Yosano Akiko and Ikaho Onsen
Writers and artists have long come to Ikaho Onsen. Today is the 84th anniversary of the death of one of them, Yosano Akiko, who died on 29 May 1942 (Showa 17).
Yosano Akiko loved hot springs. From middle age she visited a great many famous and hidden springs, from Hokkaido to Kyushu. Her way was not to return to the same onsen again and again. Even when the road was hard, she used her own stamina to seek a spring she had not yet seen — and even at the same onsen she stayed at a different inn. (From Sugiyama Yumiko, Yosano Akiko: A Journey of Hot Springs and Poetry.)
She stayed in Ikaho Onsen and left a fine poem. It is carved on a tread about midway along the Stone Steps, just beside the pocket park. Please look for it when you stroll the street.
A Man’yō poem stone stands farther up, in the precincts of Ikaho Shrine. Another literary name in Ikaho is Tokutomi Roka, honored at the Ikaho Festival in September.