This thread seems to have popped up again.

We stayed at Gora Hanaougi
http://www.gorahanaougi.com/en/hanaougi/
for two nights late last spring.

We decided on at least two nights at each place so we had the "day in between" to relax.
It was WONDERFUL.

The view from the balcony, where the private onsen was (outside) was of the next hills, with the valley in between.
The food and service was just perfect.

The only thing... our "fault"... was that I got too enthusiastic about trying to "be" in Japan, and we booked a room with Japanese style furnishings.
Well... getting up off the floor... was "interesting" some of the time. They were sold out, so we couldn't switch to a room with higher beds or actual chairs, but they brought some additional mats/quilting for me. DH was fine with it as it was.

I was just glad that we had requested dining with "chairs", or that would have made the wonderful dining much less so.

We also stayed two nights at our next "stop", which was at a Buddhist Monastery (and again... sleeping on the floor... so I was actually getting somewhat used to the "getting up"
experience!)

Our private tour organizer, Kensington, purposefully chose Gora Hanaougi for us, and not Gora Kadan. When we explored online during the plannig stage, we were quite pleased by this choice, as it seemed much less "commercial". Gora Kadan seemed to be where many of the large tour groups stayed, and there didn't seem to be any of that at Gora Hanaougi, at least not while we were there.