Totsukawa Onsen Cooperative

Totsukawa's three hot spring communities, Tosenji, Totsukawa Onsen, and Kamiyu, made a rare public commitment in 2004: all baths would use only free-flowing spring water, never reheated, chlorinated, or recirculated. Tosenji is the oldest, believed to date to the Muromachi period, with indoor and outdoor public baths fed by sulfur spring water. Totsukawa Onsen pipes salty sodium bicarbonate water from 3.4 kilometers away to ten facilities around a lakeside village. Kamiyu is a private open-air rotenburo sitting directly on the Kamiyunokawa River, surrounded by steep forested valley walls.