you'll see it. Step one street off the stone stairway and the ruins open out in front of you, like walking into the opening scene of Spirited Away... I knew the background, but I was glad you went into the friction with the holders of the Golden Water rights. As you say, I'd rather they kept capacity in line with how much water actually comes out and pushed the price up by raising the value of the spring, the premium on it, so to speak. The way their rival Kusatsu flies the flag for water quality. Ikaho overreached, way past what it could carry.”
グンマーです。 行ってみると分かりますが石段から一本、路地へ入ると瞬く間に廃墟が広がっています。 まるで「千と千尋の神隠し」の冒頭に出てくるシーンに迷い込んだように… 事情は知っていましたが、“黄金の湯“の権利者との確執について踏み込んで頂けたのは嬉しく思います。 うp主さんの仰る通り、湧出量に合わせたキャパを保ち、温泉の資産価値…つまりプレミアを上げることによって単価を上げることの方が個人的には良いのではないかと思います。 ある意味、ライバルである草津温泉が「泉質主義」を掲げているようにね。 伊香保温泉はキャパに合わせずに背伸びし過ぎたのだと思います。
Where locals go instead
The Ikaho Rotenburo, the day bath, is the only place you can drink the water and I think it has the best water quality of any of them.
日帰り施設の伊香保大露天風呂は唯一飲泉ができ、一番泉質が良いと思っています。
— @温泉おやじ0 likesBelow Ikaho, along the Agatsuma river near Kanashima station on the Agatsuma line, there's a day bath called Fuki no Yu with the same rust-brown water that Ikaho has.
伊香保の下の吾妻川沿い吾妻線の金島駅の近くの日帰り温泉富貴の湯は伊香保と同じ鉄さび色のお湯が涌いている。
— @稲妻雷之進1 likesRather than the famous name, I'd go for the day baths around it. Kanashima Onsen, Onogami and so on.
有名どころよりこの周囲にある日帰り温泉がおすすめだ。金島温泉とか小野上とか、
— @またもある0 likesThe only baths worth getting into in Ikaho are the three big inns at the top of the Golden Water rights. Go a bit further and there's Kusatsu, where the volume is so vast that even a small pension has water straight from the source. Personally, if it's Gunma, I'd sooner recommend Oigami Onsen.
伊香保で入る価値があるのは黄金の湯の上位権利者である三大旅館だけですからね。少し足を伸ばせば、圧倒的湯量で小さなペンションでさえも源泉かけ流しの天下の草津温泉もありますし。個人的には同じ群馬なら老神温泉の方がオススメできますね。
— @tk198040 likes
Places named in this article
- Kishigon RyokanIkaho Onsen, Shibukawa, Gunma
The inn a regular in the thread names as their usual, for the cloudy water (9 likes). It sits beside the stone stairway, dates its business here to 1576, and says all of its baths run on undiluted Golden Water because it is close to the main pipe.
Sources: kishigon.co.jp · kishigon.co.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- Ikaho Rotenburo (Ikaho Open-Air Bath)Ikaho Onsen, Shibukawa, Gunma
The day bath up beyond the shrine that one commenter rates as the best water in town and the only one where you can drink it. Adults ¥600, children ¥300; open 9:00 to 18:00 from April to September and 10:00 to 18:00 from October to March, closed the first and third Thursday.
Sources: ikaho-kankou.com — checked 2026-08-23
- Ishidan no YuIkaho Onsen, Shibukawa, Gunma
The public bath partway up the stone stairway that one visitor used and rated (3 likes). Adults ¥800, 10:00 to 20:00 with last entry at 19:30, closed the second and fourth Tuesday.
Sources: city.shibukawa.lg.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- Kanashima Onsen Fuki no YuKawashima, Shibukawa, Gunma
The day bath down in the valley one commenter offers as the same rust-brown water without the hill, near Kanashima station on the Agatsuma line. Adults ¥500, and the water can be drunk here too.
Sources: fuukinoyu.sakura.ne.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- Onogami Onsen CenterMurakami, Shibukawa, Gunma
The other day bath named in the thread as a better bet than the famous name, right by Onogami-Onsen station on the Agatsuma line. It was called Sachi no Yu until the operator changed and it became Hata no Yu.
Sources: city.shibukawa.lg.jp · onsen.nifty.com — checked 2026-08-23
Named in the source comments. Where a note gives a price, opening status or rule, we checked it against the linked source on the date shown — everything else is what the comments said. All of it can change; check the map listing before you go.
FAQ
- What is the difference between Ikaho's Golden Water and Silver Water?
