Kappa Onsen

A drained bath sits in the centre of the Kappa Onsen at Kinugawa Kan. The bath is large and rectangular, tiled in pale stone, sloping down to a drain that no longer carries any water. Above it, the original arched windows still hold most of their glass, casting daylight onto the empty pool. The walls around the bath are streaked from long-since-evaporated steam, the paint peeling in patches where moisture got in. There are no fittings left. The taps and pipework have been pulled out at some point, and the holes in the tile are unpatched.

The Kappa Onsen was a public-bath wing of Kinugawa Kan, named for the kappa, a river spirit of Japanese folklore. Its baths were fed by the thermal springs that gave Kinugawa its name and its trade. Guests of the hotel bathed here, and so did walk-in visitors who paid for a session. When the hotel closed in June 1999, the bath was drained and the water supply cut off. Decades on, the room is dry but otherwise mostly intact. The arched windows are the most identifiable feature, and they're still doing what they were designed to do, which is letting light into a room that was meant to be enjoyed in daylight.