Tattoo friendly onsen in Ureshino

Ureshino Kodachi no Yu

うれしの木立の湯

There is no shared bath here to be refused from. Every one of the eight baths is rented to one group at a time, so nobody else is in the water with you and no cover-up question arises. The operator publishes a long list of cautions about the place and none of them concerns tattoos.

Best for: Choosing your own tub, from a snow-hut shape to a maple tunnel, with nobody else booked into it

Weekdays 13:00–18:00, last reception 17:00; weekends and holidays 10:30–21:30, last reception 20:00. Closed Thursdays unless the Thursday is a public holiday. Fifty minutes, from 1,500 yen per person for the four Type B baths and 1,600 for the four Type A. Reserve the day before or earlier through YUASOBI, or by phone on the day; walk-ins are taken when there is room. Twenty free parking spaces. The operator states it is a separate business from neighboring Banshokaku Shikishima and asks for reviews under its own name.

Ureshino 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.

湯こもりの杜はタトゥーや刺青の方も安心してご利用になれます。日帰りにてご利用の方につきましては室料とは別に入浴料をお支払いいただきますが百年の湯・大浴場のご利用はお断りしております。

Best for: A tattooed traveler who wants a sauna, a cold plunge and a hot spring with a published yes attached

Yukomori no Mori opened April 2025: three separate cabins in the garden, each with a hinoki tub on the inn’s own source, a compact one-to-two person sauna, a cold bath and a small courtyard. Sixty minutes costs 4,000 yen on weekdays, 5,000 at weekends and holidays, 6,000 on peak dates; ninety minutes costs 4,990, 6,800 and 8,500. Open 09:00 to a 22:30 last reception, extendable in half hours when nothing follows. Sauna hats and ponchos are lent; towels are sold at reception; there is no wi-fi and no step-free access. Day visitors book online. The inn dates from 1916 and its large bath runs 15:00–24:00 and 06:00–09:00. Free transfers from Ureshino-Onsen STN by prior arrangement.

Wataya 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.

Best for: A room bath on 20,000 tsubo of riverside grounds with a bookshop, a roastery and a sauna in walking distance of your slippers

The kashikiri bath is suspended: the hot spring page says 当面のあいだ貸切風呂を休業させていただきます. Day-use bathing in the large bath Mikageden runs 14:00–21:00, last entry 20:00, at 1,300 yen for adults and 700 for elementary-school children, towels included; the Yudono Shinsho bath is for overnight guests only. The second and fourth Wednesdays the large bath opens at 17:30 after cleaning. Spring listed as 天然温泉、ナトリウム炭酸水素塩、塩化物泉（低張性弱アルカリ性高温泉）, source about 85°C. The tower block is a Kisho Kurokawa design.

Taishoya

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.

Best for: Bathing in the inn’s own 85 to 95 degree source without leaving the room

Shiki-no-yu takes day visitors 12:00–23:00 at 1,300 yen for adults and 600 for elementary-school children; Taki-no-yu, which has a mist sauna fed by spring heat, is for guests only and closes 12:00–15:00 for cleaning. Guests of either Taishoya or its sister Shiibasanso may use all four baths across the two houses, with a free car between them every half hour from 16:00 to 19:30. Source named 嬉野温泉 大正屋源泉, listed as ナトリウム一炭酸水素塩・塩化物泉（低張性弱アルカリ性高温泉）, 85 to 95°C, and drinkable. Detached wing 20 rooms, east wing 7 plus the suite, main building 25 tatami rooms and more.

Taishoya 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.

Best for: A room set on its own beside a mountain stream, with the bath already inside it

Shiiba-no-yu, which the inn calls the largest open-air bath in Ureshino, takes day visitors 09:00–21:00 at 1,300 yen for adults and 600 for elementary-school children; the indoor and outdoor Yama-no-yu is guests only, 06:00–11:30 and 12:30–24:00. Water here is cooler than in town: ナトリウム・炭酸水素塩・塩化物温泉（低張性 中性高温泉）at 48.8°C. The restaurant Yamaboushi sits beside the big open-air bath. Guests here may also use both Taishoya baths in town, with a free car.

Chashin 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.

Best for: Bathing in green tea, then retreating to a room bath that runs straight off the source

Forty-seven rooms in five types. The inn tempers the main baths with added water, but says the Sazantei room baths, the Suigetsu rooms and their bath, and the kashikiri bath Nagomi-no-yu all run straight from the source. Day-use bathing 11:30–15:00, last reception 14:00, at 1,400 yen for adults and 700 for elementary-school children, with the large bath closed Tuesdays for cleaning and the day after any closure. Spring listed as ナトリウム炭酸水素塩塩化物泉. Michelin Guide Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki 2019 gave it three pavilions.

Ryokan 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.

Best for: A private sauna bath at the oldest inn in Ureshino, with a record library waiting upstairs

Kashikiri baths: Kunpu-no-yu with a private sauna and cold bath (1 to 2 people), Shinsei-no-yu (1 to 2), Nene-no-yu (1 to 4) and Shoraku-no-yu (1 to 5). Fifty minutes costs 5,500 yen for day visitors and 4,400 for guests, reserved in advance, 12:00–23:00 with the last day-use slot starting at 21:00. The two large baths, rebuilt in 2024, take day visitors 15:00–22:00 at 1,100 yen for adults and 550 for children, and play ambient music the musician Shigeru Kishida wrote for the inn. Own source: ナトリウム－炭酸水素塩・塩化物泉 at 92.5°C, pH 8.17.

