Kounoyu
こうの湯
Does Kounoyu allow tattoos? In a private bath
The shared bath at Kounoyu is built to stand up in: 1.62 meters at the deep end on the men’s side, which the inn claims is the deepest standing bath in Japan, with a shallower one across the wall.
Every one of the nine rooms has an open-air or semi-open-air bath of its own, so a tattooed guest here bathes alone without asking for anything. There is also Ten-no-yu, a private open-air bath kept for staying guests, reserved at the desk and held for up to 50 minutes. Mori-no-yu, the big men’s and women’s bath with the deep standing pool, is shared and no tattoo rule is published for it.
Where it is
Hakata Bus Terminal
Kyushu Sanko coach 2 h 36
Kumamoto STN
Kagoshima-Chuo STN
Nagasaki STN
✈Kagoshima Airport
Hotel locationKurokawa Onsen bus stop
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 rather than a tattoo policy (the inn’s room page states that every room has its own open-air or semi-open-air bath, and its kashikiri page sets out the booking rule for Ten-no-yu)
Read on: kounoyu.jp/rooms.html
Best for: A room where the bath is on your own deck and the shared one is optional
Four rooms are free-standing and five are set in a terraced row. The inn measures the men’s standing bath in Mori-no-yu at 1.62 meters at its deepest and calls it the deepest in Japan; the women’s side has its own at 130 cm with a wooden bar hung from the ceiling. Ten-no-yu runs 15:00–22:00 and 7:00–9:00 and lends face towels only. Sister inn of Fumoto Ryokan. Day visits are listed on the association board at 700 yen, 8:30–21:00, last entry 20:30.
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