The onsen town: a town that spreads from the source
An onsen town gathers inns, communal baths, souvenir shops and old-fashioned shooting galleries around the place where the water rises. Towns prospered along Edo-period highways, and railways after the Meiji era made them bigger.
An onsen town is for walking. In Kinosaki you tour seven public baths in yukata and wooden sandals; Kusatsu's streets radiate from the Yubatake; at Ginzan, multi-storey wooden inns line both banks of the river. The shape of each town mirrors its terrain and how its water emerges.
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kinosaki Onsen
城崎温泉
Hyogo · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 63
Yukata and wooden sandals, a willow-lined river, seven public bathhouses to hop between: here the town's baths, not the inn's, are the point.
Aspere · CC0
Kusatsu Onsen
草津温泉
Gunma · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 25
Thirty-two thousand litres a minute of pH 2.1 acid water rise in the middle of town and cool as they run down wooden channels.
lumoplank · CC0
Ginzan Onsen
銀山温泉
Yamagata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 20
Along both banks of the Ginzan River stand three- and four-storey wooden inns from the 1920s and 30s. On snowy nights the gas lamps come on.
Communal baths: soto-yu, so-yu, jimo-sen
Communal baths are shared by townspeople, as opposed to the "inner baths" inside inns. The names vary: "soto-yu" (outer baths) in Kinosaki and Nozawa, "so-yu" in Kaga, "municipal baths" and "jimo-sen" (locals' springs) in Beppu.
Nozawa's thirteen soto-yu are cleaned and run by resident groups called "yu-nakama", and visitors bathe for a small donation. Beppu has more than a hundred communal baths, many costing about ¥100. At Shibu, overnight guests borrow a key to tour nine baths.
Customs differ by place: rinse before entering, keep towels out of the water, ask before adding cold water to a hot tub. Remember these are the locals' baths.
小石川人晃 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nozawa Onsen
野沢温泉
Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 47
All 13 public baths are kept by village 'yu-nakama' bath guilds; you drop a donation in the box and go in. At the Ogama source, villagers still boil vegetables in 90 °C water.
663highland · CC BY 2.5
Lsattayamas · CC BY-SA 4.0
Shibu Onsen
渋温泉
Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 48
Borrow a key from your inn, take a towel, walk the stone-paved street and stamp it at nine public baths in turn. In Shibu Onsen, staying the night is the ticket to the baths.
663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0
Yamanaka Onsen
山中温泉
Ishikawa · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 41
In the gorge town where Basho praised a scent of hot water that needed no chrysanthemums, the Kiku-no-yu public bath still sits at the town's navel.
Toji: staying to heal
Toji is the practice of staying one to three weeks at an onsen, bathing several times a day to restore the body. Farmers came in the off-season to recover; the sick came to convalesce. A "round" was seven days, and three rounds (21 days) the classic course.
Toji inns are self-catering: you rent a plain room with a kitchen and bedding, cheaply. Osawa in Hanamaki, Hijiori, Tamagawa, Tawarayama and the "kashima" rooming inns of Kannawa keep this form alive. Since 2017 the Ministry of the Environment has promoted "new toji": shorter stays combining the water with local nature and food.
Toji suits solo travellers well — pricing is per person and falls the longer you stay.
掬茶 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ōsawa Onsen
大沢温泉
Iwate · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 17
A mixed open-air bath hanging over the Toyosawa River, and a self-catering wing where a night costs a little over 4,000 yen. The old toji way of life is still intact here.
Totti · CC BY-SA 4.0
Hijiori Onsen
肘折温泉
Yamagata · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 21
At five in the morning a market opens under the eaves of a snow-country spa village that has been in business since 807.
あおもりくま · CC BY-SA 3.0
Tamagawa Hot Spring
玉川温泉
Akita · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 13
At pH 1.2 and roughly 9,000 litres a minute from a single vent, Japan's most acidic hot spring pours out of a steaming valley.
Bsx · Public domain
Tawarayama Onsen
俵山温泉
Yamaguchi · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 80
The inns have no baths. Guests step out in yukata and walk to one of the two bathhouses, Machi-no-yu or Hakuen-no-yu. The old pattern of a toji spa survives intact in the hills of Yamaguchi.
STA3816 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Kannawa Onsen
鉄輪温泉
Oita · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 86
Steam rises from every corner of town; people cook vegetables in it, lie on herb-strewn stone to be steamed themselves, and bathe in 100-yen communal baths.
