Tattoo friendly onsen in Yamanaka

Kissho Yamanaka

吉祥やまなか

The inn’s bath page puts the rule under both of its large baths: tattoos are not restricted, but tattoos that could look intimidating or make other guests uncomfortable are declined. That leaves the call to the staff, and the page gives no size or style that counts. Three private baths (cypress, rock and stone) cost nothing for 50 minutes, booked on arrival in the order guests ask, which is the safe route for anything large.

※タトゥー・刺青の制限はございませんが、すべてのお客様が快適にお過ごしいただけるよう、威圧感や不快感を与える可能性のあるタトゥー・刺青は、ご遠慮いただいております。

Best for: A small or discreet tattoo in a riverside open-air bath, with a free private bath held in reserve

The wording is new to the guide: no restriction in principle, with the house reserving the right to turn away a tattoo it judges intimidating. Private baths 一笑 and 竹雀 (open-air) and 友琴 (indoor, barrier-free) run 13:00–23:00 and 6:00–10:30, 50 minutes each, free, booked at the desk after arrival (FAQ: 当日先着順で50分無料). Large baths 13:00–01:00 and 01:45–11:00, men and women swapped overnight; saunas in both. Guests may also use the baths at the sister inn Kagari Kisshotei by shuttle, and that inn publishes no tattoo rule of its own. Open and selling rooms: Booking.com had rates for 3 February 2027 when checked on 16 September 2026; the Yamanaka Onsen association lists it among current member inns. Not in the Noto earthquake zone.

Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Yamanaka Grand Hotel

大江戸温泉物語Premium 山中グランドホテル

The hotel refuses tattooed guests in its large baths unless the tattoo is fully covered by the hotel’s own cover seals, which it sells. The group’s FAQ sets the limit: whatever two 10 × 14 cm seals can hide, at 220 yen each from the front desk. The same notice appears on the day-bathing page, so it applies to walk-in bathers too.

※入れ墨・タトゥーのある方は大浴場をご利用いただけません。ただし、当館指定のカバーシール（有料）を貼って、入れ墨、タトゥーが完全に覆える場合に限り、大浴場をご利用いただけます

Best for: Terraced indoor tubs and a sauna for someone whose tattoo fits under two seals

Reopened after renovation on 1 February 2025 (association listing). Two bath halls, Ayatori-no-yu and Kakusen-no-yu, swapped between men and women; indoor baths laid out as stepped tanayu, open-air baths in both, saunas, and a water bath in pots. Water is heated and recirculated. Bathing 15:00–24:00 and 2:00–10:00. Day bathing without reservation 7:00–10:00 and 15:00–24:00, last entry 22:00: adults 900 yen weekdays, 1,200 weekends, 1,400 on peak days; towel 330 yen. Group FAQ: tattoos, pseudo-tattoo stickers and body paint are all covered by the rule.

Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Yamanaka Saichoraku

大江戸温泉物語 山中彩朝楽

Saichoraku carries the group’s standard notice on its own bath page: no large bath for a visible tattoo, but a tattoo completely covered with the hotel’s paid seals may go in. The group FAQ caps it at what two 10 × 14 cm seals will cover and prices each seal at 220 yen at the front desk.

※入れ墨・タトゥーのある方は大浴場をご利用いただけません。ただし、当館指定のカバーシール（有料）を貼って、入れ墨、タトゥーが完全に覆える場合に限り、大浴場をご利用いただけます

Best for: The cheapest Ooedo room in Yamanaka, for a tattoo small enough to seal

Formerly Yukai Resort Hana Saichoraku; the old yukai-r.jp address now redirects to the Ooedo page. One indoor bath and one open-air bath, swapped between men and women, plus sauna and a low-temperature ganban-yoku (rock bath, wear and towel 330 yen). The water is diluted, heated and recirculated. The baths open at 15:00, close at midnight and reopen 2:00–10:00. 71 rooms, buffet dinner and breakfast.

Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Premium Yoshinoya Irokuen

大江戸温泉物語Premium よしのや依緑園

The seal rule here reaches one step further than at the group’s other Yamanaka houses: it covers the TOTONOI sauna floor as well as the large baths. Cover the tattoo completely with the hotel’s paid seals and both are open; the group FAQ allows up to two 10 × 14 cm seals at 220 yen each. A barrel sauna for up to four can be rented by the group, but it is a sauna, not a bath.

