Hells of Beppu

Interesting facts

Chinoike Jigoku, the Blood Pond, is mentioned in 8th-century records such as the gazetteer of Bungo Province, where it appears as a red hot spring.

Chinoike is said to have erupted violently in 1927, throwing material about 220 metres into the air.

Mud settling at the bottom of Chinoike is made into an ointment for skin complaints, sold under the pond's own name.

Several hells were coaxed into being in the 1920s by drilling small vents to provoke bigger eruptions, until falling spring flows led to a halt on new drilling.

Underground, the water feeding Tatsumaki Jigoku reaches about 150 °C, flashing to steam below boiling point as it surges up and loses pressure.

Oniyama Jigoku began keeping crocodiles in 1923; its crocodile Ichiro lived there from 1925 to 1996 and is displayed stuffed as a claimed longevity record.

Giant Amazon water lilies grow in a warm pond beside Umi Jigoku, and at the summer Obon season children are set on their huge floating leaves.

Shiraike's water gushes out clear and only turns milky white as it cools in the open air.

Kamado Jigoku takes its name from cooking rice offerings over its steam for the festival of the local Hachiman Kamado Shrine.

Why it is worth it

The Hells of Beppu are hot springs made for looking at rather than bathing in: seven pools, ponds and vents on the hillside above Beppu, each with its own colour and character, strung together as the Jigoku Meguri, the "tour of hells". The name is old. When the scholar Kaibara Ekiken travelled through the region in the 1690s he already called these boiling, steaming places jigoku, hell, and it is easy to see why: the ground here hisses, the water runs at close to boiling point, and clouds of steam roll up among the houses and gardens of the town.

Five of the hells lie close together in the Kannawa district. Umi Jigoku, the Sea Hell, is the largest and the most beautiful, a pool of startling cobalt blue at about 98 °C that is said to have formed some 1,200 years ago in an eruption of Mount Tsurumi; its heat is used to cook onsen eggs. Oniishibōzu Jigoku is a field of grey mud that heaves up into round bubbles, likened to the shaven heads of monks. Shiraike Jigoku, the White Pond, is a pale, milky blue pool, warm enough that its heat keeps a tropical fish aquarium alongside it, while Kamado Jigoku, the Cooking-Pot Hell, has several springs, one of which shifts colour with temperature and weather. At Oniyama Jigoku, home to Japan's first crocodile breeding facility, the geothermal heat keeps some eighty crocodiles warm.

The other two hells lie a short way off in the Shibaseki area. Chinoike Jigoku, the Blood Pond Hell, is counted among the oldest natural hells in Japan, a pool of vivid red, coloured by the red mud at its bottom. Tatsumaki Jigoku, the Spout Hell, is a geyser that erupts every thirty to forty minutes; left alone it would shoot some 30 metres high, but a roof now caps the jet and holds it down. In 2009 four of the hells, Umi, Chinoike, Shiraike and Tatsumaki, were designated National Places of Scenic Beauty. The organised tour has a long history of its own: in 1928 the Kamenoi company launched sightseeing buses here with women guides delivering commentary in the rhythm of traditional verse, said to be the first bus guides in Japan.

Getting there

The Kannawa hells lie about 5 km from the centre of Beppu, the hot-spring city on the coast of Ōita Prefecture in northeastern Kyushu. Oita Airport (OIT) is about 31 km away. From the west exit of Beppu Station, buses bound for Kamenoi (routes 2, 5, 7 and 41) reach Kannawa in about 20 minutes; the five Kannawa hells are a few minutes' walk from one another. From the Kannawa bus stop, route 16 runs to Chinoike Jigoku Mae for the two Shibaseki hells, a ride of about six minutes. A combined pass covers all seven hells.

Hells of Beppu

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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