- Colour, temperature and who controls them. The Golden Water is the historic iron-rich sulphate spring that turns rust brown in air, and it is shared out under the old komaguchi rights, where each inn's allowance is set by the width of its pipe. The Silver Water is a clear, cold, silica-rich spring developed in 1996, heated before use, and supplied by Shibukawa City to any inn that pays for the volume it takes (469 likes).
Sources: ja.wikipedia.org · tenbo.com — checked 2026-08-23
- Was there really a hot spring falsification scandal at Ikaho?
- Yes. In August 2004 it emerged that some Ikaho inns were heating tap water and calling it hot spring water, and about half of the businesses named are said to have closed afterwards. The fallout reached the whole country: from 24 May 2005 every bath in Japan has had to post whether the water is diluted, reheated, recirculated, treated with additives or disinfected.
Sources: ja.wikipedia.org · env.go.jp · env.go.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- How do you tell whether an Ikaho bath is the real Golden Water?
- Look at the colour first: people here treat brown, cloudy water as the genuine article and clear water as the Silver spring (469 likes). Then read the notice board every bath is required to display, which states any dilution, reheating, recirculation or additives. If you only want the Golden Water, the town's own day bath, Ikaho Rotenburo, runs it straight from the source at ¥600 for adults and has the one place in Ikaho where you can drink it.
Sources: ikaho-kankou.com · env.go.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- Is Ikaho Onsen worth a trip from Tokyo?
- Worth it for the stone stairway and the brown water, with two warnings from people who go. The stairway is 365 steps and steep enough that one visitor dreamed about it, and there is nowhere near enough parking if you drive (5 likes). Buses run from Takasaki in about 70 minutes and there is a highway coach from Shinjuku taking around two and a half hours. One street off the stairway you are in bubble-era ruins, which some visitors treat as part of the appeal (32 and 10 likes).
Sources: ikaho-kankou.com · ja.wikipedia.org — checked 2026-08-23
Is Minakami Onsen Worth It Now? Japanese Visitors on the Empty Strip, the Ruins, and "Some of It Was Self-Inflicted"
“There were outside forces, sure, but some of it was self-inflicted. Faking the hot spring water was bad enough, but before that, the places built for group bookings looked right down on solo guests and couples. Ryokan districts with tennis courts and football pitches like a school club camp, you'd ring up and say it's just me, and they'd sound thoroughly put out and tell you they were full for the entire season, or grumble on your way out that one guest doesn't cover their costs. I think it was the same picture all over the country, before covid. So when those same places started saying please help us because of covid, honestly, I thought: serves you right. Hotels and ryokan that don't look after women travelling together, solo guests and elderly couples can go under for all I care. That's my honest feeling.”
Read this roundupThis is one of 10 local roundups for Onsen (Japanese Hot Springs). See them all →
This is one of 1 local roundups for Ikaho Onsen. See them all →
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What locals said — picked from the top 200 of 296 comments
I work at a ryokan in Ikaho Onsen. You've researched Ikaho well, and the video explains both the good things about it and the parts that are hard to hear for those of us on the ground. Let me add a few things, if I may. First, the water. The Golden Water is the old brown, cloudy water, and it warms you right through. The Silver Water, found in the Heisei era, is a colourless, transparent cold mineral spring; it is distributed to each ryokan and heated before it goes into the baths, and its soft quality is said to be good for the skin. And the remarkable part is that these two completely different waters rise from almost the same spot on the mountain behind Ikaho Shrine. The Golden Water is still governed by the komaguchi system, where the share is set by the width of the pipe, decided long ago, and it reflects the inherited rights of the old houses rather than the size of the business. Using more of it doesn't make your monthly charge rise in proportion either. So the old ryokan near the source use plenty of Golden Water whatever their size, and many of them don't use the Silver Water at all. Buying a new right to the Golden Water means paying a rights holder a very large sum, and mostly they won't sell in the first place, and the volume you get is small. The Silver Water, by contrast, is managed by Shibukawa City, which Ikaho belongs to, and you pay for what you use, so everyone can draw on it on equal terms. As for the newer ryokan away from the stone stairway, some cover everything with the Silver Water, and some have talked a rights holder into selling, laid a new pipe and now hold Golden Water of their own, less than the old houses but theirs. Most of those use the Silver Water alongside it to make up the volume they need. What you see a lot of lately is the big communal baths running both, and the open-air baths attached to guest rooms running Silver. For room baths the Silver Water is especially prized, because it's less likely to leave you light-headed and is safe for children, and because it throws off little mineral sediment, which makes it easier for guests to use and easier for the ryokan to run. On the stone stairway: until fairly recently there were a lot of group tours, so each ryokan kept its guests in with its own shop and its own evening dining, and the town emptied out little by little. There are still plenty of empty shops and empty ryokan, but new places have opened around the stairway, more guests walk it and more people come up just for the day, and a good deal of life has come back. Sorry for the length. Please do come to Ikaho at least once, whether you stay the night or come for the day.
