湯だまりの中に、ぶくぶくと今も活発に温泉が湧き出ているのが見えますか？これがお糸地獄です。

明治3年、島原城下にお糸さんという、口減らしのために売られてしまった貧しい女性が住んでいました。やがて結婚はできたのですが、亭主は長い間行方不明となり、亡くなったと聞かされたので、仕えていた男と幸せな生活を営んでいた お糸さん・・。しかし、やがて、突然帰ってきて亭主が現れ、仕方なく殺してしまいます。
　その罪によってお糸さんは処刑されるのですが、その折、この地獄が噴出したため、お糸さんの名が付いたと伝えられています・・薄幸、かわいそうなお糸さんに冥福を！
　お糸地獄の正面にある売店では「温泉卵」を販売しており、多くの人が名物の味を楽しんでいます。
地獄の水蒸気を土管から吹き出させ、その高温の熱で卵を蒸しています。約7分で美味しい温泉卵が蒸しあがります。
　この温泉卵、昭和12年に雲仙を訪れたあのヘレンケラーも召し上がったそうです。地獄巡りの記念に、ぜひ食べてみてください。
英語バージョン
This is the Oito jigoku. According to local legend, there was once a wealthy woman named Oito who lived close to Shimabara Castle in the late 1800s. Oita was accused of killing her husband with the help of her secret lover, and she was found guilty and sentenced to death. At the moment of her execution, a jigoku came bubbling up from beneath the earth. The word “jigoku” carries the double meaning of “hot spring” and “hell,” indicating Oito’s eventual fate.
Monument to Christian Martyrs
On the hill above Oito Jigoku is the kirishitan junkyō-hi, or the Monument to Christian Martyrs. The simple cross erected there during the Meiji era (1868–1912) commemorates the approximately 33 Christians who were tortured and killed in Unzen between 1627 and 1630.
Christianity was brought to Japan in the mid-1500s and flourished in Kyushu. Nagasaki became a stronghold of Christian faith, and the lord of the Shimabara Peninsula, Arima Harunobu (1567–1612) converted in 1579. Christianity was popular for several decades in Kyushu and across Japan, but by the early 1600s the fortunes of this foreign faith changed. While embracing Christianity was originally seen as a necessary step in establishing relations with the Europeans and subsequently gaining access to firearms and other trade goods, the religion came to be seen as a gateway to colonization by hostile foreign powers. Missionaries were exiled, converts were executed, and the religion itself was banned.
Beginning in 1627, dozens of Christians brought to Unzen from across the Shimabara Peninsula were tortured in the jigoku until they renounced their faith. Most did not, and it is this sacrifice that inspired the people of Unzen to commemorate the victims’ strength of belief shortly after the ban on Christianity was lifted.
　Are you hungry? On your left, steam from the jigoku is funneled through a clay pipe and used to cook “onsen eggs.” This delightful snack has been popular with tourists for more than 100 years. But make sure the brave cats that like to hang out by the jigoku do not take your meal!
　Farther along the boardwalk is the Oito Jigoku. According to local legend there once was a wealthy woman named Oito who lived close to Shimabara Castle in the late 1800s. She was accused of conspiring with her lover to murder her husband and was executed for her crimes. At almost the same time, this jigoku came bubbling up from beneath the earth. The jigoku was given Oito’s name as a reminder of what could await those accused of infidelity and murder in the afterlife.