Kinosaki Onsen Ryokan Tsubakino
城崎温泉 旅館 つばき乃
Does Kinosaki Onsen Ryokan Tsubakino allow tattoos? Yes!
Eighty years old, five minutes from the station by Jizo-yu: an open-air bath on the town’s spring water, a silk micro-bubble bath, and a special room, renewed in March 2023, with a goemon tub of its own.
The town’s public bathhouses take any tattoo with nothing to cover, and staying here gets you in free. The ryokan also has two private baths, booked on arrival.
The bath
Two shared baths swap between men and women morning and evening, so one night gets you both. Choraku has an open-air bath and a jacuzzi; Kocho has a hinoki cypress tub and a small courtyard garden. They are open 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. The ryokan says all its baths are natural spring water: the town delivers the spring to inns at about 58°C, so water is added to cool it, and circulation is used alongside flow-through. It also explains that inns receiving the town’s spring must keep their tubs within a size limit set by local ordinance, to protect the public bathhouses.
The two private baths are the ryokan’s own. Sarasa is a ceramic tub with a micro-bubble system that turns the water white, which the ryokan says was the first in Kinosaki. Kazahana is a hinoki bath with an open deck, a big window onto Higashiyama Park and a tatami bench. A session is 40 minutes for ¥3,300, for staying guests or those on a meal plan, one booking per room. Times are booked at the front desk on the day you arrive; the ryokan takes no advance bookings for them.
The hotel
The main building came through the 1925 North Tajima earthquake unburned and is joined to the annex by an underground passage. Main-building rooms are tatami rooms, some without a toilet; annex rooms have their own toilet and look onto a Japanese garden. Paintings of Jizo by the previous owner hang through the house. Dinner and breakfast are served in the Sazanka dining room rather than in your room.
Good to know
- No elevator, and some main-building rooms have no toilet; ask for a lower floor if stairs are hard.
Getting there
Kinosaki-Onsen STN · JR San’in line
About 5 minutes on foot (500 m), next to Jizo-yu.
From Osaka, the Kounotori limited express reaches Kinosaki-Onsen in about 2 hours 40 minutes; the Kinosaki runs from Kyoto and the Hamakaze from Sannomiya and Himeji. The free inn bus waits in front of the station, but the ryokan warns that inns farther out are served first.
Where it is
Kinosaki-Onsen STN
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Kansai Wide Area Pass ¥12,000 · 5 days Worth it if you’re riding the Kounotori to Kinosaki and back.
- Japan Rail Pass from ¥53,000 · 7, 14 or 21 days For a trip that takes in several regions by Shinkansen and JR lines.
Why a ryokan appears under “nothing to cover”
Staying here is what makes the public bathhouses free: ryokan in Kinosaki normally hand a yumepa pass to guests at check-in. How Kinosaki’s Yumepa system works →
What happens when you arrive
Book a private bath at the front desk when you arrive, or pick up your Yumepa and walk to the public bathhouses next door.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (town policy for the sotoyu); the ryokan publishes no rule for its own baths
Best for: couples who want a small, quiet base next to Jizo-yu
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