Arimasansoh Goshobessho

A hidden sanctuary with echoes of ancient “Arima Kiyomizu-dera Temple“, long loved for its panoramic maple leaf view Arima Sanso Gosho Bessho is nestled in the small town “Arima Onsen”, which is the oldest and one of the three most prestigious hot-spring resort areas in Japan. During the early Meiji period (1868 – 1912), when Japan opened the country to foreign trade and diplomatic relations and allowed foreign settlements in Kobe, Arima Onsen was the first hot-spring resort area frequented by foreign visitors, and Arima Kiyomizu-dera Temple was very much visited for its panoramic maple leaf view. Later, the Temple became the “Kiyomizu Hotel” which exclusively hosted foreign visitors. During that period, strange odds wanted that the statue of the thousand-armed Kannon, which was long enshrined in the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, be handed to the Kanai family who managed the historical Inn “Arima Tocen Goshoboh”, and who preserved the statue until nowadays. The Kiyomizu hotel was forgotten for a while until that Kanai Shirobe (the 15th) and some of his friends decided to revive that symbolic place into what it is today “Arima Sanso Gosho Bessho”.