Bettei Koyoi
別邸今宵
Rooms with an open-air bath of their own, the hotel is plain that the water in those is heated, not the spring, and a large bath with an open-air section on the spring itself. In the room nothing needs covering.
Check availability旅館
Ryokan where tattoos are not a problem
What a ryokan is
A ryokan is a Japanese inn. You sleep on futons in a tatami room, wear the yukata left for you, and dinner and breakfast are usually part of the stay. The baths are the heart of it: large shared baths divided by gender, sometimes swapped between morning and evening, and at many inns a private bath you reserve by the hour or a room with its own.
Ryokan range from a family-run house with a handful of rooms to a resort in traditional style. Prices are usually per person, meals included.
What to bring
Only your clothes. Yukata, towels and toiletries are provided, and dinner time is often fixed, so check it when you book.
Tattoos at a ryokan
At a ryokan the usual route is privacy rather than permission. A reservable private bath (kashikiri) or a room with its own open-air bath means you never share the water, so the rule for the communal bath does not reach you.
All 98, by area
Booking through a “Check availability”, “Book admission” or “Find a hotel nearby” button costs you nothing extra and sends a small commission our way — it’s what keeps this guide free for our tattoo community, and every policy on it checked. Thank you.
Hakone
Fuji-Hakone Guest House
Private baths, locked from the inside, and the guesthouse says on its English hot spring page that a tattoo is nothing to worry about in them, because they are private.
Check availabilityGora Hanaougi
強羅花扇
No restrictions. The ryokan answers it in its own FAQ: tattooed guests may use the daiyokujo, with no seal and no size named. Every room also has its own open-air bath.
Check availabilityGora Hanaougi Madoka no Mori
強羅花扉 円かの杜
No restriction. The ryokan’s FAQ asks whether guests with tattoos can use the large bath and answers that they can. Every one of the twenty rooms also has an open-air bath of its own on the house’s two springs.
Check availabilityGora Kadan
強羅花壇
Rooms with a private open-air bath have no rule to meet. In the large bath and the heated pool the ryokan’s FAQ turns on size: large tattoos are refused, and small fashion tattoos are allowed if covered with the taping the front desk hands out.
Check availabilityGora Tsuki no Izumi
強羅 月の泉
Nine rooms at an inn that calls itself a place for adults, every one with an open-air bath of its own, usable around the clock; the bath is yours for the stay and nothing needs covering.
Hakone Ginyu
箱根吟遊
Every room has a private open-air onsen bath, no restriction there.
Hoshino Resorts KAI Hakone
星野リゾート 界 箱根
Nothing to cover. Hoshino Resorts states group-wide that it does not restrict guests with tattoos, out of respect for other people’s cultures, and then, in the same sentence, reserves the right to refuse the bath where it judges other guests might be frightened. That second half is unusual to publish and worth knowing before you travel: the rule is discretionary, not a size limit.
Check availabilityMizu no Oto
水の音
Most rooms in the Suika wing have an open-air bath of their own, and the garden holds three private open-air baths, free and unbooked, on the two springs the house draws. Book a Suika room with a terrace bath (the semi-double has none) and nothing needs covering.
Check availabilityTsuki no Yado Sara
月の宿 紗ら
Every room has an open-air bath of its own by the Sukumo river, and there are two private baths besides, Katen and Gecchi, free, taken without booking whenever one is empty and open around the clock. Katen is heated water; Gecchi is the spring. Nothing to cover in any of them.
Check availabilityYamanochaya
山の茶屋
No restrictions. The ryokan answers the question directly in its own FAQ: tattooed guests may use the daiyokujo. Four communal baths, three open-air, one indoor, plus a reservable private bath in the valley.
Check availabilityYudokoro Suiun / Setsugekka Bettei Suiun
雪月花別邸 翠雲
Three private baths in the grounds, cypress, rock and ceramic, and rooms with a bath of their own. The ryokan publishes nothing about tattoos, so ask about the private baths when you book; the shared large bath is not one to count on.
Yudokoro Suiun / Setsugekka Bettei Suiun tattoo policy → · All Hakone →
Check availabilityTokyo area
Cyashitsu Ryokan Asakusa
茶室ryokan asakusa
Private rooftop bath, forty-five minutes for every room. The top floor has an open-air hinoki bath with a view of the Skytree, closed in by planting rather than walls, and every guest gets a private slot in it whichever of the ten rooms they book. The ryokan publishes no tattoo policy, and with no shared bath there is nothing for one to apply to.
