Ryokan Tanabe
旅館田邊
Does Ryokan Tanabe allow tattoos? Yes!
Ryokan Tanabe has taken guests in central Takayama since 1934, and it pipes Hida Takayama hot spring water into a cypress tub and a rock tub that tattooed guests are told they may use.
Tanabe's FAQ says guests with tattoos may use the baths. It asks those with large tattoos to be considerate, for example by bathing at a quieter hour. There is no private bath; every room has its own bath, which is heated tap water.
The bath
Tanabe began using Hida Takayama Onsen in its indoor baths in 2009. The water is a simple spring, mildly alkaline at pH 8.1, clear and a little thick to the touch, and the inn passes on its local name, the beautiful-skin water. It is heated to bathing temperature, filtered in a loop and chlorinated. The inn lists it for chronic muscle and joint pain, stiffness, sensitivity to cold, fatigue and trouble sleeping.
There are two bath halls. One has an indoor tub of cypress, the other an indoor tub set in natural rock, and each opens onto a small outdoor space with a Shigaraki pottery pot bath. Only the indoor tubs hold spring water; the pots are filled with heated tap water. The inn admits the baths are not large and says guests value them for being in the middle of town.
Hours are 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., with the morning start moved to 6:30 a.m. from December to March. The two halls are not swapped between men and women at present. Shampoo, soap, razors, lotion and hair dryers are supplied.
The hotel
The inn opened in 1934, the year the Takayama Main Line was completed, and calls itself the longest-running ryokan in its district. The main building is more than 100 years old, built in the Hida style, and three of its second-floor rooms were redone in 2023. The new wing, Yubokuan, opened in 2009 with a different theme on each floor and ground-floor rooms with a half-open-air cypress bath facing a pocket garden. Dinner, a kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) with A5 Hida beef, and breakfast are served in the room or in a private dining room. A calligraphy by the novelist Ryotaro Shiba, who stayed in 1963, hangs by the front desk.
Good to know
- Large tattoos: the inn asks for consideration, such as bathing when the hall is quiet.
- Fresh-ground coffee is free in the lounge around the clock, self-service.
- No curfew, though from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. guests slide the front door open by hand.
- Parking is free but must be reserved, one car per room, with the car model given when booking.
Getting there
From Nagoya Station the JR Hida limited express reaches Takayama Station in about 2 hours 20 minutes on the inn's access chart; a direct Hida from Osaka takes about 4 hours 20 minutes. From Takayama Station the inn is about seven minutes on foot or about three minutes by taxi. It runs no shuttle. In rain or snow it suggests walking under the arcade along Kokubunji-dori street.
Takayama STN · JR Takayama Main Line
About 7 minutes.
No shuttle; about 3 minutes by taxi from the station.
Where it is
Takayama STN
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass ¥19,800 · 5 consecutive days Worth it if Gero, Shirakawa-go or Kanazawa is on the same trip.
- 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
Check in and go to the bath. There's no seal to buy and nothing to mention at the front desk.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (the FAQ page, under the heading on guests with tattoos)
ご利用いただけます。大きなサイズのタトゥーや刺青の場合にはご利用時間をずらすなど、ご配慮いただけますと幸いです。
The operator’s own wording. Show it if anyone asks.
Best for: a 1934 inn in the old town center whose FAQ welcomes tattooed bathers
Two bath halls, each with an indoor hot spring tub (one cypress, one rock) and an outdoor Shigaraki pottery pot bath. The inn states that the indoor tubs are natural hot spring and the pot baths are heated tap water. Room baths, the half-open-air cypress tubs of the Yubokuan ground floor included, are also heated tap water. Baths open 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (from 6:30 a.m. December to March); the sides do not currently swap. No private bath.
Book your stay
- BBooking.comCheck availability
- AAgodaCheck availability
- EExpediaCheck availability
- HHotels.comCheck availability
- KKlookCheck availability
Booking through these links costs you nothing extra and earns us a small commission, which keeps this guide free and up to date for our tattoo community. Thanks for your support.