Kagawa Kotohira Town, Nakatado District
A Shikoku-class large public bath and 12 diverse baths that soothe the fatigue of a visit to Konpira
"Kotohira Onsen Kotosankaku" is a long-established hot spring ryokan in Kotohira Town, Nakatado District, Kagawa Prefecture, and one of the largest of its kind in Shikoku. Located near the approach to Kotohira-gu Shrine, the Sansuikan wing features a wide variety of baths, including a garden open-air bath and a medicinal herb bath. With alternating men’s and women’s access in the morning and evening, guests can enjoy up to 12 different baths. The high-temperature dry sauna, cold plunge bath with excellent cooling, and outdoor relaxation space overlooking the garden are also well appointed, gently soothing the body from deep within after a visit to Konpira.
This bath uses the inn’s own spring, Chikōin Onsen. The soft touch of this simple radioactive cold mineral spring is gentle on the skin and is said to offer a variety of health benefits. In the spacious indoor bath on the first floor of Sansuikan and in the atmospheric garden open-air bath with Mount Zōzu as borrowed scenery, you can savor the warmth of this famous spring with all five senses.
An authentic dry sauna attached to the spacious large public bath on the first floor of Sansuikan. The heat furnace at the center, surrounded by brick, is piled high with sauna stones, filling the room with powerful radiant heat. In a high-temperature environment, the dry heat quickly encourages perspiration. Free-to-use sauna mats are also provided, allowing you to work up a clean, comfortable sweat at your own pace.
A stainless-steel cold plunge bath installed right next to the sauna. Its pleasantly chilled water quickly cools down your heated body, leading you into a refreshing totonou experience. The flow to the indoor baths and open-air bath area is also smooth, creating the ideal hot-and-cold alternating bathing experience.
Open Year-Round
Konpira Onsen Village
A rooftop barrel sauna overlooking Mount Konpira, alongside a long-established Kotohira inn with 300 years of history
Konpira Onsen Village
A quiet inn where you can totonou with the Hana no Yu of Konpira’s temple town and the underground water of Mt. Zozu
Kagawa
Shikoku's premier paradise of flowing radon hot springs and saunas
JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
64 SELECTIONS
Most of what we surveyed never even made it onto this site. This book is a further cut from what did. Our editor bathed in every onsen and sauna in it, and wrote only what they confirmed on the ground.
