Sakura-yu

Public bathhouse in Yamaga with a history stretching to the Edo period, when the daimyo Hosokawa Tadatoshi built a private teahouse here in 1640. After the Meiji Restoration, local residents converted the site into a bathhouse open to all. At its peak, it accommodated 4,500 visitors per day. Rebuilding in the 1970s replaced the original wooden structure, but a restoration project in the 1990s faithfully recreated the traditional design using historical photographs and a scale model. The rebuilt bathhouse reopened in 2012 and is now the largest wood-construction hot-spring facility in Kyushu. The alkaline water leaves skin noticeably smooth.