Higashiyama, Kawamukai, on the far bank of the Yugawa a few minutes above the bus stop Ryokan

Mukaitaki

会津東山温泉向瀧

Does Mukaitaki allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

Three small baths named for the carvings in their ceilings sit behind doors that lock, cost nothing and keep no clock, which is the whole answer at an inn that has never written a word about tattoos.

Mukaitaki publishes no tattoo rule at all, in Japanese or in English, and the site is large enough that the silence looks deliberate rather than accidental. What it does publish is three reservable family baths that cost nothing, need no reservation and run on no clock, so a tattooed guest can bathe alone as often as they like. Three of the 24 rooms are filed under 温泉付きの客室 and have a spring-fed bath of their own. The two shared baths, Kitsune-yu and Saru-yu, are not addressed, and nothing here should be read as permission to use them.

Show this at the front desk

いつでも、無料でお使いいただけます。面倒な予約や、時間制限などございません。お好きなときにお好きなだけお使い下さい。

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. Mukaitaki · 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 貸切家族風呂 page under 温泉, plus the 温泉付きの客室 room list)

Read on: mukaitaki.com/spa/kazoku/

Best for: Bathing alone for free, for as long as you want, inside the first ryokan Japan registered as a cultural property

Three family baths, Tsuta-no-yu, Hisago-no-yu and Suzu-no-yu, each with a carving in the ceiling. The inn says every tub in the building runs on its own spring with no added water, no heating and no recirculation, and that all of them are emptied, scrubbed and refilled every morning from 09:30, so the family baths fill again around 12:00, Kitsune-yu around 13:30 and Saru-yu around 14:00. The three rooms with their own bath are Matsu, Take and the Hanare. Dinner is served in the room. Parking at the door holds only seven cars and staff move guests’ cars to a separate lot.

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Others in the same group

More places in the higashiyama with private bath only

Kutsurogijuku ShintakiHigashiyama, Yumoto Kawamukai, four minutes on foot from its sister inn Chiyotaki → Higashiyama Park Hotel ShinpugetsuHigashiyama, Yumoto Tsumori, on the road in from the samurai residences → Hanare MatsushimakakuHigashiyama, Takinoyu, the suite annex next door to Takinoyu → Kutsurogijuku ChiyotakiHigashiyama, Yumoto Terayashiki, on the high ground over the strip → Shosuke no Yado TakinoyuHigashiyama, Takinoyu, beside the Fushimigataki falls → Irori no Yado AshinaHigashiyama, Yumoto Shimohara, at the upstream end of the strip →

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