Onsen Bathhouse
Four steaming baths around a koi pond, with a lantern-lit restaurant upstairs.
A bathhouse out of Spirited Away — the film's reds and greens, its whimsy, and the comfort of a long soak.
The reference is Spirited Away, and so is the palette: the film's red and green, kept subdued, and the film's whimsy sitting alongside the comfort of the bathhouse itself. Downstairs the green leads, with pink cherry blossom as the accent; upstairs the reds come forward against the green walls. The proportions are held in balance throughout, and the whole place reads as calm.
The bath hall is the focal point. Four baths sit at different heights around a koi pond, and stairs climb to tatami platforms with cushions beside the two upper ones. Colourful foliage grows out of the pond. Behind it, an Odder Otter screen echoes the round window above, and curtains frame the bath area and pull it together as one space. Candles cast their glow across the wooden floor, waterfalls cascade down the back wall into the rising steam, and cherry blossoms arch over the upper baths.
On the other side of the room a single private bath sits behind a low wall. Its nook has a glowing moon and star ornament, a waterfall of its own, and a bench with cherry blossoms growing over it and wrapping around a round window. A matching bench near the entrance ties the two spaces together.
Upstairs is a restaurant. The lighting is low and supplemented by lanterns — more of them hung from the natural wooden beams of the ceiling — and with the subdued reds and greens it makes the dining space warm and welcoming. The tables are laid with elaborate meals.
Outside, stepping stones cross the lawn between stone lanterns and a raked gravel garden, past a stall of lucky cats to a bench under a red parasol.
What went into it
- The film's red and green kept subdued — green leading downstairs with pink blossom accents, red coming forward in the restaurant
- Four baths at different heights around a koi pond, as the room's focal point
- Stairs up to tatami platforms with cushions beside the upper baths
- Colourful foliage growing out of the pond, and lilies on the water
- An Odder Otter screen behind the pond, echoing the round window above it
- Curtains framing the bath area so it reads as one space
- Waterfalls down the back wall, mingling with the steam and the cherry blossoms arching over the upper baths
- Candles casting their glow across the wooden floor
- A single private bath behind a low wall, with its own waterfall and a glowing moon and star ornament
- Two matching benches with cherry blossoms wrapping round a window — one in the private nook, one at the entrance — tying the spaces together
- Lanterns hung from the natural wooden ceiling beams upstairs, supplementing the low light
Gallery