On the shrine approach, eight minutes on foot from JR Kotohira Ryokan ★★★★★

Kotohira Onsen Oyado Shikishimakan

ことひら温泉 御宿 敷島館

Does Kotohira Onsen Oyado Shikishimakan allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

A 2019 rebuild of a Meiji inn on the Konpira approach, with four private baths on the guest floors that cost nothing, take no booking and run all night on a lamp-and-lock system.

Four private baths sit on the guest floors here, in bamboo, cypress, stone and ceramic, and the operator asks nothing for them and takes no reservations. You check the lamp at the door, and if it is dark the bath is yours; locking the door lights it for the next person. They are open around the clock and they run on the Chikoin spring, unlike the open-air tubs and the sleeping bath, which the hotel lists as heated tap water. Shikishimakan itself publishes no tattoo rule, and its parent runs a stated refusal at its Dormy Inn city hotels, so treat the shared bath as closed and the four private ones as the reason to come.

Show this at the front desk

貸切風呂は予約不要、先着順になります。入り口にございますランプで「空き」をご確認の上、ご自由にご利用ください。

The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.

Where it is

Okayama STN Tadotsu STN change to JR Dosan line · 13 min JR Shiokaze limited express 49 min Matsuyama STN Hotel location
Kotohira STN
Dogo is 25 minutes on the tram from Matsuyama station. Takamatsu, Kotohira and the Iya valley are quicker from Okayama, over the Seto Ohashi bridge: 53 minutes on the Marine Liner to Takamatsu, 1 h 16 to Kotohira, and the Nanpu limited express to Oboke for the Iya bus. Matsuyama itself is 2 h 45 from Okayama on the Shiokaze.. Kotohira Onsen Oyado Shikishimakan · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

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 Shiokaze or Nanpu to Tadotsu or Kotohira and the Dosan line. Sold on Klook.

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 bath page at dormy-hotels.com/resort/hotels/shikishimakan/hotspring sets out the four private baths, the lamp system, the 24-hour access and which tubs are spring water and which are heated. No tattoo text on the property’s pages.

Read on: dormy-hotels.com/resort/hotels/shikishimakan/hotspring/

Best for: Private onsen bathing at no extra charge, at any hour, without booking a slot

Private baths free, no reservation, 24 hours. Onsen: the indoor cypress bath and the four private baths. Heated water, not spring: the outdoor stone and barrel tubs and the sleeping bath, as the hotel’s own summary marks them 沸し湯. Source Chikoin, a hypotonic weakly alkaline cold mineral spring. Sauna closed 24:00–5:00, baths 15:00–10:00. Free foot bath on the approach 9:00–16:00. Rebuilt and opened 9 August 2019 by Kyoritsu Maintenance on the site of the Meiji-era Shikishimakan, using salvaged material from the old building. Top-floor Japanese-Western rooms have their own open-air bath and a wood terrace over the approach.

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