Kannawa Mushi-yu
鉄輪むし湯
Does Kannawa Mushi-yu allow tattoos? Yes!
A stone room of about eight tatami, its floor laid with sekisho, a sweet-flag herb that grows only in clean running water, heated from below by the spring. You crawl in through a wooden door a meter square and lie on the herbs while the room steams you.
You lie in a stone room in a yukata, so a tattoo is barely the point, but the city answers the question anyway. Beppu City operates the mushi-yu and states the rule on its own onsen site, and the city’s 2026 tattoo guide names this bath in the text as one that welcomes tattooed visitors. The rinsing bath beside the steam room is shared and nude, and the same answer covers it.
The bath
The session runs eight to ten minutes and that is long enough. You change into a yukata, 220 yen to rent or your own T-shirt and shorts if you brought them, and come out soaked through. Four people per side go in at a time, so at the middle of the day there is usually a wait at the counter.
Beside the steam room is an ordinary indoor bath on a sodium chloride spring, which is where you rinse off afterward; the steam room itself and the foot-steam outside both run on a simple spring. The foot-steam needs no ticket and no yukata, and you can set the lid to let more or less steam onto your legs. Massage chairs, milk and pudding are on the other side of the door. A monk comes to the Ippen statue by the counter each morning at about 07:30.
700 yen, closed the fourth Thursday. The hours are normally 06:30 to 20:00 with last reception at 19:30, but the city has cut them to 07:30 to 19:30, last reception 19:00, from 1 July to 30 September 2026. Soap, shampoo and dryers are free, and ticket holders park two hours free at the Netsu-no-yu or Kannawa district lots.
What is good about it
- Four people a side at once, so expect to wait at the counter in the middle of the day.
- The foot-steam outside is free, no ticket, no yukata, and you set the lid yourself.
- Shorter hours until 30 September 2026, 07:30 to 19:30, with last reception at 19:00.
Getting there
In the middle of Kannawa. The bus from the west exit of JR Beppu STN reaches the Kannawa stop in about twenty minutes, from the east exit in about thirty, and the steam bath is three minutes on foot from there.
Beppu Daigaku STN · JR Nippo line; buses 2, 5, 7 and 41 run to Kannawa from the west exit of Beppu STN
Most people come by bus: about 20 minutes to the Kannawa stop, then 3 minutes on foot.
Two hours of free parking for ticket holders at the Netsu-no-yu and Kannawa district lots.
Where it is
Hakata STN
JR Sonic limited express 1 h 55
Kokura STN
Oita STN
✈Oita Airport
LocationBeppu Daigaku STN
What happens when you arrive
Check in and go to the bath. There is no seal to buy and nothing to declare.
How we know
Confirmed from the operator (Beppu City): its enjoyONSEN facility page, its 2026 tattoo-friendly map guide, and the タトゥー可 mark on the city tourism listing
Read on: enjoyonsen.city.beppu-jp.com/onsen/kannawamushiyu/
TATTOO：Allowed
The operator’s own wording on that page. Nothing here needs showing at a desk. If anyone does ask, show them this. It is the operator’s own wording.
Best for: Eight minutes flat on a floor of medicinal sekisho under a low stone roof
06:30–20:00, last reception 19:30, closed the fourth Thursday. 700 yen plus 220 yen to rent the yukata; a T-shirt and shorts of your own are accepted. Four people per side at a time, so there can be a wait. The free foot-steam outside needs no ticket. Founded in 1276 by the monk Ippen, whose wooden figure sits by the counter. Through 30 September 2026 the city posts shorter hours, 07:30 to 19:30 with last reception at 19:00; the usual 06:30 to 20:00 resumes after that.
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