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.

Best for: A wide open-air bath room built for two adults, with children under school age not accepted

Five room types: suites over 70 square meters with a lavish semi-open-air bath, a 70 square metre premium with a wide open-air bath room, two deluxe grades over 60 square meters (one looking onto an oak), and a 50 square metre type sold only to guests in their twenties and thirties. Children from birth to pre-school age are not accepted, and some rooms are adults only. Shared shuttle wagon from Ureshino-Onsen STN by prior arrangement. The second parking lot is shared with the day-use private baths next door, which are a separate business.

Kotan Ureshino

枯淡嬉野

No tattoo rule is published. Most of the eighteen rooms answer the question anyway: they come with a stone garden semi-open-air bath on the spring, and four of those also have a private sauna. Two Retreat Twin rooms have only a hot spring shower and no tub, so check the room type. There is a rentable private bath as well.

Best for: A room with both a hot spring bath and a sauna in it, at a house that takes no children

Eighteen rooms, all non-smoking, guests must be of middle-school age or older. The top rooms, Imperial Sauna Terrace Suite Aoi and Executive Sauna Suite Akatsuki, have both bath and sauna and access to a premium lounge. Shared baths are open 15:00–24:00 and 06:00–10:30, with a self-loyly sauna at 80°C, a cold bath and an outdoor cooling space, swapped between men and women morning and evening. The hotel describes the water as a sodium bicarbonate spring. Transfers from Ureshino-Onsen STN are available.

Hana 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.

Best for: A room where the open-air bath comes with its own sauna and a wall-sized projector

The glass-walled shared baths are open 07:00–23:00 at 500 yen with towels extra, and the operator says both are fed straight from the source with a high-temperature sauna and a cold bath beside them. The rentable open-air bath keeps the same hours, with towels at 100 yen and bath towels at 200. Spring listed as ナトリウム―炭酸水素塩・塩化物泉（低張性弱アルカリ高温泉）. Note that the inn’s access line claiming a six-minute walk from Ureshino-Onsen STN does not survive a look at the map; it is well over 2 km.

Onyado 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.

Best for: A free private bath booked at the desk, in a small inn that still keeps an old-style reception counter

Room baths: Suzaku has a hinoki open-air bath onto a terrace over the river, Fujitsubo has a reclining open-air bath plus a stone indoor bath, and Kiritsubo, Yume-no-Ukihashi and Hanachirusato have stone indoor baths where the shower and washbasin taps run on the source too. The rented bath is free for guests from 15:00, last booking 22:00, subject to availability. Shared baths 15:00–23:00 and 06:00–09:30; the men’s is open-air only. An irori salon with free coffee, a foot bath and a river terrace are open to guests. Prices for the rented bath changed in November 2025.

Ryokan 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.

Best for: A rented family bath in earth-walled or rock-built rooms, with a jazz-scored lounge outside

Nineteen rooms, no two laid out alike, in grades from standard up to Onsen-tsuki Premium and High Grade. Day-use rented bath 4,400 yen for 50 minutes Monday to Friday and 5,500 yen at weekends and before holidays; day-use of the large baths costs 1,650 yen for adults on weekdays and 2,200 yen at weekends. The rebuilt Toyotama-yu has four tubs and its own sauna, and swaps between men and women: men 15:00–24:00, women 06:00–09:30. There is also a rentable bedrock bath, Tsuwabuki, and an Ureshino-tea steam room. Spring listed as ナトリウム、炭酸水素塩、塩化物泉.

Yadoya Uchiroji

宿屋うちろじ 本通り

Opened in 2024 with no tattoo rule on any of its pages. Three of the four room grades have their own hot spring: the two premium rooms, Asatsuyu and Yabukita, each with a private open-air bath on 100 percent natural spring water, and the superior grade with an indoor one. Only the standard room sends you to the shared bath, which has an indoor tub, an open-air tub and a sauna.

Best for: A 50 square metre corner room with its own open-air bath over the main street

Four room types, all non-smoking, sleeping one or two. Asatsuyu and Yabukita are 50 square meters with an open-air bath, twin double beds and a 120-inch projector; the superior is 30 square meters with an indoor spring bath. The shared bath carries the name Takeya, after the inn that used to stand on the site. Dinner is a French and Japanese kaiseki supervised by the chef from Ryokan Yoshidaya, which owns this house. A chocolate shop and a foot bath are attached. The hotel puts itself three minutes by car from Ureshino-Onsen STN, or about eight minutes by JR bus to Youth Sports Entrance plus two on foot.

Siebold no Yu

シーボルトの湯

The town bath publishes no tattoo rule at all, in either the city’s page or the tourism association’s. So the shared bath is a gamble, but the building also rents private baths by the 50 minutes at 2,500 yen for up to five adults, and that room is yours alone. Tattooed bathers who do not want to ask at the counter should book the kashikiri and skip the large bath.

Best for: A private 50-minute rental in a 1920s-style bathhouse for less than the price of a taxi

06:00–22:00, last entry 21:30, closed the third Wednesday of the month (the next day when that is a holiday). Large bath 450 yen adults, 220 children. Kashikiri-yu 2,500 yen per 50 minutes, up to five adults, plus 100 yen bathing tax per adult. Bring your own towel. The two hinoki private baths, Rindo and Sazanka, are shut for renovation; Himawari, Sakura and the barrier-free Fuji are open. Parking is free for the first 90 minutes. The city owns the bath and contracts the Ureshino Onsen Tourism Association to run it.