Japan's magnificent bathing obsession
Yuval Zohar explains why onsen still matter, plus the Aufguss World Masters, and Fall bathing festivals
When Yuval Zohar’s Towards a Nude Architecture – A Visual Compendium of Japanese Hot Springs was published, we were first on the list for a copy. This deep dive into onsen history and design takes us on a journey through mineral springs and hinoki tubs, eccentric myth-imbued architecture, and soaks in forests and on wave-lashed rocks. Here, Yuval shares an excerpt charting the past, present and future of this revered, yet fragile, bathing culture. Read on for a report from Aufguss World Masters, and details of three Fall bathing festivals you can attend.
By Yuval Zohar
The story of Japan can be told through water and steam. So closely does the history of hot springs project onto Japan’s national identity, that the circle on the flag could represent a bath viewed from above. It is uniquely in Japan where onsen (hot springs) have achieved such profound status, enjoyed from antiquity to the current era almost as a reward for living with the country’s volatile geology.
The country is filled with an incredible variety of structures designed around these tapped subterranean veins, known as onsen (温泉), along with their public bathhouse counterparts sento (銭湯); from rustic thatched-roof cottages dotted around scalding sulfuric cauldrons, to ocean-side rock outcrops accessible only at low tide, verdant forests filled with vernacular soaks, and pristine baths of manicured modernity. These temples to steam and sweat – whose roots can be traced back to the earliest recorded history of ritual cleansing in Buddhism – have served as healing oases in times of war and peace, stood their ground against dogged attacks by moralizing foreign influences, and nursed the country through natural and man-made disasters to become indispensable pillars of contemporary culture. Communal bathing has managed to thrive in spite of, and at times because of, the country’s turbulent history, but now finds itself in a precarious position where it must adapt for survival in a new age.
Public bathing in the modern Japanese context started very differently from how we know it today. While onsen in the wild have been used for thousands of years, first in purification rituals of religious ceremonies, then as hidden bases for recuperating samurai, and later as testbeds for pioneering medical advances, the first public sento were originally steam-based. Known as mushiburo (蒸し風呂), these sauna-like rooms gradually gave way to the iconic water-filled tubs of the modern-day Japanese sento. The narrative of how this cultural relic not only endured, but flourished in the presence of great challenges, is filled with fascinating folkloric legends, ancient battle chronicles, and riveting personal anecdotes splashed across all periods of the country’s tumultuous history.
Bathing has even made its way onto the national calendar with puns that would make a dad blush. The number two can be shortened to fu (from futatsu 二つ, meaning two of something) and six condensed to ro (from roku, 六, the number six), when put together these make furo, the Japanese word for bath. November 26 is Good Bath Day because 11 can be read as ii (いい), meaning good, and June 26 is Outdoor Bath Day, as it sounds like the shortening of rotenburo (open-air bath). Next Friday, October 10, happens to be Public Bath Day, because 10.10 can be read as sen-to.
With such deep societal roots, it might be surprising that the future of onsen and sento is uncertain. As quaint neighborhood soaks are continually replaced by individual home baths or colossal ‘super sento,’ public bathing culture is eroding. Facing declining visitor numbers and increased privatization, the need to promote and preserve these bastions of public space has never been more crucial. Below are three bathhouses that represent a chronological cross-section of Japanese bathing, giving a peek into the past, present, and hypothetical future of this venerated national tradition.
PAST
Dogo Onsen (道後温泉)
The title of the oldest onsen in Japan is contested. The texts of Nihon Shoki (日本書紀 – The Chronicles of Japan, 720) and Engishiki Jinmyocho (延喜式神名帳 – a list of Shinto shrines compiled in 927) both reference Dogo Onsen to be among the Nihon San Kotō (日本三古湯 – Three Ancient Hot Springs of Japan). Added to this are countless stories of gods and mythical animals recuperating in springs, as well as testimonies of venerable nobility and acclaimed warlords luxuriating in ancient waters. Whether you take Dogo Onsen’s origin legends at their word – a white heron healing its injuries in the springs (now immortalized as a statue sitting atop its highest point), or the god Sukunahikona no Mikoto curing his illness through bathing – the evidence suggests that it is one of, if not the most ancient hot spring in the country, discovered around 3,000 years ago.
