Shiiba valley, about 3 km up the Shiiba river from the town Ryokan

Taishoya Shiibasanso

大正屋椎葉山荘

Does Taishoya Shiibasanso allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

Guest rooms set out like stepping stones along the Shiiba river, each facing a different piece of the valley, ten minutes by car above the last shop in Ureshino. The big outdoor bath is the widest in the area by the operator’s reckoning.

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.

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. The blue dashes are the way here from Hakata Bus Terminal: the Kyushu-go coach, which stops in the middle of the bath district rather than at the station two kilometers out, 2 h 12 in all; 2,200 yen against 4,870 by train, and eleven minutes slower; one run of the day stops at the expressway interchange instead, a 26-minute walk out. Taishoya Shiibasanso · 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, not a tattoo policy (the rooms page, which states 桧の内風呂は温泉です for each of the five types)

Read on: shiibasanso.com/rooms/

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.

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Others in the same group

More places in the Ureshino Onsen with private bath only

Ureshino Kodachi no YuIwayagawachi, up the valley south of the main onsen street → Banshokaku ShikishimaIwayagawachi, in the trees above the onsen street → Ryokan YoshidayaUreshino Onsen, on the river at the Iwayagawachi end → Chashin no Yado WarakuenShimono, south end of the onsen district → Hana no ShizukuIwayagawachi, on the Ureshino river west of the center → Ryokan OomurayaUreshino Onsen, on the river a few doors from Siebold no Yu →

All Ureshino Onsen listings →