Higashiyama, Yumoto Shimohara, at the upstream end of the strip Ryokan

Irori no Yado Ashina

いろりの宿芦名

Does Irori no Yado Ashina allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

The bath is small enough that Ashina simply gives it to one room at a time after dinner, 40 minutes each, names written down at check-in.

Eight rooms and no large bath to be turned out of. Between 20:30 and 23:10 the men’s and women’s baths stop being men’s and women’s and go to one room at a time for 40 minutes, booked at check-in. A day visitor can buy the same thing: one group a day, 18:30 to 20:00, 2,200 yen a head. Outside those hours the baths revert to separate men’s and women’s bathing, and the inn says nothing about tattoos in either language.

Show this at the front desk

夕食後の20:30～はお部屋ごとの貸切となります。貸切でご利用いただける時間は1部屋40分となります。

The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.

Where it is

Sendai is the door to all of these. Akiu is 43 minutes on one bus from the station, with no change. Nyuto is the Komachi, JR’s Shinkansen across to Akita, as far as Tazawako, then a bus of 47 minutes, about 2 h 20 in all. Naruko is twelve minutes on the Shinkansen to Furukawa and three quarters of an hour up the Rikuu East line. Zao is the Senzan line rapid over the mountains to Yamagata, then a bus of 37 minutes up to the ski village. Hanamaki is the Yamabiko to Kitakami, one stop on the local line and a bus, about 2 h 10. Higashiyama is the long one: the Shinkansen to Koriyama, the Ban-etsu West line over to Aizu-Wakamatsu and the loop bus, nearly four hours with the waits, and easier from Tokyo. Irori no Yado Ashina · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

What happens when you arrive

Skip the shared baths and reserve the private one the way this page describes. Once the door is closed, the bath is yours.

How we know

Confirmed from official site — bath structure, not a tattoo policy (the 貸切風呂について block on the 温泉 page, published in Japanese and in the inn’s own English)

Read on: ashina.co.jp/onsen.html

Best for: Buying the whole bath for 40 minutes at an eight-room inn that cooks dinner over a hearth

The inn’s English page says: “Although there is no large communal bath, both an indoor and outdoor bath are available. The men’s and women’s baths may be used privately for 40 minutes by each room after dinner from 20:30 to 23:10.” The water is 56.1°C at 21.6 liters a minute, drained and refilled daily, and the inn says it can cool it with added water. Day-use private bathing is weekdays only and needs two people or more. Dinner is grilled at the hearth: Okuaizu beef, Aizu chicken on a crystal plate, wild game in season, and rice grown without agricultural chemicals.

Check availability

Booking through this button costs you nothing extra and sends a small commission our way — it’s what keeps this guide free for our tattoo community, and every policy on it checked. Thank you.

Others in the same group

More places in the higashiyama with private bath only

HaratakiHigashiyama, Yumoto, on the Yugawa beside the Harataki falls → KonjakuteiHigashiyama, Yumoto, three minutes upstream of its sister inn Harataki → Kutsurogijuku ShintakiHigashiyama, Yumoto Kawamukai, four minutes on foot from its sister inn Chiyotaki → MukaitakiHigashiyama, Kawamukai, on the far bank of the Yugawa a few minutes above the bus stop → Kutsurogijuku ChiyotakiHigashiyama, Yumoto Terayashiki, on the high ground over the strip → Higashiyama Park Hotel ShinpugetsuHigashiyama, Yumoto Tsumori, on the road in from the samurai residences →

All higashiyama listings →