East of the village, spread over its own hillside on the Tanoharu river Ryokan

Ryokan Okunoyu

旅館奥の湯

Does Ryokan Okunoyu allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

Nine baths are scattered across two thousand tsubo of hillside here, among them a cave, a bath on the riverbank and a thatched-roof pool, with three small ones off to the side that take a key.

Three of the nine baths lock, and all three are held for people staying: Ajisai-no-yu indoors in wood, Momiji-no-yu under a maple, and Take-no-yu, a small open-air family bath. They open 15:00 to 23:00 and again 7:00 to 9:30. The inn publishes nothing about tattoos, and everything else on the site is shared water, including several baths it runs as mixed bathing with a women-only spell from 20:00 to 22:00.

Where it is

Hakata to Ibusuki is about 3 h 25: the Kyushu Shinkansen to Kagoshima-Chuo, then the Ibusuki Makurazaki line down the coast, which the sightseeing train Ibusuki no Tamatebako also runs. Ureshino is about 1 h 20, a limited express to Takeo-Onsen and the Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen one stop further. Kurokawa has no railway at all: the coach from Hakata takes about 2 h 40 by way of Hita and Tsuetate. Ryokan Okunoyu · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

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 onsen page marks Ajisai, Momiji and Take-no-yu as 貸切風呂・宿泊者専用 with their hours)

Read on: okunoyu.com/spa/

Best for: A stay where the private baths are separate buildings rather than a corner of the bathhouse

Nine bathing places on about two thousand tsubo of ground, all on the inn’s own source, which it gives as 95°C at the wellhead. The shared set runs to a thatched-roof open-air bath, a river bath, a cave bath, a large indoor bath, a women-only open-air bath, a cypress bath and a mist sauna. Day visitors are received 8:30 to 14:00 and must be out by 15:00 at 700 yen, with no parking for them; the association board notes a bathing garment is lent for 500 yen for the mixed bath. The three private baths are not part of the day-use offer. The inn sells the nyuto tegata.

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Others in the same group

More places in the Kurokawa Onsen with private bath only

YumerindoKurokawa, on the Tanoharu river a short walk below the main lane → Yukyo no Hibiki YusaiKurokawa, above the river on the Kitakurokawa side → Oyado NoshiyuKurokawa, in the trees a few minutes above the village lane → OkyakuyaKurokawa, on the lane above the Jizo hall → FujiyaKurokawa, on the lane at the lower end of the village → Ryokan NanjoenKurokawa, built up the slope over the village rooftops →

All Kurokawa Onsen listings →