Beppu city publishes a count of 2,831 hot spring sources and a total discharge of 101,856 litres a minute. On the same page the city prints the national ranking by prefecture, in which second-placed Kagoshima has 2,735 sources, so this one city has more sources on paper than any prefecture other than its own. Both figures are dated the end of March 2025, but they come from two different publications, and the comparison between them is made here rather than by either publisher.
The rest of what a visitor needs to decide is published in the same plain way: which spring types occur here, what the seven hells charge and for how long the ticket lasts, and what the city’s own bathhouses cost.
One city holds 2,831 of the sources, and the prefecture holds 5,094
The city’s hot spring data page, updated on 29 May 2026 when it was read, gives the national ranking from the Environment Ministry’s survey of hot spring use for the 2024 financial year, counted at the end of March 2025.
| Rank | Prefecture | Sources | Share of the national total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oita | 5,094 | 18.2 per cent |
| 2 | Kagoshima | 2,735 | 9.8 per cent |
| 3 | Hokkaido | 2,249 | 8.0 per cent |
| 4 | Shizuoka | 2,185 | 7.8 per cent |
| 5 | Kumamoto | 1,339 | 4.8 per cent |
The same page gives the discharge ranking from the same survey: Oita 293,610 litres a minute at 11.9 per cent of the national total, then Hokkaido at 189,888, Kagoshima at 167,150, Aomori at 139,808 and Kumamoto at 129,598. Beppu’s own line sits below both tables, attributed to the prefecture’s eastern health office report for the 2025 financial year: 2,831 sources and 101,856 litres a minute, again at the end of March 2025.
Setting the city’s line against the prefecture’s gives two ratios, both calculated here. Beppu’s 2,831 sources are 55.6 per cent of Oita’s 5,094, and its 101,856 litres a minute are 34.7 per cent of the prefecture’s 293,610. The city holds over half the sources but about a third of the flow, which is a difference in the size of the sources rather than in their number. Because the city figure and the prefecture figure come from separate publications, neither ratio appears in either document.
Seven of the ten posted spring types occur here, and three do not
Japan’s display rules recognise ten spring types for the notice a bathhouse must post. The city states that seven of them have been confirmed within Beppu: simple spring, chloride, bicarbonate, sulfate, iron-bearing, sulfur and acidic. It then names the three that have not been confirmed: carbon dioxide, iodine-bearing and radioactive. Naming both sides of the ten is what makes the list usable: a bather can read the posted notice at any bathhouse in the city and know which three types it will not say. The note on the monkeys that bathe in a hot spring in Nagano covers a quite different use of the same geology.
The seven hells share one ticket, priced at 2,400 yen and valid for two days
The association that runs the hells sells a combined viewing ticket at every one of the seven gates, and the price table has been in force since 1 February 2025.
| Ticket | Adult, high school and above | Child, elementary and junior high |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | 2,400 yen | 1,200 yen |
| Group of 20 or more | 2,000 yen | 1,000 yen |
| Disability rate, individual | 1,200 yen | 600 yen |
| Disability rate, group of 20 or more | 1,000 yen | 500 yen |
School groups, which must book, pay on a separate scale: 1,200 yen for a high school student, 800 yen for a junior high school student and 700 yen for an elementary school student. Kindergarten and nursery groups pay the infant group rate of 500 yen, also with a booking. Three of the printed prices are the same 1,200 yen: the individual child price and the individual disability adult price inside the table, and the school group price for a high school student below it.
The ticket rules matter as much as the price. The ticket is valid for the day of purchase and the following day, two days in all, and the purchase date is stamped on its face. Entry is once per hell, and resale is prohibited whatever the purpose. Group reception happens only at Umi Jigoku or Chinoike Jigoku, and a disability facility must send a reduction application by fax at least a week ahead and hand over the original on the day, and anyone using the disability rate must show the disability certificate when the ticket is bought. The association also prints a coupon on its own site that takes 200 yen off the adult combined ticket and 100 yen off the child ticket. One printed sheet, or the same image shown on a phone, covers up to five people; it applies to the seven-site ticket and not to a single-site admission, payment must be in cash, it is accepted at the ticket windows of the hells and nowhere else, it cannot be used together with another coupon, and it expires on 31 March 2027. All seven sites keep the same hours, 8:00 to 17:00, and the association states that they do not close for any day of the year.
