At Maruhon Inn, a 400-year-old bathhouse and hotel, you can melt away your stress by soaking in a great wooden bath, filled with aromatic water from the nearby Sawatari hot springs.

Faced with a dwindling clientele, the inn asked KuboTsushima Architects to redesign its bathhouse in order to “increase the sustainability of a long-established hot spring inn.” The resulting wooden chamber, with gentle light streaming in at angles from slats in the ceiling, creates a welcoming space that invites guests to relax and rejuvenate.