Dogo Onsen Honkan

Isaniwa Yukiya, the first mayor of Dogo-yunomachi, pushed the rebuilding of the Honkan through against fierce local opposition, and it was finished in 1894. In December 1994 it became the first public bath in Japan named an Important Cultural Property. Matsuyama kept it open in stages through a repair programme that started in January 2019 and finished on 20 December 2024, so the building now runs at full strength again.

The ¥700 ticket gets you into Kami-no-Yu downstairs, where some locals come almost every day as they would to a neighbourhood sento. If you pay more you get a yukata, tea and a sweet in the big tatami hall upstairs, or a Tama-no-Yu lounge with heron lamps from the Taisho era. The third-floor rooms were once called joto, and the narrator of Natsume Soseki's novel Botchan says he always took the joto. Private rooms book from 90 days ahead online until 22:00 the night before, and same-day only by phone.

The water is alkaline and gentle on the skin. Eighteen wells deliver it at 20 to 55°C, and blending brings it to about 42°C with nothing heated or added.