Spaces and facilities unavailable during conservation and repair works of Dogo Onsen Honkan
Front page > Introduction to the Dogo Onsen Honkan bathhouse facilities
Tama-no-Yu 3rd floor private room
These private rooms were once called “joto,” meaning first class, and in Natsume Soseki’s novel Botchan is the line “I always used joto.” With this package you’ll be able to relax in your own private room after bathing.
Tama-no-Yu 2nd floor resting lounge
Located in a section of the building constructed during the Taisho period, the public lounge’s hanging lamps with an egret motif give the historic structure a modern atmosphere.
Kami-no-Yu 2nd floor resting lounge
Often featured in magazine pictorials, this large public lounge has a spacious feel, and from June through September the shoji doors are removed and sudare reed screens are hung for an even more open and airy atmosphere. The lounge can accommodate up to 80 guests, making this package especially suitable for groups.
Kami-no-Yu downstairs
This package includes only the Kami-no-Yu with no lounge. After purchasing your ticket, proceed to the immediately adjacent separate men’s and women’s changing rooms on the 1st floor. The Dogo Onsen Honkan is extremely popular with local residents, with some coming to bathe almost every day. This package is recommended for guests who only wish to enjoy bathing in an atmosphere like that of a neighborhood public bathhouse.
Botchan-no-Ma
This private room (on the northwest corner on the Honkan’s 3rd floor) is said to have been used in October 1895 by poet Masaoka Shiki and by Natsume Soseki, author of Botchan, following Soseki’s arrival for his new post in Matsuyama earlier that year, not long after the Dogo Onsen Honkan’s renovation. In 1966 the room was named “Botchan’s Room” by Soseki’s son-in-law, the author Matsuoka Yuzuru. Botchan-no-Ma (meaning “room of Botchan”) is open to Dogo Onsen Honkan guests free of charge, providing an opportunity to journey back to the time of a literary legend.
Kami-no-Yu
The stone bathing rooms adorned with Tobe porcelain panel paintings and the baths with their large column-shaped water spouts (called a “yugama”) are representative of the Dogo Onsen Honkan’s unique appeal. With two men’s bathing rooms and one women’s bathing room, at the center of the women’s bath stand statues of okuninushi-no-mikoto and Sukunahikona-no-mikoto, two divinities that appear in the legend of Dogo Onsen.