Check availabilityKyoto area
Kyoto Yunohana Onsen Sumiya Kihoan
京都 湯の花温泉 すみや亀峰菴
A bath you book by the slot and take by yourself: the reservable open-air bath, the ryokan calls it 山の隠れ湯, the hidden bath in the hills, is two or three minutes up a gravel path from the guest wing, and costs 3,000 yen plus tax for forty-five minutes at one of ten set times through the day. Several rooms have an open-air bath of their own instead. Nothing to cover either way.
Kyoto Yunohana Onsen Sumiya Kihoan tattoo policy → · All Kyoto area →
Check availabilitySatoyu Mukashibanashi Yuzanso
里湯昔話 雄山荘
The large bath is closed to tattooed guests, and then the ryokan writes an exception in its own FAQ that this site has not seen in these words anywhere else: out of respect for other countries’ cultures, an overseas guest may buy a cover seal at the ryokan’s shop and bathe if it hides the work. Read the condition strictly. It has to be hidden, so this is an answer for a small piece and not for a sleeve. For anything larger, book a room with an open-air bath of its own.
Satoyu Mukashibanashi Yuzanso tattoo policy → · All Kyoto area →
Check availabilityKinosaki Onsen
Kinosaki Onsen Ryokan Tsubakino
城崎温泉 旅館 つばき乃
The sotoyu take you as you are, and staying here is how you get in free. The ryokan’s own bath is a separate question. Ask when you book.
Kinosaki Onsen Ryokan Tsubakino tattoo policy → · All Kinosaki Onsen →
Check availabilityNishimuraya Honkan
西村屋本館
The sotoyu take you as you are, and staying here is how you get in free. The ryokan’s own indoor baths are a separate question the town does not answer for its properties. Ask when you book if you want to use them too.
Check availabilityNishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei
西村屋ホテル招月庭
The sotoyu take you as you are, and staying here is how you get in free. The hotel’s own baths are a separate question. Ask when you book.
Nishimuraya Hotel Shogetsutei tattoo policy → · All Kinosaki Onsen →
Check availabilityTsuchiya
つちや
The sotoyu take you as you are, and staying here is how you get in free. The ryokan’s own bath is a separate question. Ask when you book.
Check availabilityTsutaya Ryokan
つたや旅館
The sotoyu take you as you are, and staying here is how you get in free. The ryokan’s own bath is a separate question. Ask when you book.
Check availabilityKusatsu Onsen
Ekinariya
草津温泉 益成屋旅館
Six private baths in a separate building, and each room comes with the key to one of them for the whole stay; the rooms themselves have no bath. Four of the six are tiled and run on the Yubatake source, two are cypress on the Shirahata source. There is a communal bath as well, and no published rule about it.
Check availabilityKei
草津温泉 炯-kei-
Three private baths, taken as you find them, no booking, no charge, you check whether the door is free and use it. Three of the seven room types have an open-air bath of their own as well. The ryokan publishes no tattoo rule, and its own building has no communal bath; guests may also use the large bath at its sister inn, Kanemidori, where the same silence applies.
Check availabilityKindai Pension
きんだいペンション
Five private baths, free, and open around the clock as often as you like: a barrel bath, a lava cave bath and three more. There is no communal bath in the building at all, which is the whole answer here and the cheapest version of it in this guide.
Check availabilityNikko
Asaya Hotel
あさやホテル
A one-point tattoo under a seal, and nothing larger. The hotel asks tattooed guests to keep out of the large bath and use a private bath or the one in their room instead, then makes an exception for a single small piece a cover seal hides. The seals are sold in the sixth-floor shop, so you can buy them after you arrive.
Check availabilityFufu Nikko
ふふ 日光
Every room is a suite with its own hot spring bath, drawn from the ryokan’s own source. There is a communal bath as well and no published rule about it, but nothing about the room bath depends on one.
Check availabilityHoshino Resorts KAI Kinugawa
星野リゾート 界 鬼怒川
Nothing to cover. Hoshino Resorts states group-wide that it does not restrict guests with tattoos, out of respect for other people’s cultures, and then, in the same sentence, reserves the right to refuse the bath where it judges other guests might be frightened. That second half is unusual to publish and worth knowing before you travel: the rule is discretionary, not a size limit.
Check availabilityKinugawa Onsen Hotel
鬼怒川温泉ホテル
A cover seal gets you into the large baths, and the hotel says what to do if it will not: use the bath in your room, or book one of the two private open-air baths. Both halves are on its own bath page.
Check availabilityAtami
Chikurin-an Mizuno
竹林庵 みずの
There is no shared bath to have a rule about. All fourteen rooms have their own open-air hot spring bath, and the six private baths downstairs are free and unbooked for guests: twenty-one baths in the building and not one of them communal.
