The Last Mixed Bath Springs
A Quiet Hot Spring Archive
Before Japan’s mixed-gender hot springs fade away, we want to record their silence. One pool, mountains, steam, and almost no words.
The Last Mixed Bath Springs is a small film and photo archive project about the last remaining mixed-gender hot springs in rural Japan. Before they disappear from maps and travel guides, we want to document their water, landscape, etiquette, and quiet time, and share them with the world through a Kickstarter-backed archive.
This page explains what we want to preserve, how we plan to record it, and how backers can help us complete a careful, respectful first phase of the archive.
Not wellness marketing — a vanishing way of bathing.
For some travelers, mixed-gender hot springs are a curiosity or even a shock. For people who live nearby, they are simply part of the daily landscape — a place where families, couples, and strangers share quiet water under the same sky.
What this project is trying to preserve
Many of these baths are closing or changing into separate men/women facilities. We want to leave a precise, respectful record before this form of bathing disappears.
- Many famous mixed baths in major resorts have already closed.
- Most remaining baths are hidden in rural valleys and small villages.
- Often maintained by small family-run inns.
- Too delicate to be filmed in a loud, careless way.
Our focus is on steam, rocks, snow, paths, buildings, and etiquette — not on people’s bodies, and not on nightlife.
Quiet rural onsen culture
Outdoor hot spring baths surrounded by mountains and trees are more than scenery. They are a slow way of using time, in water that feels shared rather than private.
- Steam, rocks, snow, and the feeling of sharing a silent pool.
- Mountain valleys, riverside baths, old wooden inns.
- Made for one or two people at a time, not for large groups.
We treat these places as cultural spaces, not luxuries — closer to small shrines than to resort pools.
Outdoor onsen · Riverside and forest pools
Some mixed baths sit beside rivers or in mountain forests, where snow, rain, and mist are part of the experience.
- Natural stone pools, not resort-style design.
- Silence broken only by water and wind.
- Often unlit at night or lit only with soft lamps.
Old ryokan · Wooden inns & tiny changing rooms
Many mixed baths belong to small inns that have been run for decades, with narrow corridors, handwritten signs, and simple changing spaces.
- Architecture closer to a family home than a resort.
- Rules explained in polite, handwritten Japanese.
- Atmosphere shaped by respect rather than luxury.
Mixed space · Shared water, quiet distance
Mixed baths require etiquette: knowing where to sit, how to enter, and how to share space with people of different ages and genders.
- Rules that are rarely written in English.
- Locals and regulars who quietly maintain the atmosphere.
- A balance between openness and privacy.
Our archive will pay close attention to these invisible rules, without exposing individual guests.
Who we are making this archive for.
This project is not for people looking for party pools or resort selfies. It is for those who feel that slow, quiet experiences deserve documentation just as much as famous landmarks.
Lovers of hot springs and bathing culture
If you care about the history and future of bathing culture, mixed-gender springs are a fragile and important part of that story.
- Interested in how people bathe, not only where.
- See onsen as a cultural practice, not just a service.
- Want respectful, well-researched documentation.
People who enjoy quiet retreats
If crowded resorts and loud group trips are not for you, these quiet baths might feel like a missing piece of the map.
- Prefer one- or two-person trips into nature.
- Look for silence, darkness, and stars, not nightlife.
- Appreciate places where nothing much “happens”.
Supporters of cultural preservation
If you believe that small, vulnerable traditions should be recorded before they disappear, this project is for you.
- Interested in everyday cultural practices.
- Want to support respectful, small-scale documentaries.
- Like helping independent creators archive what big media ignores.
What we will record, and how.
In the first phase of The Last Mixed Bath Springs, we plan to create a compact archive combining film, sound, photography, and short texts focused on a small number of carefully chosen baths.
4K film sequences
We will visit a limited selection of mixed baths in rural regions such as Tohoku and Nagano, with the full permission of inns and local communities. The camera will focus on landscape, water, and time, not on people’s bodies.
- Exterior shots: snow, rivers, forests, night sky.
- Approach paths, changing rooms, and entrances.
- Water surfaces, steam, and light at different times of day.
Environmental sound recordings
We will record high-quality audio: water flow, echoing footsteps on wet stone, cicadas, wind in trees, and the distant sound of voices from the inn.
- Short ambient tracks meant for headphone listening.
- Focused on the feeling of being half-immersed in water.
- Selected tracks made available as digital rewards.
Photo + micro-essay book
Each bath will be documented with still photographs and a short “micro-essay”: a few paragraphs about its location, rules, atmosphere, and local history.
- Digital photo book in PDF format.
- English as the main language, with key Japanese terms preserved.
- Structured so each bath feels like a small story.
Online access and long-term vision
Selected material will be shared online and connected with other “quiet Japan” projects, such as standing soba bars and small sake bars.
- A dedicated page on konyokuonsen.com.
- Short films for YouTube and other platforms.
- Possibility to expand to other quiet bathing traditions.
Goal of Phase 1: to create a respectful, atmospheric record of a limited number of baths, rather than a long, shallow list of locations.
Funding goal and how we plan to use it.
For the first phase of The Last Mixed Bath Springs, we are preparing a Kickstarter target around US$10,000.
Target & priorities
Our aim is not to visit every remaining bath, but to do slow, careful work with a realistic scope. A goal of US$10,000 allows us to travel modestly, film and record with care, and complete the archive without rushing.
- Small crew (1–2 people) to remain unobtrusive.
- Enough days to stay at each inn and build trust.
- Time for editing, grading, writing, and layout.
This site is a pre-launch information page. Final numbers and timelines will be confirmed on the official Kickstarter campaign.
Frequently asked questions.
Our priority is respect and privacy. We will focus on landscape, architecture, and water. If people appear, it will be with clear permission and in a way that does not reveal faces or personal details.
No. This project treats mixed baths as cultural and environmental spaces, not as erotic content. The mood is closer to a nature documentary than to tourism advertising or nightlife media.
We are considering a small number of physical rewards, such as printed photo postcards or a limited zine. However, the core rewards will be digital to reduce waste and shipping impact.
Both. The Kickstarter page and this LP are in English, but the archive is meant for people who love hot springs and quiet travel from inside and outside Japan. The photo book will be in English with important Japanese terms preserved.
The Last Mixed Bath Springs is part of a broader effort to archive quiet, vanishing experiences in Japan — such as standing soba bars and small sake bars. Each project is independent but connected by the same philosophy: documenting places designed for one or two people at a time.
“There used to be a mixed bath here in this valley.”
One day, someone might say that while standing in front of a closed inn or an empty riverside. When that moment comes, we want there to be more than a sentence — we want there to be an archive.
If you have ever felt calm in hot water under open sky, if you have ever wished certain places would never change, this project is for you.
The Last Mixed Bath Springs is a small attempt to give these fragile spaces the careful documentation usually reserved for famous sights.