- Bathing
- Indoor
Takegawara is the emblem of Beppu: a wooden bathhouse from 1879, rebuilt in 1938, offering a plain hot bath and a room where attendants bury bathers in geothermally heated black sand.
Balnevia view
Why visit
The sand bath is a genuinely local ritual, unchanged for over a century and still costing the price of a coffee.
Recommendations
Hotels nearby
Explore places to stay near Takegawara Onsen.
The water
Thermal water
- Source
- Takegawara spring
- Mineralisation
- Sodium chloride and hydrogen carbonate
- Character
- Hot, lightly saline water; the sand baths are heated by the same source.
Facilities
- Thermal pools
- Indoor pools
History
Built in 1879 during the Meiji period, the bathhouse takes its name from its original bamboo-tiled roof.
Practical information
Bring a small towel or rent one; the sand bath issues a yukata and often has a short queue.
Getting there
A ten-minute walk from Beppu Station through the old Nagarekawa quarter.
Location
Related places
More thermal baths in Japan
Beppu/Japan
Hyotan Onsen
A Beppu bathhouse in the Kannawa quarter, known for its cascade baths and sand baths.
Hakone/Japan
Hakone Yumoto Onsen
The oldest onsen district in Hakone, where ryokan baths look onto the Sukumo river valley.
Bathing temperature 41°C
Matsuyama/Japan
Dōgo Onsen Honkan
One of Japan's oldest hot springs, in a wooden bathhouse of 1894.
Bathing temperature 42°C