Ryoso Komatsu Besso
旅荘 小松別荘
Does Ryoso Komatsu Besso allow tattoos? In a private bath
Komatsu Besso has no shared bath: its four baths, two of rough boulders and two of cut stone, are private around the clock, and its garden is the part the inn is proudest of.
Komatsu Besso publishes no tattoo rule. All four of its baths are private and can be taken at any hour, and one room and the detached house have a bath of their own, so a tattooed guest never shares a tub here.
The bath
Sujiyu, the inn explains, opened as a spa in 958 and rises at about 1,000 meters on the slopes of Mount Waita; it takes its name from the falling-water bath in the village that loosens stiff muscles. Every bath at Komatsu Besso runs straight from the source.
The four private baths are open 24 hours, and the inn says they are all private so you can bathe without a thought for anyone else. Two are rock baths built of rough natural boulders, made to feel like a spring rising among rocks; open the window and you have the air of the Kuju hills. Two are cut-stone baths, heavy and, in the inn's words, cold-looking but warm from the water. The photo shows a pool ringed with tan boulders under a window of paper screens and a wooden fence, with a wooden pail on the rocks and a steel handrail.
The room Yukiyanagi has its own half-open-air bath with a tub that looks carved from stone, and the detached house Settakean has a broad stone bath in a timber bath room that the inn says grows darker and older-feeling after sunset.
The hotel
Eight rooms in the main building, seven plain Japanese rooms each a little different and Yukiyanagi with its own bath, all with a toilet and washbasin, and some on the second floor. Settakean is an old-farmhouse-style detached house for one party a day, with a sunken-hearth living room, three bedrooms including a loft and a twin, two toilets, floor heating and its own stone bath; its dinner is served in the house. Meals are a creative local kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) in a dining room facing the garden, or around an irori hearth, which two parties a night can book.
Good to know
- Four private baths, open around the clock, all free-flowing.
- Book the hearth room early; only two parties a night can eat there.
- The Utase public bath is about 10 minutes on foot, and the Komatsu steam vents about 20.
Getting there
Take the JR Kyudai line to Bungo-Nakamura, then the bus to Sujiyu Onsen, which the inn puts at about 40 minutes. By car it is about 25 minutes from the Kokonoe interchange of the Oita Expressway, about an hour from Beppu by the Yamanami Highway, and about 2 hours from Fukuoka.
Bungo-Nakamura STN · JR Kyudai Main Line, then the bus to Sujiyu Onsen
Not walkable.
Bus about 40 minutes by the inn's count; the inn gives no walk from the stop.
Where it is
Sujiyu Onsen bus stop
- Yufuin no Mori 1 hr 47 min
- JR Kyudai line 13 min
- Kokonoe community bus 50 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Kyushu Rail Pass from ¥12,000 · 3, 5 or 7 consecutive days Worth it if Kuju is part of a longer Kyushu trip by train.
- Japan Rail Pass from ¥53,000 · 7, 14 or 21 days For a trip that takes in several regions by Shinkansen and JR lines.
What happens when you arrive
There's no shared bath here, so every bath you use is private.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (: the bath page lists four private baths and two private room baths)
Best for: a garden inn with four private rock and stone baths you can take at any hour
Four private baths, all free-flowing and open 24 hours: two rock baths and two cut-stone baths. The room Yukiyanagi, on the ground floor of the main building, has a half-open-air stone bath; the detached house Settakean, let to one party a day, has its own stone bath and serves dinner in the house. The hearth room is open to two parties a night. Check-in 3 to 6 p.m., check-out by 10 a.m.
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