Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi has 40 onsen areas and 404 springs (Ministry of the Environment, FY2024), with about 1.5 million overnight stays a year. Yuda, Kawatana, Nagato-Yumoto and Tawarayama are known as the 'four baths of Bocho', and each has its own face: a town of white-fox legend, the birthplace of kawara soba, a spa rebuilt around its river, and an old cure village whose inns have no baths of their own.

Main onsen areas

Yuda sits in the middle of Yamaguchi city. To the north, Nagato-Yumoto and Tawarayama lie in the hills of Nagato, while Shimonoseki has Kawatana and Ichinomata, Shunan has Mitsuo and Yuno, and Hagi has Hagi Honjin among others.

Characteristic spring types

Radon springs are the most common in our records, followed by simple and chloride springs, and many cold mineral springs are listed too. Yuda is an alkaline simple spring flowing at about 2,000 tonnes a day, and Nagato-Yumoto and Tawarayama are alkaline simple springs as well. Kawatana is a radon spring with calcium and sodium chloride.

Reachable by public transport

Yuda is about 20 minutes from Shin-Yamaguchi on the JR Yamaguchi Line. Nagato-Yumoto is about an hour from Shin-Yamaguchi by direct shared taxi (four a day), or about three hours from Hakata or Tenjin by the Hagi-Nagato Otozure express bus. The JR Mine Line has been suspended since the heavy rain of June 2023, with replacement buses from Asa. Tawarayama is about 60 minutes by bus towards Nagatoshi from Ozuki on the JR Sanyo Line.

For solo travellers

Tawarayama is a cure town where a single guest staying for days is the norm; the inns have no baths, so you walk in yukata to Machi-no-yu or Hakuen-no-yu. At Nagato-Yumoto, the Onto bathhouse and a riverside walk make a satisfying day on their own, and Yuda has six free foot baths.

Food & culture

Yuda's legend tells of a wounded white fox that soaked its leg in a temple pond every night until the priest dug there and found hot water and a golden statue of the Yakushi Buddha; the poet Nakahara Chuya and the haiku poet Taneda Santoka are linked to the town. Kawatana is the birthplace of kawara soba, now a Yamaguchi soul food, and keeps a blue-dragon legend dating from the 14th–16th centuries. Tawarayama is said to have been revealed to a hunter by a white monkey in 916, and Nagato-Yumoto, found in 1427 by the abbot of Taineiji after a divine message, is regarded as the oldest spa in the prefecture.