Tosen Goshobo

A shadowy, designer-restored wooden inn with centuries of history and a half-mixed bath of rust-red kinsen water — adored for its staff, divisive for its bath and its creaks

Goshobo traces itself to the Kamakura era, took its name from a stay by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and has hosted Tanizaki, Yosano Akiko and Ito Hirobumi. Since 1986 the designer Kosuke Watanuki has shaped its look — dim, tactile, 'In Praise of Shadows' interiors across three wooden wings from the early-to-mid Showa era, the oldest a registered cultural property. It has just 16 rooms, and on one major Japanese site it averages 4.9 across 366 reviews with perfect scores for dinner and service; guests praise staff who remember birthdays, speak foreign languages and drive you to the station. The bath is the talking point: rust-red kinsen water, iron-rich and very salty, flowing straight from the source into a half-open-air bath where the men's and women's sides meet across rocks, so couples can chat — 'you can see each other's faces', as the inn puts it. Some love it; others found it old-fashioned, unsettling or cold. The other complaints are about the building: thin walls, creaking floors and footsteps from above, four floors of stairs with no lift, and rooms too dim to read in. Dinner is Tajima beef seared over straw and fish from Akashi; breakfast, black-bean tofu simmered over charcoal. Another site's 4.33 across 312 reviews includes a notable tail of disappointed guests.