Dōgo Onsen

One of the oldest hot springs in Japan, in the city of Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture, with a history stretching back over a thousand years. The springs appear in the Man’yōshū, written around 759, and by legend Prince Shōtoku took the waters here. They were the favourite retreat of the writer Natsume Sōseki while he was teaching near Matsuyama, and in his loosely autobiographical novel Botchan the springs are the one place the narrator likes in the whole area. The public bathhouse, built in 1894 on three levels for capacity, is still busy in the early evening before dinner.