Onsen & Sento · Kitahama / Motomachi
Takegawara Onsen 竹瓦温泉
Beppu's most famous public bathhouse, a 1938 wooden building with a temple-style gabled roof, where locals soak for ¥300 and visitors get buried in hot black sand by bath attendants.
Ordinary bath (elementary): ¥100
Sand bath (includes ordinary bath): ¥1,500
About
Founded in 1879 and rebuilt in 1938, Takegawara Onsen is the symbol of old Beppu: a hulking timber bathhouse with a karahafu (curved Chinese gable) roof, a soaring wooden lobby and a registered Tangible Cultural Property listing. Two worlds sit under one roof. The ordinary bath is a sunken, steamy tiled pool down a few steps, very hot and very local: regulars chat, scoop water with wooden buckets and expect you to rinse first. The sand bath (suna-yu) is the draw for visitors: you change into a yukata, lie down on naturally heated sand in a dim, tiled hall and an attendant shovels the warm sand over you for 10 to 15 minutes until you are sweating gently, then you rinse and use the regular bath. The surrounding Motomachi lanes are full of Showa-era bars and snack signs, and the city-run building also hosts a small rest room upstairs where you can cool down.
Highlights
- 1938 wooden bathhouse with a curved karahafu gable, a registered cultural property
- Hot sand bath where attendants bury you to the neck in naturally heated sand
- ¥300 ordinary bath that is a genuine neighbourhood local's soak
- Soaring timber lobby and upstairs tatami rest room
- Steps from the Takegawara Koji arcade and Showa-era back alleys
Tips
- The ordinary bath has no soap or shampoo: bring your own and a small towel, or buy one at the counter
- The ordinary bath is extremely hot; ease in slowly and keep dips short
- Sand bath last reception is 21:30; evenings after 19:00 are calmer than late afternoon
- Closed the 3rd Wednesday of each month (next day if a holiday)
- Check the Beppu city site for temporary sand-bath schedule changes during pipe cleaning
Open in Google Maps · Info checked 2026-10-09
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