Bansho no Yu, Nagayu Historic Hot Spring Hall
万象の湯 長湯歴史温泉伝承館
Does Bansho no Yu, Nagayu Historic Hot Spring Hall allow tattoos? In a private bath
Bansho no Yu teaches a three-step bath: the 30 to 41°C indoor tub until your forehead sweats, the terraced open-air tub on the Serikawa river, then the cold tub, where tiny bubbles rise off your skin.
Bansho no Yu publishes no tattoo rule. It rents three family baths for 50 minutes at a time, each with its own indoor tub, bubbling cold tub and open-air tub, so a tattooed bather can take the whole circuit alone.
The bath
The water is a sodium and magnesium bicarbonate spring, cloudy and yellow-brown, run straight from the source without heating or dilution. The hall says the carbon dioxide opens the blood vessels and the bicarbonate leaves the skin smooth, and lists it for neuralgia, muscle and joint pain, stiff shoulders, cuts, burns and long-standing skin trouble. The rough grit on the tub floors is mineral sediment, which it calls proof of free-flowing water.
It teaches a three-step soak. Start in the indoor tub, 30 to 41°C, for five to ten minutes, until your forehead begins to sweat. Move to the terraced open-air tub by the river for ten to fifteen minutes, breathing slowly. Then lower yourself into the bubbling cold tub, where small bubbles rise off the skin. Do it twice if you can.
The three family baths each hold all three tubs: an indoor tub, a bubbling cold tub and an open-air tub. They were renovated recently and cost from ¥2,400 per room for 50 minutes. The photos show a round tub with a thick grey rim on a timber deck, screened by reed blinds with grass and the river beyond. A free foot bath and a carbonated face bath sit by the river.
The hotel
A bathhouse with a small inn for a modern version of the old long-stay cure. There are eight rooms: six-mat Japanese rooms for two built to recall an old cure inn, with a wooden deck on the river side; two single Western rooms with a semi-double bed; and a 20-mat room for groups, with shared toilets. A restaurant in a converted rice store serves noodles and curry, and a gallery shows the Oita painter Naoto Kitamura. Check-in from 3 p.m., check-out by 10 a.m.; the door closes at 10 p.m.
Good to know
- Each family bath has three tubs, hot, open-air and bubbling cold, for 50 minutes from ¥2,400.
- Bring your own bath towel; the inn charges for bath towels and combs.
- Cash only, and the door closes at 10 p.m.
- Ramune Onsenkan is about 15 minutes on foot, downstream along the river.
Getting there
From Oita take the JR Hohi line to Bungo-Taketa, about 1 hour 15 minutes. The inn gives two ways on: the bus to the Nagayu Onsen roadside station, about 45 minutes, then about 23 minutes on foot; or a taxi from Bungo-Taketa, about 20 minutes.
Bungo-Taketa STN · JR Hohi Line, then the bus to the Nagayu Onsen roadside station
About 23 minutes from the Nagayu Onsen roadside station.
Bus about 45 minutes from Bungo-Taketa, or a taxi of about 20 minutes.
Where it is
Nagayu Onsen roadside station STN
- Kyushu Shinkansen 40 min
- Kyushu Odan limited express 2 hr 21 min
- Taketa city bus 45 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
Skip the shared baths and reserve a private bath.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (: the hot spring page lists three family baths)
Best for: working through the warm, open-air and bubbling cold tubs in a family bath of your own
Family baths from ¥2,400 for 50 minutes per room; the page does not say whether they can be booked ahead. Bath hours 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., last entry 8 p.m. Large bath ¥600 for adults. Eight rooms: six-mat Japanese rooms for two, two single Western rooms, and a 20-mat group room with shared toilets. Bath towels and combs cost extra. No credit cards. Curfew 10 p.m. The restaurant closes on Thursdays.
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