Ryokufusō, the Inn of the Zashiki-warashi (緑風荘（座敷わらしの宿）)

Quick Facts

Type

Site

Prefecture

Iwate · Ninohe (Kindaichi Onsen)

Nearest station

Kintaichi-Onsen Station (IGR Iwate Galaxy Railway)

From the station

About five minutes by taxi or twenty on foot; the inn runs a shuttle for guests

English signage

none

Opening hours and admission

See the official site · information checked on 2026-11-05

Hours, admission and closing days change, and this site does not list them. The link goes to the place's own page, with the date we last checked it.

What is there

Kindaichi Onsen is a handful of inns on the Mabechi river in the north of the prefecture, a bathing place of the Nanbu domain’s samurai in the old days, and Ryokufusō stands at the back of it. It is the most famous zashiki-warashi inn in Japan: guests ask for the inner room called the Enju-no-ma, where the spirit is said to show itself, and the sightings reported over the years come from other rooms too. In the courtyard a small shrine called Kamemaro Shrine holds the spirit, with a crystal as its sacred object, and its festival is held every year on 28 September. A fire in October 2009 burned everything but that shrine; the inn was rebuilt and reopened in May 2016. Anyone may step into the courtyard to pay respects at the shrine, and the inn takes day visitors for the bath and for viewing on its open days. Rooms are booked many months ahead.

Why here

The inn’s own tale sets the spirit in the fourteenth century. A warrior family of the southern court, defeated and fleeing from Yamato, came north with two small sons; the elder, Kamemaro, fell ill on the road at six and died promising to guard the house to the end of its line. His spirit settled in the inner room, showed itself to guests and played tricks on them, and whoever meets him is said to prosper. The zashiki-warashi of the 1910 Tōno record is the same creature seen from the other side: a spirit whose leaving a house is the sign of its ruin. The pillow-turning of the makura-gaeshi article was recorded in this prefecture as one of the house spirit’s pranks.

Yokai you will meet

Zashiki-warashi 座敷童子 — The inn's resident spirit, Kamemaro, in the inner room and the courtyard shrine.
Makura-gaeshi 枕返し — The pillow-turning prank, recorded in Iwate as the work of the zashiki-warashi.

Getting there

Kintaichi-Onsen Station (IGR Iwate Galaxy Railway). About five minutes by taxi or twenty on foot; the inn runs a shuttle for guests.

Sources and further reading

Reliable secondary Ryokufusō, the inn of the zashiki-warashi Ryokufusō (Kindaichi Onsen) Official site of the inn: the Kamemaro shrine in the courtyard, day visits and the shuttle from Kintaichi-Onsen station.

Database Ryokufusō (緑風荘) Wikipedia (Japanese) The zashiki-warashi inn: the Kamemaro legend of the fourteenth century, the Enju room, the shrine festival of 28 September, the 2009 fire and the 2016 reopening.

Database Kindaichi Onsen (金田一温泉) Wikipedia (Japanese) The spa on the Mabechi river, the samurai bathing place of the Nanbu domain, and access from Kintaichi-Onsen station.

Other places in Iwate

Kappa-buchi and Jōkenji カッパ淵と常堅寺 Site Tōno, Iwate — A quiet pool on a stream behind a temple in Tōno, the place the town points to when it tells its kappa tales.

Denshōen 伝承園 Museum Tōno, Iwate — A folk park built around an old L-shaped farmhouse, with a hall of a thousand silkworm deities and a room for the storyteller whose tales became Tōno Monogatari.

Tōno Municipal Museum 遠野市立博物館 Museum Tōno, Iwate — The town museum of the valley whose tales were written down in 1910, with the oshira-sama, the kappa and the storytellers of Tōno Monogatari.

Mitsuishi Shrine and the Oni's Handprints 三ツ石神社（鬼の手形） Shrine or temple Morioka, Iwate — Three granite boulders in a city grove where an oni pressed its hands into the rock as an oath, and gave the prefecture its name.

Tōno Folktale Museum とおの物語の館 Museum Tōno, Iwate — A sake storehouse turned into a hall of tales, with the inn where the folklorist stayed and a stage where storytellers tell the tales in the dialect they were told in.