General Survey of the Spa Treatment in Tohoku Region
- VernacularTitle:東北地方温泉地における湯治概況調査成績
- Author:
Ryoichi HANAKAGO
;
Fumio KOKUBUN
;
Yoshiomi HAYATA
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:The Journal of The Japanese Society of Balneology, Climatology and Physical Medicine
1967;30(3-4):87-93
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
-
Abstract:
At Imagami Spa in Yamagta Prefecture, consultations on balneal treatments and some medical researches were carried out side by side with a general survey of balneal treatments (August, 1965). Imagami Spa is located in a remote mountain and has been known as “the Spring of God”. There is only one hotel in Imagami Spa, which is open to the genenal public as soon as the snow melts away. Primitive log houses are set up when visitors come not for pleasure but only for balneal therapy. Most of the visitors are from Yamagata Prefecture of whom the aged are large in number. Of the female visitors, those who are engaged in farm work are the largest in number. The largest number of visitors come to this Spa for therapeutic treatment and convalescence, which shows clealy the nature of this Spa. The classification of diseases shows that the visitors are mostly suffering from gastro-enteropathy, neuralgia and cardiovascular diseases. Very few visitors come to this Spa under a doctor's prescription. About 90% of the visitors stay there for more than two weeks; visitors are characterized by long-term balneal tneatment. In general, the visitors tend to bathe excessively and for a long time. About 89.1% of the visitors drink hot spring, water which frequency is greater here than in any other hot spring resorts and which is a rare case in Japan. About 48.9% reported that the balneal treatment was effective and 47.8% replied that it was not clear. Bathing reaction was observed in 29.3% and comparatively large numbers of visitors complained of constipation, fatigue and dermatitis. It was found from Cornel Medical Index (CMI) that 31.3% of the total number of visitors showed characteristic of complaints of the neurotics or neurotic patients, which shows that this Spa is favored by this kind of patients. This Spa proves to be of interest when we take into account the fact that the visitor has a sort of religious faith in this Spa.
