As komusubi of the East stands the spring of Suwa in Shinshu (Nagano Prefecture).
On the shores of Lake Suwa, at Kamisuwa and Shimosuwa, rich hot springs rise. Shimosuwa in particular was a post town where the Nakasendo and the Koshu Highway met, and travelers eased the weariness of the road in its baths.
Shimosuwa's waters have a lovely legend, the "Wata no Yu," the Cotton Spring.
The Upper Shrine of Suwa Taisha is dedicated to the male god Takeminakata, and the Lower Shrine to his consort, the goddess Yasakatome. Long ago, when Yasakatome moved from the Upper Shrine to the Lower Shrine, she soaked cotton in the hot water she used each morning for her toilette and carried it with her. When she set the cotton down near the Lower Shrine, warm water welled up from that spot. This, they say, was the beginning of the Cotton Spring.
It is also said that wherever drops fell as the goddess carried the cotton, hot water sprang up there too.
Suwa is a land of bitter cold, where in winter the lake freezes and the "omiwatari," a ridge of cracked ice said to be the god's crossing, runs across it. In that cold, warm water was indispensable to people's lives.