# Onsen Bathhouse

> Four steaming baths around a koi pond, with a lantern-lit restaurant upstairs.

https://narunest.com/portfolio/onsen-bathhouse

Style: Venue, Botanical

The idea: 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 festival masks 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

Photographs:
- The bath hall from above — four wooden baths at two heights around a koi pond, purple and gold foliage growing from the water, and an oval screen with two otters under a round window at the back (caption: The four baths, around the pond.)
- The bath hall under a large white paper lantern, cherry blossoms arching over the two upper baths, waterfalls falling down the wall behind and steam rising off the water
- The bath hall from the stairs — a lower bath with candles at its foot, the koi pond beyond it, and open wooden stairs rising to the tatami platform above (caption: The hall, from the stairs.)
- The bath hall seen wide — stairs up to the tatami platforms, the upper baths on their wooden bases, waterfalls and the round window at the back, green curtains at the edges
- Waterfalls pouring from a plant-hung trellis ceiling past cherry blossoms and the round window, the upper bath platforms below them (caption: Water, steam and blossom, from the ceiling down.)
- An upper bath and a lower bath from the stairs side, steam rising off both, the koi pond and its rocks between them and a lit round window beyond
- The koi pond at floor level — koi and lily pads in dark water, rocks around the edge, purple and gold trees behind and the otter screen lit beneath the round window
- The Odder Otter screen — an oval panel with two otters silhouetted on it under a round window, framed by purple and gold trees, a waterfall behind and red lilies on the pond in front (caption: The otter screen, echoing the window above it.)
- An upper bath with a cherry blossom tree arching over the water, a waterfall falling behind, a wooden bucket and a red cushion on the tatami beside it (caption: Blossom, over the upper bath.)
- The upper bath seen from its platform — cherry blossoms at the right, green curtains and a hanging lantern beyond, and the lower baths and a flower-lined bench below
- A lower bath on a stone base with a stack of lit candles at its corner, a korpokkur moss ball in a dish at the pond's edge, the stairs and the round window beyond (caption: Candles at the foot of the bath.)
- The lower bath and the koi pond seen past a potted plant, a korpokkur moss ball in a dish on the rocks and the stairs rising at the right
- Lit candles in close-up beside the stone base of a bath, the pond rocks and the otter screen glowing behind them
- Light moving on the water of a lower bath, koi in the pond beside it, and a red bench under hanging vines and a wall lantern at the back
- The bath hall from above — a red bench in a bed of white flowers under a wall of hanging vines, a green curtain, and the baths and pond in front
- A red bench in a bed of white flowers, hanging vines on the wall above it, a paper lantern either side and bamboo at each end (caption: The bench under the vines.)
- A folding fan with a red tassel hung on the wall by the entrance, the wooden floor and the bath hall opening out beyond it
- The private bath nook — a bath with its own rock waterfall, a moon and stars ornament glowing on the wall, two paper lanterns and a pair of otter-shaped cushions on the tatami (caption: The private bath, and its moon.)
- The private nook's bench — a red-cushioned bench wrapped around a round window, cherry blossoms growing over it, a lantern beside it and the bath's rock waterfall at the right
- The private bath from the other side, steam on the water, the rock waterfall behind it and the blossom-wrapped round window bench at the left
- The entrance bench — a red-cushioned bench wrapped around a round window with cherry blossoms growing over it, under a staircase, a wall of small drawers beside it (caption: The matching bench, at the entrance.)
- The entrance wall — tall chests of small drawers, a rack of hanging kimono, a folding fan on the wall and red lanterns along the ceiling beam
- The restaurant upstairs — red lanterns along a wooden beam, a carved pillar with vines, a round window, green patterned walls and a hotpot on a low table in the foreground with an Odder Otter lantern glowing beside it (caption: Upstairs, under the lanterns.)
- The restaurant from above — round low tables on patterned rugs, folding screens between them, round windows lit along the wall and a tasselled lantern overhead
- The restaurant — folding screens, a carved pillar, a round window and a green doorway beyond, a round table laid with sushi in front
- A green doorway under a latticed transom, a round window beside it, hanging vines with pink flowers above and red lanterns either side
- A lit fireplace and a red couch beside an ink-painted screen, low tables laid with sushi and cushions on patterned rugs in front (caption: Red against the green, by the fire.)
- A large ink-painted screen with a hanging scroll and two lanterns above it, a red couch at the left and a low table with a rice-cake ornament and a lamp in front
- The ink-painted screen close up — a low black table with an open book, a scroll and a stacked rice-cake ornament topped with a mandarin, red lanterns either side and a sake barrel to the right
- A plate of food and a teapot on a round table, a red lantern, a sake barrel and the ink screen behind (caption: Detail, at table height.)
- Rice balls and a cup of tea on a round table beside a flower arrangement, red lanterns and folding screens beyond
- The restaurant from a corner — folding screens, red lanterns, a round table on a patterned rug and the ink screen at the back
- The garden outside — stepping stones across the lawn, a raked gravel garden edged in hedging, stone lanterns and a paper lantern in the foreground (caption: Outside, in daylight.)
- A stepping-stone path past stone lanterns and flowering hedges to a bench under a red parasol, a stall of festival masks beside it
- The garden from above — tiled roofs, the stepping-stone path, the red parasol and the mask stall, wisteria hanging beyond the wall (caption: The garden, from the roof.)