Tattoo friendly onsen in Bessho

Aisome-no-yu

別所温泉 相染閣 あいそめの湯

No restriction. The bath’s own FAQ puts the question plainly, whether you can bathe with a tattoo or irezumi, and answers that you can. No seal, size limit or declaration is mentioned. This is the one bath in Bessho with a published answer.

タトゥーや刺青があっても入浴できますか？ ご入浴いただけます。

Best for: A long soak with a view over Ueda straight off the train, with nothing to cover

Built by Ueda City as a municipal bath in 1972 and rebuilt on the present site in 2008. Indoor and open-air baths, simple sulfur water, 20 washing spots on each side with body soap and rinse-in shampoo. 10:00–22:00, last entry 21:20; closed the 2nd and 4th Monday (the next day when that Monday is a holiday). Adults 650 yen, school-age children 300. Rock sauna (ganbanyoku) 650 yen extra with wear and towels. Towels are sold, not free. No credit cards; PayPay accepted. Food brought in is not allowed; the restaurant is Biranju. Adults wearing diapers may not bathe. The page is hosted on the Bessho Onsen tourism association’s site.

Ryokan Hanaya

旅館 花屋

Hanaya publishes no tattoo rule, so the answer is the room. Nine rooms in the detached wings have their own indoor bath on free-flowing spring water, and four special rooms have a private open-air bath. The inn says outright it has no reservable private bath, and its three shared baths carry no stated rule, so book one of those thirteen rooms rather than a main-building room without a bath.

Best for: Bathing in your own room inside a building the national government registers as a cultural property

Thirty-two rooms: 16 in the main building with toilet but no bath; 9 in the hanare wings with a free-flowing indoor spring bath (the inn notes they are not separate houses); 3 Japanese rooms with an open-air bath (72, 73 and the Sakura Goten samurai-house suite); room 23, a Japanese-Western room with twin beds and an open-air bath; and 3 Western suites in THE MAIN. Only numbered rooms shown on the site can be chosen; the 8-mat hanare plan is assigned by the inn. All stays include dinner and breakfast. Room 72 has stairs in the corridor. The shared marble and Wakakusa baths swap between men and women at 22:00; the open-air bath runs 15:00–22:00 and 6:00–10:30. The inn opened in 1917 and was registered as a tangible cultural property in 2006.

Kashiwaya Honten

かしわや本店

No tattoo rule is published. Four rooms have their own open-air bath and two more have an indoor bath, and every staying guest can also take the private bath, an open-air tub paired with a cypress one, for 40 minutes at no charge. Ask at the front desk; turns go first come at check-in, and the inn asks you to get in touch ahead if you want a set time.

Best for: A room with an open-air bath, plus a second private bath included in the price

Rooms by bath: 4 with an open-air bath (2 of them with beds), 2 with an indoor bath, 5 with a shower only, and a newer suite with dining room, Western bedroom and kitchen island. The shared baths are a large rock bath and two cypress baths that change between men and women at 20:00 and again in the morning. Water is Bessho No. 4 source, 50.9°C. Check-in 15:00, last check-in 19:00. Free pick-up from Bessho-Onsen Station. Women may choose a colored yukata. The ryokan association lists it as 130 years old.

Nanakusa no Yu

七草の湯

Nanakusa no Yu says nothing about tattoos. Two rooms, Asagiriso and Komachiso, have a cypress open-air tub on the sun deck, filled from the spring and yours at any hour. Everyone else can book the sixth-floor private bath for 40 minutes at 1,650 yen, by phone or at check-in.

Best for: A night view over the Shioda plain from a bath nobody else is in

Sixteen rooms. The two open-air rooms are 12 mats plus a twin bedroom with a shower room, for 2 to 7 people; online booking cannot pick which of the two, so phone if it matters. Private bath slots start on the hour from 14:00 to 21:00; some plans include one free turn. The shared baths each have an open-air bath and a sauna and stay on the same side all night, 14:00 to 9:30 (sauna to 22:30). Simple sulfur spring, 50.6°C. All rooms non-smoking. The inn’s cafe on the Kitamuki Kannon approach is open 9:00–16:00.

Ryokan Nakamatsuya

旅館 中松屋

No tattoo rule appears anywhere on Nakamatsuya’s site. Three room types come with a free-flowing hot spring bath indoors, and two private family baths on the ground floor cost staying guests 1,500 yen for 45 minutes, booked the same day at check-in. The seventh-floor view bath is shared.

Best for: A room with its own spring bath in an inn that makes a point of welcoming small children

Hot spring rooms: a 12-mat room with twin beds (one each on the 5th and 6th floors), a 16-mat room with semi-double twin beds, and Fukujuso, an old-farmhouse-style suite with a Japanese and a Western room. Private baths 15:00–24:00 for guests; day visitors can have one for 5,000 yen by phone, 15:00–20:00. The inn warns the family baths are reached by steep stairs with a handrail and have no grab bars inside. The whole building is floored in tatami. Free pick-up from Bessho-Onsen Station if you phone before boarding at Ueda. The inn dates itself to the Kyoho era (1716–1736).

Uematsuya

旅宿 上松や

Uematsuya publishes no tattoo rule, and it has one private bath: Take-no-yu, an indoor tub done in black with a bamboo motif, 2,500 yen before tax for 35 minutes, reserved after you check in. No guest room has a bath on spring water. The two large shared baths have no stated rule.

Best for: Solo travelers: the inn built its business around guests who come alone

Thirty-two rooms in two wings; none is listed with its own spring bath. Take-no-yu opened in March 2020. The shared baths, Nanakuri and Rokumon, change sides at 23:00–23:15 and between them have six tubs, all free-flowing, including an octagonal tub and a one-person ceramic tub named Sanada-yu. The front desk handles English and Chinese. Parking is away from the inn; staff move your car.