Q Shoe Guy

Many Mixed onsen pools have morphed to "family" style places where each individual family rents a change room and an outdoor bath for an hour or so. Many of the local places I used to go to in Kyushu that had mixed bathing have re-purposed their large mixed baths to smaller divided formats. Put a few boulders in the middle of large pool and poof, separate bathing areas.

Nagasaki Joe

Hourai (now Izusan Onsen) is not listed in Rakuten Travel's site of 混浴風呂のある温泉宿, so it may not offer mixed-bathing anymore, but I wouldn't assume that this list is exhaustive.
https://travel.rakuten.co.jp/onsen/k...2id=af_101_0_0

Until 5 years ago, I was living in Nasushiobara and there are a number of onsen in the area, what onsen was it? Might it be one of the mixed-bathing onsen in Tochigi Pref. listed in the link below?
https://travel.rakuten.co.jp/onsen/konyoku/tochigi/

Pickles

I don't recognize it from the pictures, and I don't remember the name. This place was seriously ancient, and I don't think it had a ryokan attached. It was decrepit in that way that only Japan can carry out with panache. It had two or three small baths in a shed, one of a temperature suitable for melting platinum. The 露天風呂 was a steep set of stairs from the shed, and it was in a kind of ravine, open on all sides, with a view of the surrounding mountains. To get there you had to drive up a steep incline for which you'd need snow chains. It was definitely in Nasu Shiobara, not in Nikko or Kinugawa, as that's the shinkansen station we went to before setting out by car from there.

evergrn

Lots of old decrepit places in Tochigi. In Kinugawa, it seems like half the buildings along the river/ravine are decrepit.
Went to this place Bankyu Hotel in Yunishigawa Onsen which is a seriously isolated location. The hotel looked like it was falling apart. Dead bugs everywhere. Think the place went out of business not long after we stayed.

Pickles

I asked one of the OBs about the place (now retired, so he has plenty of free time) and he reminded me it was the Kita Onsen, first opened in 1691. My memory failed me, but apparently it did have a ryokan attached. But the visual I described of the decrepit shack and the outside pool is intact. It still has mixed bathing, but you can now wear a bathing suit. Sacrilege!

freecia

Kita onsen's kind of well known among the hidden onsen/hitou (the irony). The tengu masks in the bath give it away https://kitanoyu.wixsite.com/12345/concept https://www.tofugu.com/japan/hitou-secret-onsen/

There are some outdoor onsen wedged between city roads and beside a river with cursory privacy screen which pop up on my instagram feed now and then. Some of them are gendered but I'm really not sure how much is on display.

The name is escaping me but there's also a small town in Oita? where there are two or three unattended coin bath houses, each serving either male or female, according to a schedule. One has those bamboo waterfall showers. They're not attached to a ryokan and I'm not sure if there are any minshuku or ryokan.
Edited to add: Sujiwa Onsen 筋湯温泉 near Mt. Waita, Kokonoe http://www.sujiyu-onsen.com/stay/ Several ryokans in the area https://goo.gl/maps/gdrdnyf17Kscbk8Y7
The waterfall shower's (takiyu) in this case are pipes not bamboo. https://goo.gl/maps/AXMXDBbKMpMEefHs5
Clarification: alternating baths between male or female is not unusual, it's that it is two separate buildings in the same town which is a little less usual?

Nagasaki Joe

Seriously decrepit indeed (thanks to your and Freecia's links), but I guess forgivable since its founding date is 1691 with apparently only minor renovations made since. And to present it with such panache, as you say, is so true. I'm not an onsen historian, but back then, or even 150 years ago, I think one can assume that mixed bathing, even onsen with family-style unisex changing rooms were very common and perhaps close to the norm in the countryside. I remember once coming across a website of nude mixed-bathers in Japan, who proudly posed naked as a group for the home page photo, but the preponderance of foreign (Western) men in the photo made me chuckle.

Q Shoe Guy

The year I left Q Shoe , I was taken by some Japanese friends to that area for a couple nights. We did a "farm" stay for 1 day and also stayed at a traditional inn for 1 day. The evening at the farm was punctuated by going to the local onset/sento in the evening which was mixed and and the water scalding hot.

AlwaysAisle

I think today true konyoku (mixed gender public hot bath, 混浴) have disappeared fast, even in Japan people's habits and taste are changing.

One konyoku onsen I knew near Tokyo was in Shuzenji Onsen in Izu peninsula at Shizuoka, 独鈷湯 (Tokko-no-yu). It is still there but no longer able to bathe due an ordinance from local health department. But I remember least back in '80s people could bathe on this outside konyoku onsen. Can see from the picture it is located outside by the river for everybody to see. This place supposed to date back to year 807, yes year 807 not 1807, but local government and tourist origanization said it is just not fesable in today's environment. Tourists still can see the facility but just cannot bathe anymore, not even dipping your feet.

One place I know that still does konyoku is 酸ヶ湯温泉 (Sukayu Onsen, website is in Japnese only).near Mt. Hakkoda in Aomori, not far from Hakkoda ski area. The large public bath ヒバ千人風呂 is mixed gender bath. The facility also has smaller women only public bath, and everyday on 8 - 9 p.m. ヒバ千人風呂 is women only. However, if you are a dude only option is mixed gender ヒバ千人風呂. The website is in Japanese only but the facility at Sukaya Onsen has kitchen facility where guests can cook on own and the rate is set lower for longer term stay so the facility itself says there are a lot of non-Japanese stay at this facility for ski at Mt. Hakkoda, obviously not currently due to pandamic.

freecia

You can search instagram for it. Some still exist.
NSFW since some feature people bathing which can go fan service-y
https://www.instagram.com/explore/ta...7%B7%E6%B5%B4/
https://www.instagram.com/konyoku_style/?hl=en

This is turning into the memorable onsens. I've had some memorable ryokan stays with amazing onsens. However, one place I almost always know when I see a photo is the bedspread of a Toyoko Inn, despite never having stayed at one. I can't believe they updated it from the peach thing to a white striped duvet.

evergrn

One of the more notable konyoku is the one at Manza Prince Manza hotel.

I know some people like konyoku but I’ll pass.

Nagasaki Joe

One article I read put the number of konyoku buro in Japan today at 500-600. The way things are changing, in the future, mixed bathing may be something you can only learn about in a museum, see in a documentary film, or practice at threat of arrest. In the meantime, you can read about still existing konyoku onsen on this forum and visit them if you like before they disappear. Somehow I doubt that will happen any time soon.

Pickles

That's a solid list. I actually have been to the Takamine onsen, purely by accident. I did a hiking tour of Asama-san in 2009 (looking back, it was borderline stupid to be traipsing about a live volcano), and part of the stop was chilling at the Takamine onsen, which is even nicer than the article describes it.

RichardInSF

I've always wanted to spend a night at Turrell's "House of Light" at the Echigo-Tsumari art field:

https://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/en/tra...flight_kyoten/

It appears to be currently closed as all links to booking an overnight stay there have been removed, but I assume someday it will be back.

Pickles

The Japanese website mentions it is open for discounted overnight stays to Niigata residents. I was also able to do a dummy booking from the Japanese website. So it's only closed for the ferners.