- Bathing
- Indoor
Kin no Yu — the Golden Bath — is the municipal bathhouse at the heart of Arima Onsen, a hot-spring quarter tucked into the mountains behind Kobe. Its water, kinsen, is heavily mineralised with iron and salt and oxidises to a deep ochre once drawn.
Balnevia view
Why visit
Arima is a rarity: a hot spring with no volcano beneath it, fed instead by ancient seawater forced up along a deep fault. The contrast between the opaque golden bath here and the clear, carbonated ginsen silver water nearby is the reason to come.
The water
Thermal water
- Source
- Kinsen (golden spring)
- Mineralisation
- Iron-rich sodium chloride, strongly saline
- Character
- Opaque ochre water, one of Japan's most heavily mineralised springs
History
Arima appears in the eighth-century Nihon Shoki and is traditionally counted among Japan's three oldest hot springs. It was patronised by emperors and, in the sixteenth century, rebuilt under the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whose tea gatherings here are still commemorated.
Practical information
Kin no Yu is a simple public bathhouse rather than a resort: bring a towel or buy one at the counter. A free foot bath sits outside the entrance, and the companion Gin no Yu bathhouse is a few minutes away on foot.
- Things to do nearby
- Explore nearby activities on GetYourGuide
Getting there
Around thirty minutes by Kobe Electric Railway or bus from central Kobe, and roughly an hour from Osaka.
Location
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