Check availabilityFufu Atami
ふふ 熱海
Every room is a suite with an open-air hot spring bath on its terrace, fed from the ryokan’s own source, and that bath is the one to use. The shared open-air bathing area with the saunas is closed to guests with tattoos: the ryokan’s hot spring page says so, in the same line as children in diapers.
Check availabilityNew Tomiyoshi
熱海温泉 味と湯の宿 ニューとみよし
No men’s or women’s bath at all: all eleven baths and three saunas are taken privately, free and without booking, and every room has a tub of its own. Nothing here is shared, so there is nothing to cover.
Check availabilityUmi no Hana
海のはな
Every room has its own open-air hot spring bath, which is the whole of the answer here: nothing to cover, nothing to declare, and nobody else in the water.
Check availabilityYuyado Ichibanchi
熱海温泉 湯宿一番地
The large baths are unstated; the private ones are the way in. The ryokan has reservable open-air baths and rooms with their own, drawn from its two springs: six baths in the house altogether.
Check availabilityShirahama
Hamachidori no Yu Kaishu
浜千鳥の湯 海舟
Not the large baths, and the ryokan says in the same answer where to go instead: the private open-air baths. There are two, Sekisho-no-yu and Iwato-no-yu, both free and taken as you find them, no booking. Nothing to cover in either, and the sunrise from the second is the reason people set an alarm.
Check availabilityArima Onsen
Arima Onsen Gekkoen Korokan
有馬温泉 月光園 鴻朧館
Three reservable private baths, cypress, cave and wine, the cypress one step-free right to the water, which the ryokan mentions for wheelchair users and which matters to anyone who would rather not be looked at on the way in. The ryokan says the private baths are not hot spring water; for Arima’s spring in private, book a room with an open-air bath of its own.
Arima Onsen Gekkoen Korokan tattoo policy → · All Arima Onsen →
Check availabilityArima Onsen Ginsuiso Choraku
有馬温泉 銀水荘 兆楽
The clearest answer in Arima, and it comes from the ryokan itself: the large baths and the communal open-air bath are closed to tattooed guests, and its own FAQ then names the alternative. Take the reservable open-air bath instead, which costs extra. Nothing to cover, and nothing to explain at the door.
Arima Onsen Ginsuiso Choraku tattoo policy → · All Arima Onsen →
Check availabilityArima Onsen Nakanobo Zuien
有馬温泉 中の坊瑞苑
Not the large bath, and the ryokan says in the same answer what to do instead: book a private bath. Most rooms have an open-air bath of their own as well, which the answer does not need to mention.
Arima Onsen Nakanobo Zuien tattoo policy → · All Arima Onsen →
Check availabilityArima Onsen Taketoritei Maruyama
有馬温泉 竹取亭円山
Eight private baths, four open-air ones on the fourth floor and four indoor ones on the first, free to staying guests and booked after check-in, first come, first served. With that many and no charge, a stay here needs no seal and no permission.
Arima Onsen Taketoritei Maruyama tattoo policy → · All Arima Onsen →
Check availabilityKinzan
有馬温泉 欽山
The ryokan’s bath page refuses guests with tattoos in the large bath and the open-air bath, and in the same notice tells them to book a room with an open-air or half-open-air bath of its own. The Kiccho rooms, Kifune in the west wing and the East Wing rooms have that bath, on the radium spring.
Check availabilityYumura Onsen
Asanoya
湯村温泉 朝野家
Every room has the hot spring in it: the ryokan’s wording is that even the taps at the basin run on it, and six room types have an open-air bath of their own besides. The large bath and the open-air one carry no published rule, so the room is the answer.
Check availabilityKasenkyo Izutsuya
湯村温泉 佳泉郷 井づつや
The large baths are closed to guests with tattoos, and the ryokan’s FAQ points them, in the same answer, to its paid private baths, which you reserve, and to the rooms with an open-air bath of their own. Six Miyabi rooms and eleven others have a source-fed open-air bath.
Check availabilityNachi-Katsuura
Kumano Bettei Nakanoshima
熊野別邸 中の島
Book the Nagi-no-sho wing and a bath is yours: every room there has a private open-air bath above the water. The ryokan is clear that those room baths are not hot spring water; only the VIP room in the older wing has spring water in its own bath. The bath at the water’s edge, Kishu Choumon-no-yu, carries no published rule.
Kumano Bettei Nakanoshima tattoo policy → · All Nachi-Katsuura →
Check availabilityBeppu Onsen
Hanabeppu
別府温泉 竹と椿のお宿 花べっぷ
One family bath, named Egao, sits on the first floor beside the two large baths, and it is the only water here you do not share. The hotel’s own hot spring page prices it at 2,200 yen for 50 minutes and marks it 御予約制, so you reserve rather than wait for a free lamp. Hours are 15:00 to 22:00 with the last start at 21:00. Guest rooms have ordinary bathrooms, and the hotel does not describe any room tub as hot spring water, so the family bath is the plan.
