Onsen Shrine (Izumo)

Onsen Shrine (温泉神社) is a Shinto shrine in Yumura, Kisuki-cho, Unnan, Shimane Prefecture, the guardian shrine of the ancient hot spring of Yumura (Izumo Yumura Onsen). The principal kami are Onamuchi-no-Mikoto and Sukunabikona-no-Mikoto as the deities of medicine and hot springs, together with Ashinazuchi-no-Mikoto and Tenazuchi-no-Mikoto, the elderly couple of the Yamata-no-Orochi episode of the Kojiki (712 CE). Yumura Onsen is recorded in the Izumo no Kuni Fudoki (733 CE) for Ohara District as the Shichini-kawabe medicinal hot water, one of the central hot-spring sites of ancient Izumo. According to shrine tradition, the founder of the Izumo Kokuso enshrined the kami of the hot spring at its discovery, and the shrine is observed by local hot-spring innkeepers and residents as a regional centre of Izumo myth and onsen tradition.