One of Kyushu's oldest hot springs, center of Japan's first national park (1934), featuring dramatic sulfuric hellscape valleys.

Unzen Onsen is said to have been discovered in 701 by the Buddhist monk Gyoki, making it one of the oldest hot spring resorts in Kyushu. During the Nara and Heian periods, the area flourished as a sacred site for Shugendo mountain asceticism, centered on Onsenji Manmyoji Temple. In the Edo period, t…