伊香保温泉の旅館で働いている者です。 伊香保温泉についてよく調べられ、伊香保温泉について良いところも、現地の人間からすると耳が痛いところも分かりやすく解説されている動画でした。 勝手に情報を追加致します。 まず温泉の説明について、黄金の湯は古くからある茶色く濁った湯で、身体がよく温まります。一方、平成に発見された白銀の湯は無色透明の冷鉱泉で、各旅館に配られたのちに加温して提供されているもので、柔らかい泉質で肌に良いとされています。 そして驚くべきことに、この二つの全く異なる泉質の源泉は、ともに伊香保神社の奥にある山の、ほとんど似たような場所から湧出しております。 黄金の湯は相変わらず小間口制度により、旅館の経営規模というよりもむしろ老舗の既得権として、温泉管の太さによって昔から配分が決められております。そしてこれを多く使ったからといって、比例して毎月使用料が増えるものでもありません。 そのため、源泉近くに古くからある旅館はその規模に関わらず黄金の湯を豊富に使用し、白銀の湯は使わないというところも多いです。 黄金の湯の権利を新たに買い取るには非常に高い金額を小間口権者に支払う必要があり(そもそも中々売ってもらえない)、得られる量も少ないです。一方で白銀の湯については伊香保温泉がある渋川市が管理しており、使用量に応じて代金を支払うことで公平に使える形になっています。 石段街から離れた比較的新しい旅館はというと、白銀の湯により全ての温泉を賄っているところもあれば、小間口権者と話をつけ権利を買い取ることで温泉管を新設し、老舗に比べれば少ない量ではありながらも黄金の湯を所有している旅館もあります。その上で白銀も併用して、全体として必要な湯量を確保して運用している所が多いです。 最近よく見られるのは、大浴場は黄金白銀の併用、露天風呂付き客室に置くのは白銀、といった使われ方です。特に客室の露天風呂について、白銀の湯は湯あたりしにくくお子様にも安心であることや、湯の花が少ないことでお客様にも使いやすく、旅館も運用が比較的容易であることから、とても重宝されています。 また石段街についても、少し前までは団体旅行が多かったことから各旅館が施設内に売店や夜間の食事処を置くなどして囲い込みを行っていたため、徐々に街が廃れていました。 現在では空き店舗や空き旅館も多く残る一方、石段街を中心として新たなお店も増え、宿泊のお客様で石段街を散策される方や、外から日帰りで訪れる方も多くなり、随分と活気が戻ってきております。 長文となりましたが、ぜひ皆様一度は、宿泊なり日帰りなり、伊香保温泉へにお越しくださいませ。
I'm from Ikaho. You've done your homework. The falsification business hurts me too. It brings back how lively Ikaho was in the late fifties and early sixties. Thank you for a good report.
伊香保出身者です。よく勉強されています。私も偽装問題には心を痛めています。昭和３０年代の伊香保の賑やかさを思い出します。良いレポートをありがとうございます。
People were already saying back in the 1990s that Ikaho wasn't a real hot spring.
１９９０年代から、既に伊香保は、本物の温泉じゃないと言われていましたよ。
When I was in Ikaho, one hotel used to make its own mineral flakes, or whatever they were, and put them in the bath, because cleaning it turned the water clear... that hotel 🤔 After a clean, a guest on their second night once said to me, oh, it was cloudy yesterday and today it's clear, ha
伊香保いた時、風呂掃除すると風呂が透明になるからってわざわざ湯の花？作って風呂に入れてたな…あのホテル🤔清掃後に連泊のお客さんに「あら、昨日は濁ってたのに今日は透明ね」って言われことあるww
There's a big hot spring town where I live too. What I can't understand is how they supply hot spring water to that many ryokan and hotels when the source gives up so little. But if the town went under the area would take a serious hit, so it's the thing everyone knows and nobody says out loud. They may need to do what Ikaho did and adjust the number of inns and hotels.
私の地元にも大きな温泉街はあります。ただ源泉の量が少ないのに、どうやって多くの旅館やホテルに 温泉を供給してるのか、非常に不思議です。ただこの温泉街が無くなると、地元では大きな損害を被るので、 わかってはいても口にしてはいけないタブーな事で、誰もが口をつぐみます。 伊香保温泉に倣って、旅館やホテルの数を調整するのも必要ですね。
Years ago I booked Ikaho through one of the big travel sites. The private open-air bath was heated groundwater and the big bath was the hot spring, or so I was told. Then in the falsification business that same ryokan turned out to be using tap water. Ikaho has never been on my list since, because on a trip you don't want to be reminded of something unpleasant.
