As sekiwake of the West stands the spring of Kinosaki in Tanshu (northern Hyogo Prefecture).
Two stories are told of how Kinosaki began.
One is the legend of the stork. Long ago, in the reign of Emperor Jomei, a stork was healing its injured leg by soaking it in hot water that welled up in a rice field. Seeing this, the local people learned of the water's power. This spring was later named the "Ko no Yu," the Stork Spring.
The other says that in the Yoro era of the Nara period, a monk named Dochi Shonin performed a thousand days of austerities here, and through their merit the hot water gushed forth. Onsenji, the temple said to have been founded by Dochi, still stands halfway up the mountain overlooking the town of Kinosaki.
Kinosaki is a spa town along the Otani River, a branch of the Maruyama River, lined with willows and stone bridges. The town has several "sotoyu," public bathhouses, and bathers made the rounds of them in the inns' cotton robes, clattering along in wooden clogs.
In the Edo period, doctors in Kyoto and Osaka praised the benefits of Kinosaki's waters, and many bathers came from far away.