S P O T ／ SPOT-274

Sogisui Spring (Hakuunsui)

宗祇水（白雲水）そうぎすい（はくうんすい）

In the famously waterlogged town of Gujo Hachiman, this spring is the most celebrated of all — and in 1985 it was named the very first entry in Japan's Hundred Famous Waters. What makes it remarkable is not just the water but the architecture of its use. Beneath a small shrine, the spring emerges and is then channeled through a series of partitioned basins, each assigned a strict purpose in descending order of cleanliness: the source water for drinking, then a basin for washing rice, then one for vegetables, and finally a rinsing pool. It is a centuries-old social contract carved into stone — the cleanest water reserved for the most important use, a fair way to share a limited resource among everyone in the neighborhood. The name comes from the Muromachi-era linked-verse poet Sogi, who is said to have built a hermitage beside it. Tucked into a quiet back alley, where literature, devotion, and the daily business of washing rice all converge at a single trickle of water, it is one of the most quietly extraordinary spots in a town built on springs.