昔大手旅行サイトを使い伊香保温泉に行きました、確か貸切露天風呂は地下水を沸かしたもの大浴場は温泉との事でした、しかし温泉偽装問題でその旅館は水道水とされていました、それ以降現在まで伊香保温泉が旅行先としての候補になった事はありません、せっかくの旅行で嫌な事を思い出したくないからです。
Thank you for the detailed account of how Ikaho changed. I'm a former local, I lived in Shibukawa as a child, but I never really knew the story behind the falsification at the time, and I've never been able to recommend the place to anyone without reservations. This video means I can introduce it properly now, background and all. I think it's useful information for anyone visiting Ikaho who wants to enjoy the water too.
伊香保温泉の変遷について詳しく解説、紹介していただきありがとうございます。 子供時代に渋川市に住んでいた元地元民ではあるものの当時温泉偽装の件はあまり裏の事情を知っていたわけでもなかったので、今までもなかなか手放しで他の人に勧められないというのはありました。 この動画により裏事情を含めて適切に人に紹介することができそうです。 また、伊香保温泉を訪れる人にとっても温泉を楽しむための有益な情報になると思いました。
Local here. Your explanation is pretty accurate. With the ruins round about, part of the problem is that heavy machinery can't get to them.
地元民です。解説はかなり正確ですね。周辺の廃墟については場所へ重機が入らないとかの問題もありますね
When I first went two years ago the stairway shocked me, the slope was so steep it turned up in my dreams The water at the source and the water where I stayed were different things, even though the colour was the same There really are a lot of ruins and there's something eerie about the town, and the gap with the busy stairway did surprise me I'd like to go again though
2年前に初めて訪れた時、階段に驚いた、坂道の傾斜は夢に出てくるほど急だった 源泉元湯の湯と宿泊した湯の違いは別物だったね、色は同じだけど 確かに廃墟も多く不気味さもある温泉街、石段の賑やかさとのギャップには確かに驚いたもんです また行きたいですね、
I went last year and had no idea there were two different sources I used the day bath partway up the stairway and it was pretty good Next time I'll go looking for the Golden Water I drove, and there's nowhere near enough parking I wish there were more of it closer in.
去年行きましたが源泉が２種類あるとは知りませんでした 石段の途中の日帰り温泉に入ったけどなかなかよかった 今度は黄金の湯を求めて行きたいなと思います 車で行ったけど駐車場が少なすぎる もっと近くに駐車場が多いといいなと。
Gunma resident here. Roads like Route 17 along the foot of Mount Akagi are four lanes now, so Ikaho is easy to reach and the visitors come, but there's no parking.
群馬県民です伊香保温泉は赤城山麓の17号線沿いなども4車線になりましたし、交通の便が良いので観光客が来ますが、駐車場がありません
Kishigon is my usual place in Ikaho, and I had no idea there were ruins right behind the stone stairway. Once I check in I just laze around the inn, ha. It's that cloudy water that makes Ikaho for me. I'll try the viewpoint next time.
伊香保温泉では岸権旅館が常宿ですが、石段街のすぐ裏に廃墟があったとは知りませんでした。チェックインしたらずっと宿でゴロゴロしちゃうので(笑) 伊香保はあの濁り湯がいいんですよね。展望台は次回訪れてみます。
Ikaho is a wonderful place, it keeps hot spring obsessives and ruin obsessives happy at the same time. There are popular glassware shops on the stairway as well, it's good fun.
伊香保は温泉マニアと廃墟マニアの両方を満足させる素晴らしい場所です。 石段には人気のガラス工芸品屋さんなかもあり楽しいですよー。
If you live in Takasaki or around there it's not a hot spring town you go to much. You drive through it, or you just use the day baths. It was somewhere for proper visitors, wasn't it.
高崎とかに住んでると割といかない温泉街。通りすぎるか日帰り温泉のみだったなあ。本当のお客さんの場所だったよね。
I was born in Gunma, in Takasaki, over half a century ago, and I have never actually been in the baths at Ikaho, not even for the day. In a hot spring paradise like Gunma you don't often go out of your way to pick Ikaho's water.
群馬(高崎)に生まれて半世紀以上、実は日帰り含めて伊香保温泉のお風呂に入ったことがない。 温泉天国の群馬であえて伊香保の湯を選ぶことはあまりない。