※入れ墨・タトゥーのある方は大浴場、およびサウナ専用エリア「TOTONOI」をご利用いただけません。ただし、当館指定のカバーシール（有料）を貼って、入れ墨、タトゥーが完全に覆える場合に限りご利用いただけます

Best for: Sauna people: a seventh-floor sauna deck over the gorge, reachable with a sealed tattoo

Open-air and indoor baths Kiku-no-yu (women) and Basho-no-yu (men), not swapped; single-strength spring, diluted, heated and recirculated. TOTONOI sauna area needs a swimsuit or sauna wear. Private barrel sauna 15:00–23:00 and 7:30–9:30, 90 minutes for 3,950 yen, same-day booking only, four people. The inn’s former second villa reopened on 13 April 2024 as Kaga Iryokuen, a separate paid garden and museum (600 yen, closed Thursdays); it is not part of the hotel.

Miyakowasure no Yado Korogiro

みやこわすれの宿 こおろぎ楼

Korogiro has no shared bath at all. The inn’s own facilities page says the baths are in the rooms, and every one of its six rooms has a hot spring tub of its own, so the tattoo question never comes up. No tattoo policy is published, and none is needed.

Best for: Staying somewhere with no communal bath to worry about, beside Korogi Bridge

Six rooms, all with their own bath on the town’s mixed spring: Momiji and Ayatori (100 m², semi-open-air tub 150 × 150 cm), Tsubaki (a 270 × 400 cm rock open-air bath), the detached Toki and Yui (open-air bath and deck), and Kajika (lacquered open-air bath, source water flowing through). Meals are served in the room. The rooftop terrace and lounge are for guests of junior high age and older. The inn says it is over a hundred years old.

Yamanaka Onsen Hanamurasaki

山中温泉 花紫

Hanamurasaki says nothing about tattoos. Its three suite types (Art Suite, Modern Suite and Universal Suite) each come with a private hot spring bath and a sauna in the room, which is how a tattooed guest bathes here. The other room types are not described with a private onsen, so book a suite.

Best for: A private bath and sauna in the room, with art made for the suite by local craftspeople

Two shared baths: an open-air bath on the top floor and a large bath beside the gorge. Every room faces Kakusenkei. The Art Suite has an open-air bath, a sauna and work by local artists; the Modern Suite has a private onsen, a sauna and a lacquered sunken kotatsu table; the Universal Suite, about twice a standard room, has an open-air bath and a sauna. 27 rooms. The association describes its dinner as the only a la carte kaiseki in Japan.

Yamanaka Onsen Kagari Kisshotei

かがり吉祥亭

Kagari Kisshotei publishes no tattoo rule, even though its sister inn up the road prints one. Its answer is two private baths, one of cypress and one of rock, at 3,000 yen for 45 minutes, booked at the desk on arrival. Three top-floor rooms (Mochizuki, Jougen and Shingetsu) have a view bath with running spring water.

Best for: Rock and cypress private baths, and three rooms with their own flowing spring tub

Shared baths: a standing open-air bath about a meter deep beside the stream, a Shigaraki-ware pot bath and a rock open-air bath, plus indoor baths; cleaning 2:00–2:45. Private baths first come, first served after check-in, 45 minutes, 3,000 yen including tax (FAQ). The Hoshi room has a hot spring indoor bath. Guests of Kissho Yamanaka can shuttle over to bathe here, and that inn’s tattoo note is printed on its own page only. 48 rooms.

Yamanaka Onsen Ohanami Kyubei

お花見久兵衛

Ohanami Kyubei publishes no tattoo rule, and it has three private open-air baths that are free to staying guests, booked on the day in order of asking. The large baths are indoor only, so the private baths are also where the view is. Rooms of the Rokushoan type have their own open-air tub.

Best for: Free private open-air baths over the gorge, including one big enough for a family

FAQ: 大浴場が男女1ヶ所ずつ(内風呂のみ)、貸切露天風呂が3ヶ所; all three private baths are free, reserved on the day. One is a compact box tub; another the inn calls one of the largest view baths in Kaga. Private sauna WABISABI costs 3,300 yen for 50 minutes, any number of people. Day plans include one with a private open-air bath, limited to three groups a day; adult day bathing alone is 1,650 yen plus bathing tax. Cherry blossom theme, 42 rooms.

Kuriya Yasohachi

厨八十八

Yasohachi publishes no tattoo rule. Its room with an open-air bath on the terrace, a Japanese room of 12.5 mats with a sunken kotatsu, is the private option, and the inn sells it to two groups a day. Everything else here shares the large bath.

