{"id":31545,"date":"2026-05-29T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/31545\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:51:08","slug":"hidden-wonders-osaka-bathhouse-with-a-rare-castle-mosaic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/31545\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Wonders | Osaka Bathhouse with a Rare Castle Mosaic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nestled among shrines and temples in Osaka&#8217;s Fukushima Ward, the public bathhouse Tatsumi Onsen offers visitors a soothing escape beneath a sweeping mural of Osaka Castle. Such murals are part of what gives public baths their unique atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Just inside the entrance, guests are welcomed by an old chandelier. In the bathing area stands a towering image of Osaka Castle&#8217;s main keep, not a painted mural but an enormous mosaic assembled from countless small tiles.<\/p>\n<p>Haruko Sakamoto, 77, runs Tatsumi Onsen with her husband. She explains that similar castle murals were created around 1985 at five bathhouses across Osaka Prefecture, including her family&#8217;s former bathhouse in Ikeda City. Today, only this one survives in its original form.<\/p>\n<p>The interior was designed to complement the mosaic, with a rich variety of tiles throughout and thoughtful details such as stained glass visible from the reclining bath. The entire space feels like a work of art, with something new to notice at every turn.<\/p>\n<p>A Popular Local Specialty<\/p>\n<p>Tatsumi Onsen has also become known for Sakamoto&#8217;s boiled eggs, cooked to a perfectly soft texture and served with a selection of salts, such as bamboo salt. The price has remained unchanged for 30 years: \u00a550 each (about $0.30).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I started both the mural and the boiled eggs because I wanted to make customers happy,&#8221; Sakamoto says. Some visitors travel long distances just to experience these special touches.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"899\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/NRPVPCWANNMXFFCDX53CSPEV4Y-e1780045596238-1024x899.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-391859\" style=\"width:600px\"  \/>Tatsumi Onsen&#8217;s famous boiled eggs.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED:<\/p>\n<p>(Read the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sankei.com\/article\/20260526-ZFK4JZ6NEZOXPO65FSRLL2N4WA\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">in Japanese<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Author: The Sankei Shimbun<\/p>\n<p>\t\tContinue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nestled among shrines and temples in Osaka&#8217;s Fukushima Ward, the public bathhouse Tatsumi Onsen offers visitors a soothing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5322,9758,15549,8,85,5324,12542,4678],"class_list":["post-31545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-osaka","tag-bathhouse","tag-hidden-wonders","tag-hidden-wonders-of-japan","tag-japan","tag-osaka","tag-public-bathhouse","tag-retro","tag-sento"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}