Source of the spring at the ruins of the former "Gishiki Onsen" once located at the southwestern foot of Bandai Volcano, northeastern Japan

       Bandai volcano is situated in the central part of Fukushima prefecture, Japan. The altitude of this mountain is 1816m, and it consists of Mt. Bandai, Mt. Kushigamine and Mt. Akahani.

       During a geological survey in 1987, I discovered traces of a hot spring at the southwestern foot of Bandai volcano. At that time, I investigated ancient documents regarding the old hot spring, but found no record; thus it was a "mysterious hot spring" for quite some time. After that, in 2011, I found an old sightseeing guide paper “View of Bandaisan Shrine and Enichiji” with this hot spring trace drawn at an antiquarian bookstore and purchased it. The paper on this hot spring is “A hot spring called 'Gishiki Onsen', which once existed at the southwestern foot of Bandai Volcano”.

Fig.OD-2：Photographs of the spring source at the ruins of "Gishiki Onsen" located at the southwestern foot of Bandai Volcano

       Figures A and B are photographs of the source of the spring. Figure A shows the situation on April 12, 1987, while Figure B shows the situation on May 4, 2022. Figure C is a photograph of the flat land where the hot spring was situated looking down from near the source. It can be seen that the water flowing out from the source flows in two directions. Figure D is a photograph of a yellow-orange precipitate seen near the spring source.