"Yu no hana" - our Handy Guide


Out of all the yu no hana you can buy in Kusatsu,
only these are the genuine article!

What are yu no hana? Yu no hana is a yellowish powder created by collecting and drying the crystallized deposits left by the hot spring. Yu no hana can only be collected once every two or three months from the gutters of the hot water fields, so the genuine article is quite rare. They are found in the gutters because they do not crystallize unless they are exposed to air and direct sunlight. Do "yu no hana" have medicinal benefits? It appears that in the past, these yu no hana were sold in pharmacists. Yu no hana have antidotal properties, and over fifty years ago, they were used in the ingredients of a "poison antidote pill" - a pill only a little larger than a dewdrop. They are still used today to cure skin problems like athletes foot. In fact, the yu no hana that were sold in the past for bathing use were blended finely with sand taken from the mountains and for this reason the modern yu no hana taken directly from the yubatake (fields of hot water) have much more medicinal benefit. One might call them the Premium Yu no Hana. Up until just before the war, yu no hana were widely regarded as having medicinal use, but we did not register them as medicinal products with the Ministry of Health and Welfare after the war. Due to this, the medical usage of yu no hana from Kusatsu Hot Spring lost official recognition. On the other hand, yu no hana from Beppu Hot Spring are still recognized and treated as medicine. They must have remembered to register their yu no hana! Who goes out to collect the yu no hana The town hall in Kusatsu takes care of this. Yu no hana are gathered from the yubatake (fields of water) of Kusatsu Hot Spring, Azuma gun, Gunma Prefecture and then sold within the town inside plastic containers of 242 cubic cm, marked in very small Japanese letters. It is possible to avoid the fakes and purchase genuine yu no hana. Please ask at the town hall or consult an honest hotel or shop owner.

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