Japan’s SAUNACHELIN 2026 Puts TOTOPA Hakata First; Earthboat Named a Saunner of the Year

A Hakata spa built around one Alaskan tree, 800 to 1,000 years old and 4.5 feet across at the trunk, is Japan’s top sauna of 2026. TTNE named TOTOPA Hakata first in SAUNACHELIN 2026 on November 11, the date Japanese sauna fans call “Totonoe no hi,” and named the outdoor hotel group Earthboat one of 11 Saunners of the Year, according to the organizer’s announcement.

SAUNACHELIN started in 2018, and this is its ninth year. Judges who travel Japan’s saunas pick 11 facilities from what the organizer puts at more than 12,000, scoring cold baths, outdoor rest areas, hospitality, pricing, cleanliness and new ideas, according to the SAUNACHELIN site.

One tree, every part used

TOTOPA Hakata opened on August 7 on the third and fourth floors of the Meiji Park building opposite Hakata Station. It is the second TOTOPA, after the Tokyo flagship that won SAUNACHELIN in 2024 and 2025. TTNE’s Dai Matsuo, known as Totonoe Oyakata, produced the sauna, the organizer’s site says.

The tree had lain unused for 50 years. A section of trunk stands in the middle of the men’s sauna, and its bark wraps the stove. The heartwood became single-plank benches and a ceiling piece, and the outer wood and offcuts went into the walls. The cold plunge on the men’s floor is 4 feet deep.

Kyushu took two of the top three places. With ninth-place SAUNA SAKURADO, which added a wood-fired stove fed from outside the room, and the special award for REBOOT!, four of the 2026 picks are on the island.

A white smoke sauna in a birch forest

The 11th pick, SAUNA TEN in Koumi, Nagano, sits in a birch forest about 4,760 feet up. Its log room, finished in May, is a “white smoke sauna”: a wood fire runs six to seven hours to load more than 1,300 pounds of stones, and a chimney, a lid and firebricks are added to the traditional smoke sauna for safety. It closes for winter from late November.

In tenth place, Onari Sauna, three minutes on foot from Kamakura Station, is a mixed sauna where everyone wears a swimsuit, with a rooftop rest deck over the town.

Earthboat: a sauna with every room

Earthboat runs 11 outdoor hotels in Nagano, Gunma, Tochigi and Saitama. Every cabin has its own sauna, cold bath and outdoor rest space. Some rooms have a wood stove that guests light and feed themselves, and others an electric heater, the company said on November 11. The company, founded in September 2022 and based in Shinanomachi, Nagano, designs and builds its own cabins and runs the sites.

This year it opened Earthboat Saitama Kawajima and Earthboat Ueda Onsen in Nagano, and moved Earthboat Kitakaruizawa in Gunma to a larger site with 11 cabins. The judges cited its work turning long-unused land into places to stay, according to the Saunner of the Year page.

Chief executive Goh Yoshihara called Earthboat’s sauna “a device for being comfortable outside.” Guests can sweat and plunge, he said, but the company recommends sitting in the sauna with your clothes on when you get cold, warming up for about ten minutes and going back out to the fire or the meal (translated from Japanese by SaunaNews).

The other Saunners of the Year

The 11 Saunners of the Year also include Kamifurano Shrine in Hokkaido, known as the “Totonou Shrine”; Sabus, a mobile sauna built in a retired route bus; Kyoto’s Yutonami-sha, which takes over sento at risk of closing; and SAUNA IKITAI, the sauna search site. JAPAN SAUNA FESTIVAL, FLEXKEY, Oimachi’s “City of Saunners” project, a TRANSIT special issue with Misato Shimizu, Toshihiko Morizane and Yushi Mashimo complete the list.

Licensed sauna baths in Japan are multiplying, and they are about to outnumber sento.

Safety rules are tightening too: Tokyo’s Minato ward now requires emergency buzzers and latch-free doors.