Tattoo friendly onsen in Kaminoyama

Arimakan

有馬館

Arimakan answers this in its own FAQ: guests with a tattoo of any size, anywhere on the body, may not use the large shared baths. The inn points them to its private baths instead, a seventh-floor open-air bath and three indoor baths, each booked at check-in for 40 minutes with the first session free. It also suggests the room's own bath, which the inn says is not hot spring water.

サイズや箇所を問わずお体に刺青やタトゥーのあるお客様は、大浴場のご利用をお断りさせていただきます。お部屋のお風呂をご利用いただくか、貸切風呂がございますので、そちらをご利用ください。

Best for: families or couples who want a free private hot spring bath and dinner served in the room

Four private baths: the seventh-floor view open-air bath, and on the first floor the Kihoseki standing bath (120 cm deep with micro-bubbles, and a step to sit on), Pamukkale (modeled on the Turkish terraces) and Yawaragi (flat floor, wide rim, usable by wheelchair, with a bath wheelchair on loan). The inn says the three indoor ones are source-fed. The first 40-minute session is free; later sessions cost ¥2,500 per 40 minutes if a slot is open that day. Book at check-in only; no advance booking. Hours 11 a.m. to 10 a.m. the next morning. The room baths are not hot spring water. Dinner and breakfast come to the room for up to three per room. Bath-only visits are suspended.

Nihon no Yado Koyo

日本の宿 古窯

Koyo's own FAQ says guests with tattoos may not use the large shared baths. The answer here is a room with its own tub: 37 rooms have one, and the inn says all of them run on hot spring water. There is also one private open-air bath, booked for 45 minutes.

申し訳ございませんが、入墨・タトゥーのある方の大浴場のご利用はお断りしております。

Best for: a couple who wants a renovated room with its own hot spring tub on a hill above the town

Room tubs: 26 semi-open-air bath rooms of 46 square meters and four sixth-floor open-air bath rooms of 60 square meters, all renovated in May 2019, plus seven Takenokura rooms whose outdoor tubs are cut from granite or made of Oishida-ware ceramic; the Takenokura Iide and Asahi rooms have no indoor bath, and the top Takenokura suite adds a private sauna. The inn says every room with an open-air or semi-open-air bath is on hot spring water. The third-floor private open-air bath costs ¥3,000 plus tax for 45 minutes, holds up to four, and starts on the hour from 3 to 11 p.m. and 5 to 7 a.m.; book it at the front desk at check-in, first come, first served, or ahead of the stay. The baths in ordinary rooms are not hot spring water. Check-in 3 p.m., check-out 10 a.m. The source comes out at 64°C and is cooled by adjusting the flow; the inn says some water may be added in summer. No bath-only day use.

Hayamakan

葉山舘

Hayamakan publishes no tattoo rule. Every room has its own indoor bath of 100 percent source water, so a guest can bathe without using the shared baths at all.

Best for: a couple who wants a view bath of the inn's own spring and dinner in a private dining room

Three room types, all with a spring bath: Suiyotei, 12 mats with twin beds, a view bath big enough for two that faces the Zao range, and a hot spring foot bath on the terrace; Kayotei, 10 plus 4.5 mats with a sunken kotatsu table and a small cypress tub; and Shikitei, 10 mats with a cypress tub looking onto a small courtyard garden. The inn says it recirculates its baths to keep the temperature even, and may add water to the large bath or heat the open-air bath in winter. All rooms are non-smoking. Check-in 3 p.m. (last 7 p.m.), check-out 11 a.m.

Sagiya Sansorai

三木屋 参蒼来

Sansorai publishes no tattoo rule. It has no reservable private bath, but seven of its rooms have their own tub of source-fed water: three with an open-air bath and four Kiyose rooms with an indoor spring bath. Those rooms are the way to bathe here without sharing.

Best for: a couple who wants a garden-view room with a cypress or stone tub of source water in a single-story inn

Rooms with a spring tub: the Hana suite (100 square meters, up to six, one booking a day) and the Inaho junior suite (80 square meters, up to six, one booking a day), both with a source-fed open-air bath; Ren, a 40-square-meter bedroom with a cypress open-air spring bath; and the four Kiyose rooms (Kaede, Ajisai, Sakura and Botan, 30 square meters for two) with an indoor spring bath. The Satsuki room and the four Kijine rooms have ordinary bathrooms. There is no private family bath. Check-in from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. No day visitors, for baths or meals.

