Riverside open-air bath at Takaragawa Onsen in Gunma

Takaragawa Onsen Osenkaku

Vast riverside rotenburo along the Takara River in the mountains of Gunma.

nobiinue

Bathing: Indoor / Outdoor
Established: 1923
Accommodation: Hotel on site

Takaragawa Onsen stretches along both banks of the Takara River deep in the mountains of Minakami. Its open-air baths are among the largest in Japan: broad stone basins built at the water's edge, roofed here and there with timber, connected by a suspension bridge and reached along a wooded path. Three of the four rotenburo are mixed bathing, one reserved for women.

Balnevia view

Why visit

Nowhere else in Japan combines rotenburo on this scale with a river running past at arm's length — extraordinary in autumn colour and under snow.

The water

Thermal water

Source: Takaragawa springs
Mineralisation: Calcium and sodium sulphate water
Character: Abundant clear, slightly alkaline spring water feeding four riverside baths directly beside the Takara River.

History

The spring has been used since at least the Edo period, and the Osenkaku inn developed the riverside baths from the 1920s onward, building the timber galleries and stone pools that still define the site. Its cedar buildings and bath houses remain largely traditional.

Practical information

Open to day visitors as well as inn guests. Mixed baths are entered wearing the provided bathing wrap; tattoos are generally accepted here, unusually for Japan. The road in can be snowbound in winter.