Tokushima · about 2 h 10 of riding from Okayama · Mountain valley

Tattoo friendly onsen in the Iya Valley

Six inns hold every onsen bath in this valley and three of them are listed here. None publishes a tattoo rule, and all three answer by the way they are built rather than by policy. Iya Bijin has nine rooms, each with a Shigaraki pottery or cypress tub on the balcony, and tells guests outright that there is no large bath. Hotel Iya Onsen keeps one tub of its gorge-floor water back for hour-long bookings. Hotel Kazurabashi has four bookable baths, three still fired with wood.

3 properties

Private baths only

Tattoos are fine in a private or in-room bath. The communal baths are restricted, or the policy is unconfirmed. What this means

Iyakei, the gorge road at Ikeda-cho Matsuo, about 40 minutes by car above JR Oboke Ryokan with a riverside open-air bath reached by the hotel’s own cable car ★★★★☆ Confirmed

Wa-no-Yado Hotel Iya Onsen

和の宿ホテル祖谷温泉

The inn runs a reservable open-air bath, Yamagiri-no-yu, at 3,000 yen before tax for sixty minutes, and it sells that slot to day visitors as well as to overnight guests, which is unusual in this valley. Six of the nineteen rooms have their own open-air or view bath fed from the source. The bathing-manners page sets out nine rules for the shared baths, covering photography, drones, swimwear and hair, and tattoos are not among them, so nothing published covers the riverside baths either way.

貸切露天風呂「やまぎりの湯」ご宿泊：利用料金／ 3,000円/回（税別）利用時間／ 60分 ※ ご利用の場合はご宿泊前にメールフォームからまたはお電話でご予約ください。日帰り：利用料金／ 3,000円/回（税別）※2,000円/人の入浴料が別途必要です

Best for: A tattooed traveler who wants the famous gorge-floor bath and can take it in the reservable tub instead

Guests who want Yamagiri-no-yu must book it before arrival by mail form or phone; day visitors cannot pre-book at all and take whatever is free once they have paid the 2,000 yen entry. The riverside baths Keikoku-no-yu and Seseragi-no-yu swap between men and women each day and run 7:00 to 21:00 for guests, shortened to 19:00 from 4 January to the end of February, and 7:30 to 17:00 for day visitors with reception closing at 16:00. The whole bath complex closes on Wednesdays. Room baths are marked 源泉・加温あり, source water reheated. The house belongs to the Nihon Hito wo Mamoru Kai.

Wa-no-Yado Hotel Iya Onsen tattoo policy → Check availability

Zentoku, Nishi-Iyayama, five minutes by car from the vine bridge Ryokan with a hilltop open-air bath reached by cable car ★★★★☆ Confirmed

Yumoto Shin-Iya Onsen Hotel Kazurabashi

湯元新祖谷温泉ホテルかずら橋

Four bookable baths sit apart from the shared ones: the open-air Takenoko-no-yu at 3,850 yen for forty-five minutes, and three wood-fired Goemon tubs named Sagiri, Yugiri and Asagiri at 2,200 yen for forty minutes. All four are for overnight guests only and are claimed at the front desk on the day. Room 410, Tenjin, is the single room with its own Awa-aoishi open-air bath, and the suite and the semi-suite carry a view bath and a Goemon tub respectively. The operator publishes no tattoo rule for the hilltop bath or the third-floor bath.

貸切風呂 ※ご宿泊者様限定・有料貸切露天風呂「筍の湯」【利用時間】15:00～22:00 【料金】3,850円(税込) ※1回45分貸切五右衛門風呂「狭霧の湯」「夕霧の湯」「朝霧の湯」【利用時間】15:00～21:00 【料金】2,200円(税込) ※1回40分 ※ご予約が必要となります。ご希望の方は当日フロントにてお申し込みください。

Best for: A tattooed traveler who wants a wood-fired Goemon tub to themselves after a day at the vine bridge

The Goemon tubs are still heated by burning wood under the iron. Day visitors are barred from all four bookable baths and the operator says so plainly: 日帰りのお客様は貸切風呂をご利用いただけません. Day-use bathing in the shared baths runs 10:30 to 16:00 at 1,200 yen for adults, and the hilltop bath and the third-floor bath run 6:00 to 23:00 for people staying. The spring is a simple sulphur water. The cable car to the hilltop bath leaves from the third-floor courtyard, and a footpath runs beside it for anyone who would rather walk up.

Yumoto Shin-Iya Onsen Hotel Kazurabashi tattoo policy → Check availability

Zentoku, Nishi-Iyayama, five minutes by car from the vine bridge and from Biwa Falls Ryokan where every room has its own open-air bath and there is no shared bath ★★★☆☆ Confirmed

Keikoku-no-Kakureyado Iya Bijin

渓谷の隠れ宿祖谷美人

There is no shared bath on the property for a rule to apply to, and the inn says so in its own answers to guests: every one of the nine rooms has a private open-air bath and there is no large bath. Some tubs are Shigaraki pottery and the rest are cypress, and the source is an unheated simple sulphur mineral water. Nothing here asks a tattooed guest to cover up or to time a booking.

