Sansuien

About

Sansuien is a 131-room hot spring inn on the Kagami River in central Kochi, a short walk from Kochi Castle, on grounds that belonged to the Yamanouchi lords of Tosa. In its garden stands a row house built in 1864 for the guards of the fifteenth lord, Yodo Yamanouchi, now a national Important Cultural Property, along with a mulberry tree estimated at 600 years old (sansuien.co.jp). The inn opened in 1949 and its baths use a natural hot spring, the first found in Kochi. It is large and city-centre rather than intimate, but it is the one Kochi stay with a real garden and onsen. Kochi Station is about 10 minutes by tram or taxi.