Check availabilityOkamotoya Ryokan
岡本屋旅館
Three of Okamotoya’s rooms have a private hot spring bath, and it is an indoor one rather than an open-air one: Bokai at 51 square meters, Nogiku at 48 and Botan at 30. The inn describes all three as 源泉かけ流し, so the milky blue sulfur water reaches the room undiluted. Every other room type is listed as 内湯なし, and the inn runs no reservable private bath, so the room grade decides everything. The garden open-air bath and the two large baths are shared, and the inn publishes no tattoo rule for them.
Check availabilityRyotei Matsubaya
旅亭 松葉屋
Matsubaya has four baths you take alone and one large bath you do not, and the inn says guests may use all of them. Yakushi-no-yu and Meoto-no-yu are private open-air baths, Muku-no-yu is a private half open-air bath, and Usagi-no-yu is an indoor family bath. All five run free-flowing from the source. Six of the eight rooms in the Tsuki-no-so wing also have an open-air bath on the balcony, and Hatsune and Matsukaze have a view bath indoors.
Check availabilitySanso Kannawaen
山荘 神和苑
Kannawaen turns tattooed guests away from its large bath and says so on its own bath page, naming tattoos alongside intoxication. It does not need to end the stay, because every one of the 50 rooms has a hinoki or stone bath of its own fed free-flowing from the inn’s two private sources, and many rooms add an open-air tub as well. The room bath is the whole plan here, not a consolation. What you give up is Hono-no-yu, the blue bath the inn is known for, and the Kannawa steam bath beside it.
Check availabilitySin-an
匠晴の宿 心庵
All thirteen units are freestanding two-story cottages, and each one has both an indoor bath and a bath in its own garden, with the source poured in undiluted. There is no shared bath to negotiate and no meal service to sit through, since the inn runs room only and expects you to eat in town. Garden baths differ by unit: rock tubs, a full hinoki tub, ceramic bowl tubs and wooden barrels. Ran adds a convection sauna you can pour spring water over, and Chi and To add a low-temperature bedrock bath indoors.
Check availabilityTenku Yubo Seikaiso
天空湯房 清海荘
Seikaiso puts four private open-air baths on its roof, named for the Big Dipper, a shooting star, the galaxy and the Milky Way, each with its own entrance and its own tub. They run free-flowing from the source and they cost money even if you are staying: 1,000 yen for 45 minutes, against 2,500 on a weekday and 3,000 on a weekend for anyone walking in. Guests get an extra morning window from 7:00 to 8:30 that day visitors cannot book. Third-floor rooms billed as 半露天風呂付和洋室 add a half open-air bath in the room.
Check availabilityUmine Annex
別館うみね
There is no communal bath on the property at all. Each of the 23 villas is a standalone building with an open-air hot spring bath, an indoor bath, a low-temperature sauna and a cold plunge, all behind your own gate. The operator lists 温泉 in the equipment line of every villa type, so the water is the spring rather than a heated tub. The only shared water is a seasonal view pool that runs June through September and costs extra.
Check availabilityYamada Bessou
くつろぎの温泉宿 山田別荘
The open-air bath at Yamada Bessou is only ever used privately, and for people staying the night it is free. You book a 30-minute turn, and the inn allocates slots in the order guests check in, with the last turn at 23:00. The indoor baths are split by gender and open around the clock, so those remain shared water the inn says nothing about. Day visitors pay for the same private bath, which tells you how the inn values it.
Check availabilityYufuin Onsen
Hoshino Resorts KAI Yufuin
星野リゾート 界 由布院
Hoshino Resorts is the only operator in Yufuin that answers the question in writing, and its answer is that it does not restrict guests with tattoos. It keeps a discretion clause: if staff judge that other guests may be frightened, they may refuse the onsen or large bath. The cover-seal condition in the same answer applies to properties open to non-guests, and KAI baths are for overnight guests only, so there is nothing here to buy or stick on. Read the group answer as a yes with a caveat rather than a guarantee.
Hoshino Resorts KAI Yufuin tattoo policy → · All Yufuin Onsen →
Check availabilityOyado Nurukawa Onsen
御宿 ぬるかわ温泉
This is the cheapest private bath within walking distance of the lake. The family indoor bath is 2,000 yen for two people for an hour and the family open-air bath is 2,600, with 600 yen for each extra adult and 300 for each child. The doors are open 8:00 to 19:00, so a tattooed visitor can book one mid-morning without staying the night. The separate men’s and women’s baths carry no published tattoo rule.