Four of the seven are designated for scenery, and four have footbaths, but only two are both
The association describes the seven as Umi Jigoku, which it puts at 98 degrees and cobalt blue, Chinoike Jigoku, coloured by iron oxide down to its steam, Tatsumaki Jigoku, which the front page calls a geyser erupting at set intervals, Shiraike Jigoku, Oniishibozu Jigoku, Oniyama Jigoku and Kamado Jigoku. A notice the Tatsumaki management posted on 15 January 2026, printed in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, qualifies the front page’s wording: this season the wait before an eruption has run longer and the length of an eruption has been unstable, changing with the season and the rainfall, so the wait can be long and the eruption short. Four of them are designated as national Places of Scenic Beauty: Umi, Chinoike, Tatsumaki and Shiraike. Four of them have footbaths: Umi, Chinoike, Oniishibozu and Kamado. Only Umi and Chinoike are on both lists, so a visitor choosing by footbath and a visitor choosing by designation overlap at two sites out of seven.
Parking is published site by site and adds up exactly: 230 spaces at Umi, 130 at Chinoike, 80 at Tatsumaki, 60 at Oniyama, 45 at Shiraike and 35 each at Oniishibozu and Kamado. Those seven figures total 615, which is the figure the association gives for the seven sites together. Bus lanes are noted at Umi, Kamado, Oniyama and Chinoike. Umi has two wheelchair-accessible toilets and three loan wheelchairs, Kamado has two loan wheelchairs and the remaining five have one each. An accessible toilet is marked at all seven, but a count is printed only for Umi, and the one at Tatsumaki has a nappy-changing sheet inside it. None of the loan wheelchairs can be reserved. Nursing rooms are listed at Umi and Kamado, and a dog run at Chinoike. Staff at Oniyama feed the crocodiles from 10:00 on Saturdays and Sundays.
A city bathhouse charges 300 yen, and its 30-visit book costs less than its 10-visit book
Takegawara Onsen, run by the city, charges 300 yen for an adult, meaning a junior high school student and above, and 100 yen for a child, with children below elementary school age free. Then the ticket books turn the arithmetic upside down. A ten-visit book costs 2,700 yen for an adult, which is the price of nine baths for ten. A thirty-visit residents’ book costs 2,500 yen for an adult, which is 200 yen less than the ten-visit book for three times the number of baths, and works out at about 83 yen a bath against 300 at the counter. Both books run for one year from the date of issue and are accepted at five city bathhouses: the ordinary bath at Takegawara, Nagaishi, Tanoyu, Hamada and Hamawaki. The children’s versions run the other way, 900 yen for ten visits and 1,800 yen for thirty, so the reversal above holds for the adult books alone. All of those ratios are divisions made here from the printed prices.
The sand bath in the same building is priced separately at 1,500 yen and is open to bathers aged 6 and over, with a ten-visit book at 13,500 yen. The ordinary bath runs 6:30 to 22:30 and the sand bath 8:00 to 22:30 with last reception at 21:30, earlier when it is busy, and eight people at a time is the sand bath’s capacity. Both close on the third Wednesday of the month, or the following day when that Wednesday is a public holiday. The city states that no reservation of any kind is taken for the municipal sand bath, by telephone or online, and that bathers come to the desk in person.
The men’s bath and the women’s bath draw different water: the city files the men’s side as a chloride spring and the women’s side as a bicarbonate spring, and it files the sand bath as a chloride spring like the men’s. The building itself dates from 1938, replacing a bathhouse founded in 1879, and it has no car park. Small items are priced at the desk: a towel at 350 yen, a bath towel at 1,200 yen, a shampoo, rinse and soap set at 100 yen, a razor at 100 yen, a hair cap at 50 yen, a toothbrush at 50 yen, seven minutes of hairdryer at 100 yen and a coin locker at 100 yen, while a washbasin is free. Cover garments for bathing are lent free of charge when reserved with the building in advance.
Sources Checked
City of Beppu — hot spring data
Confirmed that the page was updated on 29 May 2026; that the national source ranking at the end of March 2025, from the Environment Ministry’s survey of hot spring use for the 2024 financial year, is Oita 5,094 at 18.2 per cent, Kagoshima 2,735 at 9.8 per cent, Hokkaido 2,249 at 8.0 per cent, Shizuoka 2,185 at 7.8 per cent and Kumamoto 1,339 at 4.8 per cent; that the discharge ranking from the same survey is Oita 293,610 litres a minute at 11.9 per cent, Hokkaido 189,888, Kagoshima 167,150, Aomori 139,808 and Kumamoto 129,598; that Beppu’s own totals are 2,831 sources and 101,856 litres a minute at the end of March 2025, attributed to the prefecture’s eastern health office report for the 2025 financial year; and that seven of the ten posted spring types are confirmed in the city, namely simple, chloride, bicarbonate, sulfate, iron-bearing, sulfur and acidic, while carbon dioxide, iodine-bearing and radioactive are not.
