Tamatsukuri Onsen Matsue
- Location
- Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
- Water type
- sodium chloride
- Temperature
- 39 °C
- pH
- 7.3
Water profile
Relaxing — deep, immediate muscle release.
Loaded with major ions — the essential minerals (Ca, Mg).
Dense, salty water — you float without effort.
Tamatsukuri Onsen lies beside the Tamayu River in the outskirts of Matsue, the elegant castle city of Shimane Prefecture on the San'in coast of western Honshu. Among Japan's oldest documented hot spring resorts—mentioned in eighth-century court poetry—Tamatsukuri occupies a leafy riverside corridor where traditional inns back directly onto the slow-moving river and the gentle hills beyond.
The sodium-chloride spring waters flow at 39 °C, a comfortably enveloping warmth, and their neutral pH of 7.3 makes them unusually approachable. The chloride content gives the water a subtle saline mineral quality and a pleasant residual warmth after bathing. Tamatsukuri's particular fame rests on its association with the classical Japanese notion of skin-enhancing waters, and the resort's graceful riverside setting—especially beautiful when the cherry blossoms or autumn maples reflect in the Tamayu—has made it a lasting emblem of San'in elegance.