Gengabashi Hot Spring Baths

One Public Bathhouse, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 1998

Gengabashi Hot Spring Baths (源ケ橋温泉浴場, Gengahashi Onsen Yokujo) stands at 1-37-1 Hayashiji, Ikuno Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, a Showa-period public bathhouse entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 11 December 1998. It is a registered property rather than a designated one.

The quantity is one building.

The structure is timber, two-storeyed, tiled, with a floor area of 343 square metres. The date field reads early Showa and the year field about 1935.

Divided into Men's and Women's Sides by the Attendant's Seat

One building is divided left and right at a single point in the middle.

The Agency records the plan divided into men's and women's sides on either side of the attendant's seat. That raised seat at the entrance is where fees are taken, with a view over both changing rooms.

The baths themselves, it continues, have been altered from time to time, but the arrangement of the changing rooms and bathing rooms survives well.

The tubs have been worked on; the places for undressing and washing keep their form. The record sets down what changed and what did not.

At Takegawara Onsen, the baths are below and a great matted room with alcove and shelves is above.

This bathhouse also has a hall upstairs. A regional heritage guide says it once served as a dance hall, for billiards and as a public dining room.

Western Windows with Statues Under a Tiled Roof

Beneath a Japanese roof, Western ornament is set.

The Agency records a roof of brown pantiles, and on the upper floor at the front, Western-style windows with statues, and round windows.

Pantiles are ordinary roof tiles of wave-shaped section. Under such a roof, Western windows run across the upper front.

The regional guide records a pair of figures of the Statue of Liberty on the upper part of the building. These are taken to be the statues of the record.

At Uno Pharmacy, green Spanish tiles sit on the parapet: a Western roofing material used on the front of a town shop.

Here the Japanese tiled roof stays as it is, and Western windows and statues are placed on the front.

Recorded as in Use, and Later Closed

What the record describes and what stands now are not the same.

The Agency closes that it is a fine example of a timber public bathhouse in a town, and that it is widely used. It was registered in 1998.

The regional guide records that at its height it had more than a thousand bathers a day, but that as baths at home became common its customers fell away, and it closed in 2019. It is now used from time to time for events.

The guide also records that it was built in 1937, stood unused for its first 5 years, and was then leased and opened by the father of the present owner.

At Ojikakei, a path was closed for a period. Present conditions not in the record need checking before a visit.

Here a bathhouse in use at registration ceased to serve as one 21 years later.

Visiting

The address is given as 1-37-1 Hayashiji, Ikuno Ward, Osaka City. The regional guide gives 1-5-33 Hayashiji.

The date is given as about 1935 by the Agency and as 1937 by the regional guide: a difference of some 2 years between sources.

It is a two-storeyed timber building with a floor area of 343 square metres.

It no longer operates as a bathhouse, so any opening or events follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.

No owner is recorded.