Check availabilityRyotei Tanokura
由布院温泉 旅亭 田乃倉
Every one of the eleven rooms has a bath in it, so the shared baths are optional here. Five ground-floor rooms have an open-air bath; the upstairs rooms have an indoor one, in cypress in the twin deluxe. The annex, Nanagawa, is maisonette rooms that pair an open-air bath with an indoor bath. There is no kashikiri bath and no published tattoo rule for the two shared baths.
Check availabilitySaigakukan
柚富の郷 彩岳館
Five family baths, free to overnight guests, are the answer here. The ryokan says each booking gives you sixty minutes and that bookings are only taken after you check in, never before, with repeat slots if anything is free. Two of the five, Waki-no-yu and Ginjo-no-yu, are capped at one booking per room. Suites with an open-air or half-open-air bath are also sold. No tattoo rule is published for the large bath.
Check availabilitySoan Cosmos
由布院温泉 草庵秋桜
The two kashikiri baths here are not booked and not charged for: each pairs an indoor tub with an open-air one, and you take whichever is free. They run 15:00 to 23:00 and again 6:30 to 10:00. The detached rooms have their own open-air hot spring on tap around the clock. The operator says nothing about tattoos in the men’s and women’s baths, so do not assume those are open.
Check availabilityToshoan
湯布院温泉 東匠庵
Eight rooms, eight baths, no shared bathhouse to negotiate. The operator’s own line is that all eight rooms are completely private spaces with their own bathing place, in ceramic, cypress or stone depending on the room. The water is an alkaline simple spring. Nothing is published about tattoos because nothing needs to be.
Check availabilityTsukanoma
由布院温泉 束ノ間
Tsukanoma sells a day plan that hands you a whole detached cottage with its own bath from 11:00 to 18:00 for 8,800 yen a head, which is the version of this place a tattooed visitor can use without asking anyone anything. The 800-yen walk-in ticket only buys the big shared open-air bath, and the operator publishes no tattoo rule for it, so do not read the cheaper ticket as an invitation.
Check availabilityYama no Hotel Musouen
山のホテル 夢想園
Three family baths, Koyo-no-yu, Tsugumi-no-yu and Mejiro-no-yu, take no reservation and cost guests nothing. The hotel’s instruction is to check at the entrance whether the bath is occupied and walk in if it is not. The huge open-air baths that made the place famous are shared, and no tattoo rule is published for them.
Check availabilityYufuin Baien Garden Resort
由布院 梅園 GARDEN RESORT
Two standalone kashikiri buildings on the grounds solve this without a conversation at the front desk. The operator describes them as two rental baths for family, friends or a couple, and stocks them with baby beds. The large bath, Tenshin-no-oyu, has an open-air rock pool and a hinoki indoor pool and runs 15:00 to 24:00 and 6:00 to 10:00, but the resort publishes no tattoo rule for it.
Yufuin Baien Garden Resort tattoo policy → · All Yufuin Onsen →
Check availabilityYufuin Bettei Itsuki
由布院別邸 樹
There is no shared bath to be turned away from. The operator says all fourteen rooms across thirteen cottages come with their own hot spring, some open-air, some half-open-air, some indoors, so the only person who sees your skin is whoever you brought. No tattoo rule is published, and none is needed to book and bathe.
Check availabilityYufuin Hanayoshi
朝霧のみえる宿 ゆふいん花由
The operator’s own description of itself is a ryokan of detached cottages with open-air baths, and the room types on sale carry an open-air bath, some with a foot bath as well. That is the whole answer for a tattooed guest: bathe in your own cottage. Main-building rooms without a bath are also sold, so pick the room type carefully, and note that no tattoo rule is published for the shared baths.
Check availabilityYufuin Hoteiya
由布院温泉 ほてい屋
Nothing here asks you to cover anything, because the two best baths lock from the inside. Hoteiya keeps two kashikiri baths, an indoor one called Hotei-no-yu and an open-air one called Yufudake-no-yu, both free and taken in 40-minute turns, and eleven of its rooms have an open-air bath of their own that is yours for the whole stay. The operator publishes no rule about tattoos in the shared Benten-no-yu, so treat that one as unanswered.
Check availabilityYufuin Yasuha
由布院温泉 杜の湯 ゆふいん泰葉
Yasuha sells its two open-air kashikiri baths by the fifty minutes to anyone who walks in, guest or not, which makes it one of the few places in town a tattooed day visitor can bathe in the famous blue water without asking permission. The riverside bath takes four people for 2,800 yen, the mountainside one takes two for 2,300 yen, and fifteen more minutes costs 500. Four room types have a private open-air bath on the same water. No tattoo rule is published for the small indoor shared bath.
