The Souyu Bathhouse sits in the middle of the Wakura Hot Spring or Onsen grounds.

Currently in its 7th incarnation, the first building was built in 1899 and, over the span of 100 years, was rebuilt 7 times. This can only be attributed to the nature of Wakura Onsen itself.

Wakura Onsen is known for two major characteristics. First is the fact that the water, which reaches 90℃ or 194°F, is hot enough to boil “onsen tamago,” or eggs boiled in the minerals of onsen water. Due to the high concentration of salt in the waters, the eggs themselves become salty. The baths in Wakura actually have the 4th highest concentration of salt in all of the onsen in Japan. After taking a dip in this particular onsen, if you were to try to use soap to rinse off, the soap would no longer foam up against your skin. The high concentration of salt and other components in the water counters the chemicals in the soap itself.

But this saltiness is actually one of the benefits of the bath itself; it sterilizes your skin and scars, tightens your pores, and stimulates more beautiful and clear skin. Drinking its waters helps your internal organs and helps with constipation.

In any case, the fact that the current building is in its 7th incarnation shows how easily the facilities could be damaged. If this is the case now, it must have been even more difficult in the past seeing as the history of Wakura Onsen dates back over 1200 years.

In its first incarnation, the Souyu building was not the first bathhouse in Wakura, which has had bathhouses since long ago. The first bath house “Yuzemaya,” was a crude shed that came about when “Yumoto” was still the small island of Yushima floating out at sea. Later on, when a bridge was made to connect the island to the mainland, the bathhouse became a women’s bathhouse called “Yuzaya.” As time continued, the island was connected to the mainland, first by a bridge, and then through land reclamation, and the first generation of “Souyu” was created.

Let’s jump headfirst into the onsen town of Wakura Onsen.

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