Best for: A terrace bath facing a bamboo grove, away from the gorge crowds

Rooms page: 【露天風呂付き】和室12.5畳＋踏込（堀炬燵付き）, 1日2組様限定. Large baths with a log lying across the tub and an open-air bath facing bamboo; a powder room in the large bath. 21 rooms; the lobby looks over a rice-field terrace. Closed for building maintenance on 22 July 2026 (news page), otherwise operating.

Kochou

日本が香る宿 胡蝶

Kochou publishes no tattoo rule. It has one private bath, Yamanami, which the inn calls somewhat roomy and meant for families, and two rooms, Korogi and Kurodani, with open-air baths. The Jurakudai, a detached shoin-style building let as one unit, has its own indoor and open-air bath.

Best for: An eight-room kaiseki inn where the family bath and two rooms answer the question

Shared baths Tsukikage (indoor into a garden open-air bath) and Kawakaze (facing Kakusenkei and Ayatori Bridge) swap between men and women at 22:00. Private bath fee and booking method not stated on the page. The spring is drinkable, calcium sodium sulfate at 48.3°C. Kochou also sells a paid membership scheme with annual stays, published on its own site; ordinary bookings are open to anyone.

Shirasagiyu Tawaraya

白鷺湯たわらや

Tawaraya publishes no tattoo rule. It rents one private open-air bath facing the gorge, 3,300 yen for 45 minutes, booked by phone ahead of time in order of calls, and it sells four types of room with their own source-fed bath, all added since 2022. Take one of those and the shared bath never matters.

Best for: A room with its own sauna and source-water open-air bath above the gorge

Private bath 6:00–11:00 and 15:00–0:00; the official site offers 1,100 yen off it when booking direct. Room types: sauna and source open-air bath special room, in-room dining and open-air bath special room (both April 2023), source open-air bath and sauna twin, and a semi-open-air bath special room (March 2022). The riverside open-air bath Kakusen holds about thirty; a sauna and semi-open-air bath opened in November 2025. The inn says it has the most spring water in Yamanaka, 90 liters a minute, and that it has passed down 800 years. Tattoo-ja.com marks it tattoo OK only on a sauna site’s say-so and notes the official site says nothing.

Suimei

お風呂自慢の宿 翠明

Suimei publishes no tattoo rule and makes up for it with three private open-air baths (cypress, binchotan charcoal and natural stone), 50 minutes for 3,000 yen before tax, booked by phone. Twenty-two rooms have their own open-air bath. On weekdays a day visitor can rent a private open-air bath with a ten-mat room attached, 4,500 yen for up to four.

Best for: A day visitor with tattoos: the rentable stone open-air bath on weekday afternoons

Private baths for staying guests 15:00–23:00 and 6:00–9:00. Day-use private bath, weekdays only (not Golden Week, Obon or New Year), 15:00–21:00, phone the same day 15:00–19:30; price includes towels and bathing tax for adults; no station pickup. Marble large baths with a garden open-air bath, not swapped. Rooms with open-air baths in the Suimei and Katsura Misono wings. 81 rooms. The association says Jalan users ranked it first in Kinki and Hokuriku for fourteen straight years.

Oiwai no Yado

お祝いの宿

Oiwai no Yado publishes no tattoo rule. It has two private baths, one of cypress and one with a jacuzzi, at 4,400 yen for 45 minutes between 15:00 and 21:00; the bath page says to reserve by phone and the FAQ says to ask at the desk what is free.

Best for: A budget stay with a rentable jacuzzi private bath

The bath page carries a notice that the usual men’s and women’s swap is suspended for now, with no swap 15:00 to 9:00 and the baths closed 9:00–15:00 for cleaning. Large bath Kakusen-no-yu on source no. 8 at full strength, with medicinal bath, pot bath, sauna and open-air bath. 41 rooms.

Yamanaka Onsen Hanatsubaki

湯畑の宿 花つばき

Hanatsubaki publishes no tattoo rule. Four rooms have a cypress open-air tub of their own, which is the way to bathe here without sharing. The Yubatake, its terraced open-air baths down by the stream, is mixed bathing in a bathing garment, and still a shared bath with no stated rule.

Note: The cypress tubs in the four open-air-bath rooms are ordinary heated water, not hot spring water. The inn’s own room page says so, and it rents no private bath on the spring.

Best for: A cypress tub on your own balcony, if spring water in it is not the point

Yubatake: terraced mixed open-air tubs by the Shinsenkyo stream, 65 steps down, bathing garments for men and women, 15:00–23:00 and 6:00–10:00. Day bathing 15:00–20:00, adults 1,600 yen, cash only. 48 rooms. On Booking.com (yamanaka-onsen-hanatsubaki), taking reservations for 2027-02-03.