Rankings, the Three Famous Springs, health resorts
In the Edo period "onsen rankings" modelled on sumo lists were published, with Kusatsu as eastern champion and Arima as western. Kusatsu, Arima and Gero, named by the Muromachi monk Banri Shuku and the Edo scholar Hayashi Razan, are the "Three Famous Springs"; Dogo, Arima and Shirahama, recorded in the Nihon Shoki and the ancient gazetteers, are the "Three Ancient Springs".
The modern official designation is the Ministry of the Environment's "National Health Resort Onsen" — chosen since 1954 for water quality and flow, environment and medical links; 79 places as of 2022. The atlas shows the year of designation.
Aspere · CC0
Kusatsu Onsen
草津温泉
Gunma · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 25
Thirty-two thousand litres a minute of pH 2.1 acid water rise in the middle of town and cool as they run down wooden channels.
663highland · CC BY-SA 4.0
Arima Onsen
有馬温泉
Hyogo · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 62
Salt and iron thicker than seawater in the 'gold' spring, carbon dioxide and radon in the 'silver': two utterly different waters rise five minutes' walk apart.
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gero Onsen
下呂温泉
Gifu · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 53
Alkaline water above pH 9 is piped at 55 °C to inns across town, and nine free foot baths within walking distance of the station let you feel the 'slippery' water without even undressing.
Takuya Matsuyama · CC BY 3.0
Dōgo Onsen
道後温泉
Ehime · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 82
Water from eighteen sources is blended at distribution stations and sent, unheated and undiluted, into a three-storey wooden bathhouse that is a national cultural treasure.
663highland · CC BY 2.5
Nanki-Shirahama Onsen
南紀白浜温泉
Wakayama · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 65
Saki-no-yu has been in use since the Manyoshu era, and its tubs sit at the edge of the Pacific. No soap allowed: the water runs straight into the sea.
Onsen and food
The heat of a spring cooks too: "hell-steaming" at Kannawa in Beppu, vegetables boiled in Nozawa's Ogama, eggs cooked in Yumura's 98 °C Arayu, tofu simmered in spring water at Ureshino, the steam ovens called "sume" at Unagi in Kagoshima. Many onsen-town specialities grew directly from the character of the water.
The atlas's "food and culture" features follow these links between springs, food and the performing arts, with real places and travel times.
STA3816 · CC BY-SA 3.0
Kannawa Onsen
鉄輪温泉
Oita · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 86
Steam rises from every corner of town; people cook vegetables in it, lie on herb-strewn stone to be steamed themselves, and bathe in 100-yen communal baths.
小石川人晃 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nozawa Onsen
野沢温泉
Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 47
All 13 public baths are kept by village 'yu-nakama' bath guilds; you drop a donation in the box and go in. At the Ogama source, villagers still boil vegetables in 90 °C water.
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Yumura Onsen
湯村温泉
Hyogo · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 64
Water at 98°C gushes from the rocks by the river at 470 litres a minute. People boil eggs in it, then soak their feet in the same water once it has cooled.
STA3816 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ureshino Onsen
嬉野温泉
Saga · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 93
One of Japan's three great 'skin-beautifying baths', famous for its slippery bicarbonate water, and for tofu that turns silky and clouds the broth when simmered in it.
Sakaori (talk) · CC BY 3.0
Unagi Onsen
鰻温泉
Kagoshima · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 99
In a tiny village on the shore of a crater lake, the steam ovens called sume in people's front yards are still used to cook everyday meals.
Glossary
- Yu-nakama
- Resident groups that maintain Nozawa's communal baths.
- Kashima
- Self-catering rooms for long stays, still found in Kannawa, Beppu.
- National Health Resort Onsen
- Onsen areas designated by the Minister of the Environment under the Hot Spring Act, since 1954.
Related onsen
小石川人晃 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nozawa Onsen
野沢温泉
Nagano · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 47
All 13 public baths are kept by village 'yu-nakama' bath guilds; you drop a donation in the box and go in. At the Ogama source, villagers still boil vegetables in 90 °C water.
Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Kinosaki Onsen
城崎温泉
Hyogo · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 63
Yukata and wooden sandals, a willow-lined river, seven public bathhouses to hop between: here the town's baths, not the inn's, are the point.
掬茶 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ōsawa Onsen
大沢温泉
Iwate · 100 Onsen to Know Japan — No. 17
A mixed open-air bath hanging over the Toyosawa River, and a self-catering wing where a night costs a little over 4,000 yen. The old toji way of life is still intact here.
663highland · CC BY 2.5