Check availabilityKurokawa Onsen
Fujiya
ふじ屋
Two family baths, both rock-lined and sized for two adults, and the inn tells guests to use them at any hour they please during their stay. Nothing to book, nothing to pay, nothing to declare. The men’s and women’s baths are shared and the inn publishes no tattoo rule for them.
Check availabilityFumoto Ryokan and the Rokuan annex
ふもと旅館＆別館 麓庵
Fumoto publishes no tattoo rule, and for anyone staying the eleven kashikiri baths settle the matter. All eleven lock from the inside, cost nothing beyond the room, and are used whenever you find one empty, 15:00 to 23:00 and 6:00 to 10:00. The two open-air baths the inn opens to tegata holders are shared, and a day visitor is bathing under a rule nobody has written down.
Fumoto Ryokan and the Rokuan annex tattoo policy → · All Kurokawa Onsen →
Check availabilityGenryu no Yado Hozantei
源流の宿 帆山亭
Eleven detached rooms, and the inn says every one of them has a hot spring bath of its own filled from the inn’s own source. That is the whole answer here: no tattoo rule is published, and a guest never has to get into shared water. Tengu-no-yu, the large open-air bath, is the shared one, and day visits to it need a telephone call first.
Genryu no Yado Hozantei tattoo policy → · All Kurokawa Onsen →
Check availabilityKounoyu
こうの湯
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.
Check availabilityKurokawa-so
黒川荘
Three family baths named Ichi, Ni and San-no-yu are booked at the front desk in 50-minute turns, free to staying guests and 2,500 yen to anyone not staying. That second figure matters, because the ryokan association’s own FAQ says day-use private baths in Kurokawa generally cannot be reserved, and here they can. No tattoo rule is published for the shared open-air baths, which day bathers may also use for 700 yen.
Check availabilityOkyakuya
歴史の宿 御客屋
No tattoo rule is published, and the two kashikiri baths carry the answer. Ichi-no-yu in cypress and Ni-no-yu in cut stone each hold two adults and each have their own changing room, and the inn says no reservation and no bathing fee apply: lock the door whenever one is free. The other five baths rotate between men and women, and day visitors paying 700 yen use them under nothing published.
Check availabilityOyado Noshiyu
お宿 のし湯
Five private baths, every one of them reserved for people staying: the tucked-away Soroku-no-yu, a standing bath about 120 cm deep, the outdoor Tsuki-no-yu, and two indoor family baths called Konara and Momiji. They are open from check-in to 22:00 and again 6:30 to 10:30. Six of the eleven rooms have a bath of their own as well, so the two shared open-air baths, which carry no published tattoo rule, can be skipped entirely.
Check availabilityRyokan Ichinoi
旅館 壱の井
Ichinoi answers the question on its own site, and the answer is that it does not restrict tattoos. Its FAQ says a great many tattooed guests have come and nothing has come of it. No seal, no size limit and no declaration at the desk are mentioned, and the inn draws no line between its own guests and the day bathers it admits with the nyuto tegata.
Check availabilityRyokan Misato
和風旅館 美里
Misato keeps a family bath open from 6:00 to 21:00, last entry 20:00, and that is the private answer here, since none of the twelve rooms has a bath of its own. The inn publishes no tattoo rule for the open-air baths it opens to tegata holders. It also publishes no price or booking method for the family bath, so settle that at the desk when you arrive rather than assuming it is free.
Check availabilityRyokan Nanjoen
旅館 南城苑
Three of the twelve rooms have a semi-open-air bath of their own fed straight from the source, one each on the first, third and fourth floors, and those are the rooms to ask for by name. The inn publishes no tattoo rule for its shared baths, so the room bath is the reliable answer rather than the assumption that silence means permission.
Check availabilityRyokan Okunoyu
旅館 奥の湯
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.
Check availabilityRyokan Yamanoyu
旅館 やまの湯
Two of the private baths here are indoor and need no booking at all: the inn says take one whenever it is free, 6:30 to 24:00, one of them filled as a herbal bath and the other as a charcoal bath. The open-air private bath is arranged on the day at the front desk, choosing a slot off a sheet. Day visitors are let into the shared open-air bath only, and nothing is published about tattoos there.
Check availabilitySato no Yu Waraku
里の湯 和らく
Every room at Waraku has a bath of its own, and the inn describes it plainly: open the windows wide and it becomes a half-open-air bath, yours at any hour and for as long as you want. Rooms take two adults and nobody else, so the water in them is never shared with strangers. The two communal baths, an outdoor one among boulders and a cave bath, are also sold to day visitors, and no tattoo rule is published for either.
