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Yakushima NP, Kagoshima
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At high tide, the natural baths disappear underwater. They re-emerge around low tide, and Yakushima Town says bathing is possible for roughly 2 hours on either side of low tide.
Local history traces Yakushima’s earliest written hot-spring reference to 1599: an inscription erected in 1729 recounts that samurai Nishimura Tokiyasu came to the island for hot-spring treatment and died at Hirauchi.
Hirauchi’s 46.5°C spring rises along a geological fault. Geologists suggest that groundwater travels deep underground, is warmed by Yakushima’s granite, then finds its way back to the surface.
The spring source is 46.5°C, while bathing water is reported at 38–40°C and changes with the tide. Here, the sea’s daily rise and fall helps shape the warmth of the soak.
This is more than a visitor attraction: Hirauchi’s community manages the spring, and a local village-tour site notes that some residents use it so regularly that their homes have no bathtub.
The tidal bath has a July festival of its own. The village says it celebrates Hirauchi and prays for bathers’ safety; at the 2024 edition, local children took to the stage.