当館は全室トイレ付き、露天風呂付のお部屋でございます。（大浴場はございません）

Best for: A tattooed traveler who wants a gorge-view tub outside the bedroom door and no shared changing room at all

Room types are the Shigaraki-ware open-air bath room, the cypress open-air bath room, a Special Room that pairs one of each, and a detached suite with both plus a hearth and a foot-level stone-bed heater. The inn draws its washbasin water from the spring that feeds Biwa Falls. In winter the open-air baths have insulating blinds, and the inn tells guests to run the hot water first to warm the enclosure. There is no pickup from the station, but the route bus stops at Iyabijin-mae outside the door. The attached soba restaurant serves 8:00 to 17:00 with no closing day.

Keikoku-no-Kakureyado Iya Bijin tattoo policy → Check availability

Traveler’s note

Mannaka, by the Oboke boat pier, refuses tattooed bathers and names cover stickers among what it will not accept, so seals are no help there. Hotel Hikyo-no-Yu refuses as well, and Matsuogawa Onsen, the only town bathhouse in Miyoshi, opens its notice to visitors with the same answer. Iya Bijin is sold through Agoda, whose page for it sold nothing on the dates tried, so book well ahead.

Getting there

Tickets for the ride in

JR All Shikoku Rail Pass Three to seven days, from 12,000 yen, on every JR Shikoku train, with non-reserved seats on the limited expresses. It starts at Kojima, the first stop on the Shikoku side of the line from Okayama, so Okayama to Kojima is a short separate fare. It covers the Nanpu to Oboke. The Shikoku Kotsu bus from Oboke into the valley, 670 yen to Kazurabashi, is paid separately.
Kagawa to Iya Valley bus ticket A one-way seat on the Koto Bus between Kagawa and the Iya valley, stopping at Kazurabashi Yumebutai. Transport only; the vine bridge fee is paid on the spot.

Sold on Klook. Booking through these links costs you nothing extra and sends a small commission our way.

Common questions

the Iya Valley questions

Can I use a shared bath in the Iya Valley with a tattoo?

Nobody here publishes a yes. Hotel Iya Onsen sets out nine rules for its riverside baths, covering swimwear, drones and photography, and tattoos are not among them, which is silence rather than permission. Hotel Kazurabashi publishes nothing for its hilltop bath. Mannaka, Hikyo-no-Yu and Matsuogawa Onsen all refuse in writing.

Which Iya inns have a bath I do not share?

All three listed here. Every one of the nine rooms at Iya Bijin has its own open-air tub. Hotel Iya Onsen rents Yamagiri-no-yu for sixty minutes at 3,000 yen before tax, and Hotel Kazurabashi has Takenoko-no-yu and three wood-fired Goemon tubs, all four for overnight guests and claimed at the desk.

Can a day visitor use a private bath in the valley?

At Hotel Iya Onsen only, and that is unusual enough to be worth the trip. The private bath is 3,000 yen on top of the 2,000 yen entry, and day visitors cannot reserve ahead, so you take whatever is free. Kazurabashi bars day visitors from all four of its bookable baths.

How do I get to the Iya Valley from Okayama?

The Nampu limited express to Oboke, 1 h 36 with no change, then the Shikoku Kotsu bus on the Iya line, about half an hour up to the vine bridge. From Matsuyama it is 3 h 29, on the Shiokaze as far as Tadotsu and the Nampu from there.

More places to bathe

Other guides

All twenty-three guides are live.

Tokyo area69 places → Osaka area39 places → Kyoto area15 places → Sapporo area11 places → Sendai area8 places → Kanazawa area12 places → Nagoya area16 places → Hiroshima area9 places → Hakone23 places → Kinosaki Onsen10 places → Kusatsu Onsen9 places → Nikko6 places → Atami7 places → Shirahama7 places → Arima Onsen8 places → Yumura Onsen3 places → Nachi-Katsuura2 places → Awaji Island4 places → Beppu Onsen32 places → Yufuin Onsen13 places → Kurokawa Onsen17 places → Ibusuki Onsen14 places → Ureshino Onsen14 places → Noboribetsu Onsen8 places → Jozankei Onsen13 places → Niseko12 places → Lake Toya5 places → Akiu Onsen7 places → Naruko Onsen10 places → Zao Onsen8 places → Nyuto Onsen4 places → Higashiyama Onsen10 places → Hanamaki Onsen10 places → Takayu Onsen4 places → Yamashiro Onsen14 places → Yamanaka Onsen14 places → Katayamazu Onsen6 places → Awazu Onsen3 places → Awara Onsen10 places → Unazuki Onsen6 places → Kawaguchiko17 places → Isawa Onsen18 places → Karuizawa13 places → Bessho Onsen6 places → Yudanaka and Shibu22 places → Nozawa Onsen10 places → Hakuba14 places → Myoko8 places → Echigo-Yuzawa13 places → Gero Onsen17 places → Okuhida Onsen14 places → Shuzenji Onsen8 places → Ito Onsen8 places → Shimoda12 places → Tamatsukuri Onsen6 places → Misasa Onsen11 places → Kaike Onsen8 places → Yunotsu Onsen4 places → Miyajima8 places → Yubara Onsen7 places → Yunogo Onsen4 places → Yuda Onsen3 places → Nagato-Yumoto Onsen4 places → Dogo Onsen15 places → Kotohira7 places → Takamatsu5 places → Iya ValleyYou are here