Check availabilityShinmeikan
山の宿 新明館
Shinmeikan publishes nothing about tattoos, but it is one of the few member inns that hires a private bath to people who are not staying. Kajika-no-yu, a family bath, goes to day visitors from 12:00 to 15:00 at 1,500 yen for 40 minutes. Staying guests can reserve Kaze-no-yu, the open-air family bath, from 15:30 and take it free after 22:00. The cave baths and the riverside Iwato-buro are shared and carry no published rule.
Check availabilityYamabiko Ryokan
やまびこ旅館
Six family baths, and the inn states the terms without hedging: no reservations, no time slots, free of charge, day or night, for anyone staying. They include a standing bath at 150 cm, a round tub cut from marble, a step-free lying bath with a handrail and a pair of cypress tubs sized for a parent and child. Sennin-buro, the huge open-air bath, is shared and carries no published tattoo rule, and day visitors are admitted to the open-air baths only.
Check availabilityYukyo no Hibiki Yusai
湯峡の響き 優彩
Seven bathing places, two of which lock: Sugi-no-yu, which the inn describes as step-free, and Nagomi-no-yu, both indoor and both kept for staying guests. Special rooms with an open-air bath attached are the other way to bathe by yourself. The four large baths and three open-air baths are shared, two of them with day visitors, and no tattoo rule is published for any of them.
Yukyo no Hibiki Yusai tattoo policy → · All Kurokawa Onsen →
Check availabilityYumerindo
夢龍胆
Yumerindo is the only member inn that publishes a tattoo rule for the baths it opens to day visitors, and the rule has two halves. Tattooed bathers are turned away from the four large baths, except that a point tattoo, which the inn also calls a fashion tattoo, is allowed if you declare it beforehand and are mindful of other bathers. Anything bigger goes to the family baths, four detached buildings in cypress and cut stone that only staying guests may book, which is why this is filed as a private-bath answer rather than an open one.
Check availabilityIbusuki Onsen
Ginsyo
夫婦露天風呂の宿 吟松
No rule is published here, and none is needed for the baths that count. Ginsyo keeps three reservable open-air baths on its ninth floor, each held by one party at a time, and a long list of rooms with an open-air bath on their own balcony. The second-floor shared baths and the ninth-floor infinity bath are a different matter, since the operator says nothing about tattoos in either.
Check availabilityHotel Shougetu
指宿温泉 ホテル翔月
Shougetu publishes no tattoo rule. It does publish that nine of its ocean-view rooms have an open-air bath on the balcony running on water from the source, which is the answer for a tattooed guest. The large bath and its sauna are shared and unaddressed. The free shuttle, meanwhile, goes to the one operator in town that has published a rule, so the sand bath at the other end of the ride is covered as well.
Check availabilityIbusuki Hakusuikan
指宿白水館
Hakusuikan publishes no rule about tattoos anywhere on its site, and its terms of accommodation do not mention them either. What it does publish is that the rooms in the Iso wing have a hot spring bath of their own, fed from the source and left running, which answers the question for twenty rooms without anyone having to ask. The same FAQ is plain that there is no family bath here, so the Genroku-buro and the sand bath stay shared and unanswered.
Check availabilityIbusuki Syusuien
いぶすき秀水園
Nothing published, and two reservable baths that settle it. Syusuien has a pair of bathing suites, Hinoki and Midori, each with a sitting room attached and step-free access, booked at the desk once you have arrived. The large bath and its open-air section are shared and carry no stated policy, so the suite is the reliable route.
Check availabilityKoran no Yu Kinkouro
こらんの湯 錦江楼
No published rule, but an unusual way around it: from 15:00 to 18:00 the open-air bath is let to one party at a time, and the operator states that the rate is the same for visitors as for staying guests. That makes it one of the few baths in Ibusuki a tattooed day visitor can use without booking a room. Some rooms carry an open-air bath of their own. After 19:00 the same bath reverts to shared use, with nothing said about tattoos.
Check availabilityRyokan Kawakyu
昔ながらの小さな宿 川久
Kawakyu has two baths and no rule, because the two baths are locked from the inside by whoever is using them. The operator titles its own site with the phrase free private hot spring, and sells a dinner plan named after the private bath. Guests take either one whenever it is free, for as long as they like, at no charge, on water the house describes as running from the source with no water added.
Check availabilityYurian
温泉水プール&夫婦露天風呂の離れ宿 悠離庵
There is no shared bath here to have a rule about. Every villa stands on its own with an open-air bath attached, filled with undiluted hot spring water that the operator cools with well water rather than by adding cold to the source. Several villas also have a hot spring pool in the garden, which the operator suggests using in a swimsuit. For the length of the stay, nobody sees you bathe.
