Balcony Looking Downstream

A balcony at Kinugawa Kan looks downstream along the Kinugawa River gorge, the view running between the cliff face on one side and the wooded slopes on the other. The balcony itself is concrete-edged with a steel railing along the river side, the steel rusted to dark brown at the welds. The decking is scuffed and damp. Beyond the railing, the river drops away through the gorge below the hotel, the water running clear over the rocks. Other hotel buildings along the gorge are visible downstream, some still in use, others closed. A small concrete pump-house on the far bank marks the location of one of the local hot-spring sources.

The view downstream from Kinugawa Kan's balconies was part of what the hotel sold: river gorge, mountain backdrop, neighbouring ryokans on the opposite cliffs at far enough remove to feel like part of the scenery rather than the next building over. The Kinugawa Onsen resort was built on weekend tourism from Tokyo, peaking in 1993 with more than three million overnight guests. Kinugawa Kan opened in December 1942 and entered business suspension in June 1999 with debts of around 3 billion yen, the first major resort hotel to fall after the bubble economy collapsed. Formal closure followed in 2005. The river kept flowing.