Dogo Onsen

Dogo Onsen ♨️ expresses the Meiji Era (1868 – 1912)’s old-fashioned charm at the foot of hills located in the north-east of Matsuyama. The area is centered around Dogo Onsen Honkan, the great bath house, and gathers dozens of hotels 🏨 and ryokan inns, also providing hot spring 🌸 baths to their customers, covered shopping streets and attractions themed on Natsume Soseki’s novel Botchan.

Thousand years old hot springs

Probably the oldest in Japan, Dogo Onsen’s hot springs have been known for 3,000 years and are mentioned in the Man'yoshu poetry anthology in 759. According to the legend, the sources were discovered after observing a heron healing an injury by bathing in the water. These waters are renowned for their skincare properties and especially for giving a softer skin. The imperial family even has their own bath facility and is known to have visited here at least since the 6th century.

Nowadays, it is possible to bath pretty much at any time of the day in one of the 3 public bath facilities opened to the public:

• Dogo Onsen Honkan, the area’s iconic bath house, was built in 1894 in the purest traditional style with wood and tatamis, and designated Important Cultural Property in 1994. It is said to have inspired Hayao Miyazaki in the creation of Spirited Away (2001). After undergoing several years of renovations and partial closing between 2019 and 2024, Honkan is now fully open since 2024, July 11, almost 6 months before the scheduled end of the renovation works.

2 secondary bath houses stand about a hundred meters away from Honkan:

• Tsubaki no Yu, a white concrete structure that reminds of old warehouses; and, just next to it,
• Asuka no Yu, a red and white architecture designed to recall the style of the Asuka period (538 – 710), as an homage to prince Shotoku Taishi that bathed here.

Towels and yukata 👘 are available for rent, as well as snacks and drinks.

Japanese-style vacation

Dogo Onsen thermal resort is a place to relax, where tourists stroll around leisurely simply dressed in yukata. The shotengai shopping street Haikara-dori is the main way between Dogo Onsen station and Honkan. It is lined with cafes and restaurants, but also shops selling miscellaneous items for souvenirs: postcards, trinkets, mikan mandarin flavored sweets, the local specialty, Imabari towels, and various plushies and accessories picturing Mikyan, the town’s mascot (a mix of a dog and a mikan).

The small station is hosted in a building displaying an early 20th century style, and its surroundings are sprinkled with references to the novel Botchan (published in 1906) with:

• Botchan Ressha, the replica of a steam locomotive. A themed train tour also travels between Dogo Onsen and Matsuyama’s city center.
• Botchan Karakuri Clock, that enlivens every hour between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. with the characters of the novel.

Visitors who love traditional culture can walk about 20 minutes to reach Ishite-ji, the 51th temple on the Shikoku pilgrimage trail. Like the thermal resort, the sacred grounds is imbued with an informal atmosphere. Tall trees shelter its many statuettes and colorful pavilions.

Isaniwa-jinja shrine is overlooking from the heights of Dogo Onsen. Its 135 steps stairway provides quietness and a beautiful view on the city. Its main pavilion was built in the Hachiman-zukuri style and forms a sort of cloister gallery where visitors can admire giant ema plates and mikoshi on display.

Dogo Onsen is the ideal place to tune out and unwind. The destination is even more enjoyable when staying the Japanese way, that is to say on a 2-nights stay at a ryokan inn. The day is then filled with multiple bath times, meals, and day-trips, like the visit of Matsuyama Castle 🏯 or of the other temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage. Excursions to Imabari City, for its authentic castle and its towel craft, to Tobe, specializing in ceramics, or to Uchiko for its traditional streetscape, are also enjoyable.