https://www.city.beppu.oita.jp/sangyou/onsen/detail4.html
Beppu Jigoku Association — business information and prices
Confirmed that a combined viewing ticket covering all seven hells is sold at each of them under a price table in force since 1 February 2025; the prices of 2,400 and 1,200 yen for individuals, 2,000 and 1,000 yen for groups of 20 or more, 1,200 and 600 yen for the individual disability rate and 1,000 and 500 yen for the group disability rate; the school group prices of 1,200 yen for a high school student, 800 yen for a junior high school student and 700 yen for an elementary school student, and the infant group price of 500 yen, both requiring a booking; that the ticket is valid for the purchase date and the following day with the date stamped on its face; that entry is once per hell and resale is prohibited; that group reception is only at Umi Jigoku or Chinoike Jigoku and that a disability facility applies by fax a week ahead and submits the original on the day; that all seven keep 8:00 to 17:00 with no closing day; the parking figures of 230, 130, 80, 60, 45, 35 and 35 spaces against a stated total of about 615; the bus lanes at Umi, Kamado, Oniyama and Chinoike; the two accessible toilets and three loan wheelchairs at Umi, two loan wheelchairs at Kamado and one at each of the other five, an accessible toilet marked at all seven with a count printed only for Umi, and a nappy-changing sheet in the one at Tatsumaki; that loan wheelchairs cannot be reserved; the nursing rooms at Umi and Kamado and the dog run at Chinoike; and that a disability certificate must be shown when the ticket is bought.
https://www.beppu-jigoku.com/fee/index.html
Beppu Jigoku Association — front page description of the seven hells
Confirmed the seven names as Umi, Chinoike, Tatsumaki, Shiraike, Oniishibozu, Oniyama and Kamado; that Umi Jigoku is described as cobalt blue at 98 degrees, Chinoike as coloured by iron oxide including its steam, and Tatsumaki as a geyser erupting at set intervals; that Umi, Chinoike, Tatsumaki and Shiraike are designated national Places of Scenic Beauty; that footbaths are at Umi, Chinoike, Oniishibozu and Kamado; and that staff at Oniyama feed the crocodiles from 10:00 every Saturday and Sunday.
https://www.beppu-jigoku.com/
Beppu Jigoku Association — notice on the Tatsumaki Jigoku geyser, 15 January 2026
Read the notice images posted on this page, which carry the same text in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean: this season the geyser has been taking longer to erupt and the duration of eruptions has tended to be unstable, the change is attributed to natural conditions and varies with the season and the rainfall, and the management asks visitors to expect a long wait or a short eruption. Signed by Tatsumaki Jigoku Facility Management.
https://www.beppu-jigoku.com/news-detail.php?id=36
Beppu Jigoku Association — combined ticket coupon
Confirmed that the coupon printed on this page takes the adult, high school and above, combined ticket from 2,400 yen down by 200 yen and the child, elementary and junior high, ticket from 1,200 yen down by 100 yen; that it is a coupon for the seven-site combined ticket and cannot be used for a single-site admission; that payment must be in cash; that it is valid only at the ticket windows of the hells; that it cannot be combined with another coupon; that one sheet covers up to five people and a version shown on a smartphone is also accepted; and that it expires on 31 March 2027.
https://www.beppu-jigoku.com/discount/index.html
City of Beppu — Takegawara Onsen
Confirmed that the page was updated on 28 November 2025; the bathing charges of 300 yen for an adult meaning a junior high school student and above and 100 yen for a child with children below elementary school age free; the ten-visit book at 2,700 yen for an adult and 900 yen for a child and the residents’ thirty-visit book at 2,500 yen for an adult and 1,800 yen for a child, both valid one year from issue and accepted at the ordinary bath at Takegawara, Nagaishi, Tanoyu, Hamada and Hamawaki; the sand bath at 1,500 yen for bathers aged 6 and over with a ten-visit book at 13,500 yen; the hours of 6:30 to 22:30 for the ordinary bath and 8:00 to 22:30 for the sand bath with last reception at 21:30 and a capacity of eight at a time; the closing day of the third Wednesday or the following day when it is a holiday; that no reservation of any kind is taken for the municipal sand bath; that the men’s bath is filed as a chloride spring, the women’s as a bicarbonate spring and the sand bath as a chloride spring; that the present building dates from 1938 and the bathhouse was founded in 1879; that there is no car park; and the item prices of 350, 1,200, 100, 100, 50, 50, 100 and 100 yen for a towel, bath towel, shampoo, rinse and soap set, razor, hair cap, toothbrush, seven minutes of hairdryer and a coin locker, with a washbasin free and bathing cover garments lent free on prior reservation.
https://www.city.beppu.oita.jp/sisetu/shieionsen/detail4.html
Last updated: September 2026
