Dogo Yamanote Hotel Onsen

Dogo Yamanote Hotel Onsen is located in Matsuyama on Shikoku island, adjacent to the Dogo Onsen district—one of Japan's oldest hot spring resorts, whose main bathhouse Dogo Onsen Honkan, built in 1894, is believed to have inspired the bathhouse in Hayao Miyazaki's celebrated anime 'Spirited Away' and holds national status as an Important Cultural Property. The bicarbonate-rich thermal waters of the Dogo area are valued for skin-softening alkaline properties and the calming effects that have made Matsuyama's onsen culture famous throughout Japan since the Nara period over 1,300 years ago, when it was favoured by Japanese emperors seeking restoration. Matsuyama's identity as the city of haiku master Masaoka Shiki and the setting of Soseki Natsume's beloved novel 'Botchan' gives Dogo Yamanote Hotel Onsen a literary and cultural resonance that goes far beyond thermal bathing into the heart of modern Japanese cultural and literary identity.