Dogo Onsen is perhaps the typical image that people have in mind when they picture a Japanese bathhouse. The wooden three-story main structure was first built in 1894 and is the result of several expansions and renovations, most evident in the patina of its copper roofs that are at various stages of oxidation. Many different onsen are rumored to be sources of inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 masterpiece Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) – which introduced Japanese hot spring culture to an international audience – but Dogo Onsen, with its dramatically sweeping tiled roofs, shoji lattice hallways and overflowing tubs, is widely considered the most prominent.
PRESENT
Lamune Onsen (ラムネ温泉)
Named after Japan’s ubiquitous children’s soda, ramune (pronounced lamune), Lamune Onsen’s whimsical wooden architecture, with alternating stripes of charred cedar and white mortar, could similarly be straight out of a Ghibli film. The structures were designed by Terunobu Fujimori in 2005, an architect deeply interested in the vernacular and well-known for his idiosyncratic treetop teahouses. The bathhouse wouldn’t look out of place in a quaint European town (think of Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle). But tradition is turned on its head, as each steam tower is capped by a single pine tree, like a postmodernist prank.
Fed with water from a rare effervescent source, the natural bubble baths at Lamune Onsen are the perfect match to the quirkiness of a design that slowly grows on the bather the longer they stay. This onsen is also one of the few that offers drinks mixed with the spring water, including coffee and cider, for a comprehensive cleanse both inside and out. In a country where bathhouses teeter dramatically between archaic and sleek, Lamune Onsen somehow finds itself perfectly positioned between old town and new school – balancing on a tightrope strung between two pine trees.
Stepping into the fizzing water, I was welcomed by a group of soaking Japanese seniors whose age I would almost certainly guess incorrectly (skin rejuvenation is one of the prized boons of carbonated springs). Noticing that they were sitting completely still in the water, I followed their lead and, within seconds, tiny bubbles had started covering my entire body. We sat for a while, stoically collecting our sparkling fur, which released in unison as we shook to get up, like the opening of a soda bottle.
Future
City of Steams – I ❤ 入浴 (I ❤ Nyuu Yoku)
Few New Yorkers realize that every waking moment they are walking, cycling, and driving on top of the largest steam network in existence, a convoluted matrix of underground pipes that supplies hot air to over 1,700 commercial and residential customers, heating and cooling buildings, humidifying museums, and cleansing restaurant dishes.
De rigueur at its inception, New York’s steam complex has expanded to become the creaking, hissing subterranean behemoth that keeps the city that never sleeps up and running. The iconic orange and white stacks can be spotted throughout the island. Located at strategic points to literally let off steam, they are usually the only visible signs of the hidden labyrinth of steel below. Once in a while, however, a pipe explodes, sending a violent reminder of its size and ferocity.
I Love Nyuu Yoku, meaning ‘I love to bathe’, is a proposal for a New York bathhouse heated by the underground Manhattan steam network. The façade at the ground-level entry is animated by glass shoe storage. On the rooftop, the bar has views of the skyline, and an iconic New York water tower is transformed into a private bath. In the basement, the quintessential sento mural of Mount Fuji is flipped into a giant floor mosaic with different mineral baths in its pixels.
This hybridizing of two cultures and elements, East and West, steam and water, could yield exciting social benefits in a city such as New York in the process of rediscovering its own bathing heritage. This bathing fusion could sustain and invigorate the city’s communal program, activating its transformation into the City of Steams. While this is just a sketch of one path forward, there are many lessons to be learned from Japanese bathing culture that could not only strengthen the local identity of onsen and sento, but serve as inspiration for a revival of communal bathing internationally.
State of the ゆnion (ゆ - yu, hot water)
In Japan, there are currently only about 3,000 public bathhouses remaining, a far cry from the peak in 1964 when the number was closer to 23,000. Many factors account for this sharp decrease, among them shifting societal tastes and generational preferences around privacy. Recently in Japan, there has been a clear trend of businesses looking to recontextualize the bathing experience into something theme-park adjacent with the rise of the super sento, trading mass accessibility and frictionless consumerism for a hollowing out of authentic tradition. Much more interesting and successful examples of modernization, in my opinion, are the targeted, tasteful renovations of existing bathhouses such as Koganeyu and Komaeyu in Tokyo by Schemata Architects, which refresh and extend the appeal of existing sento with the addition of saunas and beer taps, but mainly by modestly highlighting what made them great in the first place: the baths.