Check availabilityUreshino Onsen
Banshokaku Shikishima
萬象閣敷島
Every room here has an open-air or semi-open-air bath of its own, from the compact 50 square metre type up to the 80 square metre suite, so a stay does not require the shared bath at all. The inn publishes a long FAQ that covers cancellation, wheelchairs and pets, and says nothing about tattoos.
Banshokaku Shikishima tattoo policy → · All Ureshino Onsen →
Check availabilityChashin no Yado Warakuen
茶心の宿 和楽園
The inn says nothing about tattoos on any of its pages, including the FAQ. Its private options are unusually plentiful, though: seven Sazantei rooms each with a private open-air bath, five Suigetsu rooms with an open-air bath reserved for Suigetsu guests, two of the five Tsuki suites with an Arita-ware teacup bath, and two rentable open-air baths called Tsuyukusa and Nadeshiko.
Chashin no Yado Warakuen tattoo policy → · All Ureshino Onsen →
Check availabilityHana no Shizuku
華の雫
The inn does not publish a tattoo rule. It does publish a room list in which every room is named for its bath: open-air baths with a sunken kotatsu and a projector, open-air baths with a loyly sauna attached, and cave-styled or gilded family baths. A rentable open-air bath is open 07:00 to 23:00 on top of that.
Check availabilityOnyado Takasago
御宿 高砂
Takasago publishes no tattoo rule for Tono-no-yu and Hime-no-yu, its two shared baths. It does keep a rentable bath in the annex that guests use free of charge by asking at the front desk, and five rooms with their own spring-fed tub. Note that the cheapest rooms have no bath, so the room type decides the answer.
Check availabilityRyokan Oomuraya
旅館 大村屋
Oomuraya publishes no tattoo rule, but it does publish four private baths, which is more than anywhere else in town. Three plain ones and one with its own sauna and cold bath are booked by the 50 minutes, by guests and by people who are not staying. Several room types also carry their own semi-open-air, open-air or indoor onsen bath.
Check availabilityRyokan Yoshidaya
旅館 吉田屋
Nothing is published about tattoos across the whole Yoshidaya group site. Three rented family baths are: Anshin-yu in rock, Oumi-yu in earth walls and the open-air Kifu-yu, sold by the 50 minutes to guests and to day visitors. Rooms in the onsen-attached grades have a tub of their own, and the annex Worikara is let one building at a time.
Check availabilityTaishoya
大正屋
No rule is published for the two shared baths, Shiki-no-yu and Taki-no-yu. The reason to come anyway is that Taishoya pipes its own source into the guest rooms: the main-building tatami rooms say so outright, the detached rooms have hinoki tubs on the same water, and the Toukan suite Shokintei has a hinoki indoor bath and an open-air one. Ask which type you are booked into before you arrive.
Check availabilityTaishoya Shiibasanso
大正屋 椎葉山荘
Shiibasanso publishes hours and prices for its baths and no tattoo rule for either of them. The structure carries the answer instead: five of the six room types, including the riverside detached rooms, the maisonettes and the barrier-free room, have a hinoki indoor bath fed by the hot spring. Only the Type 3 tatami room is described without one.
Check availabilityUreshino Motoyu
うれしの元湯
This is the one operator in Ureshino that answers the question in writing. Its FAQ for Yukomori no Mori, the three detached rental baths in the garden, says people with tattoos can use them without worry. The same answer closes the other door: the large bath and the group’s Hyakunen no Yu day-use bathhouse are off limits. Day visitors pay a bathing charge on top of the room rate.
Check availabilityWataya Besso
和多屋別荘
Nothing is published about tattoos, and the rented private bath that would have been the easy answer is closed for the time being, so the shared baths are an unknown. What is certain is the room stock: the Miyabikan and Kachoen wings have rooms with their own open-air bath, and in the Suimeiso wing every room has a hinoki tub on the spring. Book one of those and you never have to enter Mikageden.
Check availabilityAwaji Island
Awaji Hamarikyu Besso Takumi
あわじ浜離宮 別荘 鐸海
Seventeen rooms, every one with an open-air hot spring bath on its own terrace, and no shared bath in the building at all. Guests may also use the garden bath at the main Hamarikyu house next door, which belongs to a group that refuses tattooed guests at its large baths; there is no reason to go.
Awaji Hamarikyu Besso Takumi tattoo policy → · All Awaji Island →
Check availabilityYumesenkei Besso Amahara
夢泉景別荘 天原
Every one of the eighteen rooms has an open-air hot spring bath of its own, and that is the bath to plan on. The group that owns the house refuses tattooed guests at its large baths in its FAQ, and the FAQ says nothing about the baths in the rooms, so book the room, and ask in writing if you want the room bath confirmed.
Yumesenkei Besso Amahara tattoo policy → · All Awaji Island →
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