Photo by そらみみ (Soramimi), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇯🇵 Japan · Oita
♨ Temperature
80°C
⛰ Altitude
450 m
⚗ pH
8.2
💧 TDS
420 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
45 L/s
📅 Established
733
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Yufuin lies in a quiet mountain basin at 450 metres, overlooked by the twin peaks of Mount Yufu. Unlike Beppu's dramatic volcanic displays, Yufuin offers a more intimate onsen experience — a town of small ryokan, art museums, cafes, and boutique shops connected by a willow-lined main street. The spring water is mildly alkaline and rich in sodium bicarbonate. Lake Kinrin, fed by warm spring water, generates a characteristic morning mist that has made Yufuin a beloved subject of Japanese landscape photography.
| Sodium Bicarbonate | 280 mg/L |
| Silica | 68 mg/L |
| Chloride | 95 mg/L |
| Calcium | 42 mg/L |
Yufuin's springs are mentioned in the Bungo Fudoki geographic records of 733 AD. The town developed its distinctive character in the 1970s when local innkeepers deliberately chose small-scale, culturally oriented tourism over mass development.
Yufuin hosts the annual Yufuin Film Festival each August, one of Japan's oldest independent cinema events. The town's architecture reflects a deliberate blend of Japanese farmhouse aesthetics and European alpine influences.
Yufuin's spring basin is protected under Aso-Kuju National Park regulations that prohibit large-scale resort development and cap borehole drilling depth.