Sakura-yu Bath, Yamaga

photo by Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by STA3816 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Rebuilt in 2012 from a paper model: nothing was left of the original drawings.

You enter through a gate with a curved gable (karahafu) and pay 350 yen: the bath hall has exposed beams and pillars and an open ceiling up to the roof, and the water comes directly from the spring. Inside there is also the dragon room (Ryū-no-yu), where the feudal lord bathed, with a chequered marble floor and a dragon painted on the ceiling: today you can only look, from 9:00 to 17:00.

In 1640 Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the first lord of the Kumamoto domain, had a rest house (ochaya) built at Yamaga near the spring, and according to the domain's records invited Miyamoto Musashi, the swordsman, to the opening. In 1872 two local notables financed a major renovation that turned it into a public bath; in 1898 a master carpenter from Dōgo, the famous hot-spring town of Shikoku, added the curved-gable entrance, and in 1929 an extension to the south completed the cross-shaped plan with two entrances, one to the north and one to the south. After a major fire in 1971, demolition began in 1973 for an urban redevelopment: in 1975 the bath was set up again inside a modern building and stayed open until November 2009. The drawings were gone: the blueprint was a paper lantern (山鹿灯籠, the craft Yamaga is known for) made before the demolition, tile by tile, by the master lantern maker Tokunaga Masahiro. The bath reopened on 23 November 2012, and the tourism website presents it as the largest bath in Kyūshū in the architectural style of the Edo period.

ℹ️ Open 6:00–24:00, closed on the third Wednesday of the month (if it is a public holiday, the next weekday). Adults (junior high and up) 350 yen, children from 3 years old up to elementary school 150 yen; concessions for disabled visitors 150 and 80 yen; book of 12 entries 3,000 yen. The dragon room, the bath history room and the tourist office inside can be visited from 9:00 to 17:00; the office hires out bicycles (electric 550 yen, standard 330 yen for 4 hours). From reviews: shampoo and soap are not provided, the free car park next door is often full, and outside there is a spot where you can draw hot-spring water for free. From Kumamoto, Sankō bus from Sakuramachi to the Yamaga Bus Center (bus for ‘Yamaga Onsen’); from there on foot, in the town centre. ⚠️ After the earthquake of 28/07/2026, no official page consulted on 18/10/2026 mentions the bath, either to say it is closed or to say it is open (the municipality's page on damage to facilities appears to be empty); the tourist page reports no notices.

Sources: yamaga-tanbou.jp · yamaga-tanbou.jp · yamaga-tanbou.jp

All series · Open the map