Tsutaya Ryokan
つたや旅館
Does Tsutaya Ryokan allow tattoos? Yes!
A three-story wooden inn where Katsura Kogoro hid in the last years of the shogunate, its rooms each built differently and hung with the art and letters the house has collected since; two annexes can be taken whole by a group.
The town’s public bathhouses take any tattoo with nothing to cover, and staying here gets you in free. The ryokan publishes no rule for its own baths, so ask when you book if you want to use them too.
The bath
Tsutaya has one bath hall in the main building, and the inn says it is kept compact on purpose, in the way of a Kinosaki inn whose guests go out to the public bathhouses. It runs on the same salty spring the bathhouses use, circulated and filtered. Which side is for men and which for women depends on the mix of guests staying that night.
The main building’s rooms have no bath of their own; the English site says so and points guests to the bath hall. The Genbuso annex, rented whole to groups, has a private bath for its guests, but the inn notes that it is filled with plain heated water rather than the spring, and Genbuso guests may use the main bath too. Seirantei, the inn’s newer house in a quiet valley a little way from the town, has an indoor spring bath with a window onto its garden.
A bathing fee of ¥280 for adults and ¥140 for children is added to the room rate, as is the ¥150 bathing tax.
The hotel
Ten rooms in the main building. Katsura, where Katsura Kogoro and Ikumatsu stayed in 1864 and 1865, burned in the 1925 earthquake and was rebuilt on the same spot; the inn says cherry blossoms fill its window in spring. Kikyo, on the third floor, looks down on the bathhouse street. The lobby shows Katsura’s calligraphy, and the second-floor lounge doubles as a gallery and small library.
Good to know
- Colored yukata (a light cotton robe) for rent from April to October, for the round of the bathhouses.
Getting there
Kinosaki-Onsen STN · JR San’in line
About 12 minutes on foot, or 5 minutes by taxi.
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 stops in front if you tell the driver “Tsutaya,” and the inn takes you back to the station when you leave.
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
Pick up your Yumepa at check-in and walk to any of the public bathhouses; there’s nothing to cover there. Ask before using the ryokan’s own baths.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (town policy for the sotoyu); the ryokan publishes no rule for its own baths
Best for: travelers who want a century-old inn hung with the work of painters and writers who stayed
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