The road west from Shiroishi-Zao Station climbs gradually, the orchards giving way to cedar and then to open slope, until the smell of sulfur arrives before any sign announces it. Togatta Onsen sits at the eastern foot of the Zao range, a hot-spring settlement with more than four centuries of use behind it — the kind of place where the bathhouse architecture and the guesthouse facades have absorbed many winters of deep snow without making a show of it.
The town of Zao-machi spreads east from those slopes into farmland that produces nashi pears, momo peaches, and udo in considerable quantity, along with tsurumuraskaki — a climbing vegetable grown under cover in facilities that dot the agricultural plain. The craft tradition here is kokeshi: the lathe-turned wooden dolls that have their own festival, the Zenkoku Dentō Kokeshi Rokuro Matsuri, and a dedicated exhibition hall, the Miyagi Zao Kokeshi-kan, where the turning and painting traditions of the region can be read in the grain and glaze of each figure.
Overhead, Zao-san carries the volcanic caldera known as Okama, and Karuta-dake holds the Karitamine-jinja, whose inner shrine on the summit and outer shrine in the valley below maintain a Shugendo lineage that long predates the onsen town. In winter, Sumikawa Snow Park draws skiers into the upper snowfields. The rest of the year, the bird-observation center called Kotori-hausu tracks the forest's quieter residents, and the orchards along the eastern plain continue their own unhurried rhythm.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
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What converges here
1 in this town. 20 within 25 km of the town office.
- Miyagi Zaō Kokeshi Museum
- 村田町歴史みらい館
- 国営みちのく杜の湖畔公園ふるさと村
- Yajirō Kokeshi Village
- Shibata Local Museum・Exhibition Hall "Shigenkaku"
See 15 more
- Shiroishi ningyō no kura
- Al Siraaj
- Sendai Kaleidoscope Museum
- Kakuda Historical Museum
- Watari Municipal Museum
- Sendai Astronomical Observatory
- Sendai City Jōmon Site Park
- the Museum of Water and History
- Natori City Museum of History and Folklore
- Marumori Local Museum
- Tohoku University Museum
- Aoba Castle Museum
- Yamamoto Town Museum of History and Folklore
- Sendai City Museum
- 仙臺緑彩館
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Azuma Family Residence (Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi)
- Wagatsuma Family Residence (Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi)
- Wagatsuma Family Residence (Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi)
- Wagatsuma Family Residence (Miyagi Prefecture, Katta-gun, Zao-cho)
- Zao
- Togatta Onsen
- Mount Zao
- Mount Zao
- Mount Aoso