Hako-yu

Hako-yu opened in 2002 so day visitors could bathe in Shuzenji again after the old riverside baths closed. The building uses a lot of cypress, cedar and pine, and on a clear day light falls through the skylight onto the tubs. A 12-metre tower called Gyokuro, named for a poem by Natsume Soseki, stands next door and costs nothing to climb.

Legend says Minamoto no Yoriie, the second Kamakura shogun, bathed at a bath called Hako-yu by the temple gate, and the tourism association says he was killed there at 23. The new building takes the old name. It closed from 22 August for repairs and reopened on 7 November with stone tubs, a new washing area and the old timber kept. A book of 14 tickets went on sale from 1 January 2026 for ¥7,000.