Kajitsu no Yama Azumaya

果実の山 あづま屋

Azumaya publishes no tattoo rule. It has two private open-air baths, one of cypress and one of granite, used in 45-minute slots, and four suites with an open-air tub of source water on their own terrace.

Best for: families who want a private open-air bath slot and an inn with a drinks lounge and a comic library

The two private open-air baths run in 45-minute slots; the timetable on the bath page lists ten, starting on the hour from 3 p.m. to midnight. They are free on the inn's Yuagari Manki plan; the inn publishes no price for other guests. Ask at the front desk early, as slots fill. Four suites have a terrace with an open-air tub of 100 percent source water: two Premium Suites, Kajitsu no Hana and Kajitsu no Ki (two to five guests), and two Junior Suites, Kajitsu no Tsuki and Kajitsu no Hoshi (two to four). The inn says its water is never heated or diluted. Large bath and open-air bath 5 a.m. to 1 a.m.; sauna 1 to 9 p.m. Check-in 3 p.m. (last 6 p.m.), check-out 10 a.m.

Hanaakari no Yado Tsukinoike

花明りの宿 月の池

Tsukinoike publishes no tattoo rule. It has no private bath to book, but three of its eighteen rooms have a deck with a source-fed open-air tub, so a guest in one of them can bathe without the shared baths.

Best for: a couple who wants a ground-floor room with a rose-strewn open-air tub on its own deck

The three open-air bath rooms, Anemone, Canna and Amaryllis, are 8-mat twin rooms on the ground floor with a veranda, an indoor shower bath and a deck holding a source-fed open-air tub; the inn supplies Yamagata roses to float in it. Each takes two guests of junior-high age or older, and each has its own massage chair. The shared baths open 3 p.m. to midnight and 5 to 10 a.m. No day bathing. All rooms non-smoking. The inn runs no station pickup at present.

Hatago no Kokoro Hashimotoya

はたごの心 橋本屋

Hashimotoya publishes no tattoo rule. Six rooms in its Hatago-gura Usagino wing have their own tub of source-fed water, most of them open-air, and two private open-air baths can be booked ahead for the evening outside winter.

Best for: a couple who wants a carved Zao-stone tub outside their room and dinner in a private dining room

The six Usagino rooms: Ajisai and Beninohana with a ceramic open-air tub, Mansaku and Takekago with a tub carved from Zao stone, Nagoriyuki with an indoor cypress tub, and Nekoyanagi with a semi-open-air tub; all source-fed. Five of them take adults only; Nekoyanagi takes children and infants. The two private open-air baths, Kaze-asobi and Tsuki-gomori, are limited to two staying groups a day: one booking gives unlimited use of either from check-in until 10 p.m., at ¥5,000 plus tax, booked ahead only, and closed in winter. The ten standard rooms in the Kakure-gura Hana-oboro wing have ordinary baths. Check-in 3 to 5 p.m., check-out 10 a.m. No station pickup.

Saikatei Jidaiya

彩花亭 時代屋

Jidaiya publishes no tattoo rule. Seven of its rooms have a hot spring tub of their own, open-air, semi-open-air or indoors, and two source-fed private open-air baths are booked for 45 minutes at ¥3,300.

Best for: a couple who wants a private open-air bath with a lie-down shelf, or a room with its own spring tub, and dinner that mixes Japanese and French cooking

The two private open-air baths, Ousai (with a small courtyard garden where goldfish swim) and Keyakisai (with a shallow lie-down bath), are both source-fed: 45 minutes within each hour from 3 to 9 p.m., ¥3,300 including tax, booked ahead. The seven spring-tub rooms: Daidaisai (18 mats, a round open-air tub by a courtyard garden), Moegisai (10 mats, a cypress open-air tub), Yamabukisai (16 mats, an indoor view bath facing the Zao range), Akanesai (16.5 mats, a semi-open-air indoor bath in a corner room), Byakuransai (8 mats, a bath the inn calls open-air), and Konpekisai and Asagisai (10 mats plus a 6-mat Western room, semi-open-air baths of pebble-washed concrete). Standard rooms have ordinary baths. All meals in private dining rooms.