As Japan confronts the strain of aging bathhouse infrastructure, it is a fascinating time of renewed ambition around onsen and sento. One can hope that, as the country gazes into the profound depths of its bathing culture, it will catch a glimpse of its potential future in the reflection.
Happy 1♨︎1♨︎
Yuval Zohar, architect and designer living in the onsen town of Yugawara, Japan
@Yuval Zohar
Towards a Nude Architecture – A Visual Compendium of Japanese Hot Springs is available in bookstores worldwide
All images by Yuval Zohar unless credited otherwise.
Super-sized sauna at Aufguss World Masters 2025
There’s always a high-octane energy around the Aufguss World Masters, reports Emma O’Kelly; fairies frantically stitch their wings, towels are twirled manically on side stages, ice ball machines work overtime in preparation for the week-long contest that brings together the world’s best sauna masters.
This year, there was more buzz than ever. Crowds gathered at Aquardens thermal park near Verona to see sell-out shows, and to sit cheek-to-naked-cheek in the world’s largest sauna. With four stoves, a diameter of 16 metres, hi-tech theatre lighting and sound and a giant screen, the new sauna was inaugurated at the contest. Although there were some challenges for sauna masters in moving the steam around a sauna of this volume, it did not disappoint. The heat rose in heady peaks; five rows of 320 sweaty bathers clapped and whooped as Snow White and Popeye, along with Vikings, villains, witches and gangsters, wooed the crowds.
More than 100 sauna masters from 19 nations took part. Czech trio, Robert, Barbora and Gabor, and Dutch solo act Sigrid scooped the prizes. (No surprises there; these countries have shaped show aufguss for 20 years.) But as new nations join and cultures come together in the steam, shows will shift and synergies evolve.
The future for show aufguss is bigger: saunas, audiences, new countries, contestants. Fresh to the stage this year were the US and Canada; next year Sweden, Moldova and Ukraine. Lasse Eriksen, vice president of Aufguss World Masters, says: “Show aufguss has huge potential. Combining all the elements – the thermal journey with a strong concept and good storytelling is not easy.”
Text: Emma O’Kelly, journalist and author
@emmaeokelly
Happenings
Bathe-ing, Washington DC
Therme Group presents Bathe-ing, a sauna village pop-up that reimagines bathing as a block party, a civic ritual, and a collective reset. Guided sauna programming and workshops range from mindful silence to venik rituals, breathwork, sound journeys, and storytelling—inviting new ways to connect with yourself and the community.
Entry to Bathe-ing DC is free and open to all ages (Sauna Village 13 years+).
Sandlot Anacostia, Washington D.C, October 18-19
Toronto Sauna Festival
A full day of sauna, cold plunge, yoga and breathwork.
Evergreen Brickworks, Toronto, October 18
Sauna Fest 2025
The 20-day festival of sauna is back in Bucharest with 800 unique sauna performances, 100 sauna masters, a sauna village and cold plunge sessions.
Therme Bucharest, October 6-26
News
Can an Ancient Ritual Fix Our Loneliness Problem?
The New York Times, October 1, 2025
No phones, no street clothing. The artist Rashid Johnson has returned to the Russian and Turkish Baths with Amiri Baraka’s incendiary play “Dutchman”.
Half Naked and Sweating With Strangers, for Art
The New York Times, September 25, 2025
Inside China’s luxe bathhouse boom: From caviar buffets to Chanel scents
Jing Daily, August 28, 2025
Are Saunas the Latest Office Perk?
Financial Times, September 30, 2025
One last thing
TROSTEN sauna which was featured in our Bathe like a local: Oslo post has been included in TIME Magazine’s annual list of the World’s Greatest Places.
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I so enjoy reading your work. Quality. 👌
I AM SO HAPPY I FOUND THIS SUBSTACK!!!!