OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Nara

Dorogawa Onsen Kadojin

洞川温泉 角甚 · Dorogawa Onsen

Policy not published (day visit)Policy not published (overnight)

Can you bathe here with a tattoo?

This is the question we built the site around, so we answer it per situation.

Visiting for the day

They have not said

The tattoo policy is not stated publicly. Please contact the facility.

Staying overnight

They have not said

The tattoo policy is not stated publicly. A private or in-room bath is available, which is often an option for tattooed guests.

How it scores

Every onsen on this site is scored on the same five things.

ViewWaterComfortSettingAccess

Verified by the editor

View2
Water3
Comfort4
Setting4
Access3
×Somewhere to sit — Bathe and leave
○Anything else nearby — In the middle of things

A 350-year-old inn on the Dorogawa street whose baths were rebuilt in 2023 and are open to non-guests for 1,000 yen. The spring is a mild alkaline simple water at 30.7C, pH 8.29, so the draw is the building and the village rather than the water. Worth noting for tattooed travellers that there is an unbooked private open-air bath and some rooms have their own - but only if you stay, and the inn publishes no tattoo rule.

Every onsen on this site is scored against the same written rubric, and every score has been reviewed by the editor. The ones marked Visited were also bathed in personally.

The baths

Indoor bath

Two main baths, both renovated in 2023: Genroku-no-yu, a stone bath with ultrasonic and jet tubs, and Darani-no-yu (called Gyoja-no-yu on the day-use page), a bubble bath infused with phellodendron bark - the raw material of Dorogawa's traditional Darani-suke medicine, and the only bath of its kind in the village.

Open to day visitors

Private (kashikiri) bath

A private open-air bath on the second floor, a ceramic tub with the character for 'laugh' set into its base. It is not reserved - if it is free you lock the door behind you, for about an hour. The operator's day-use page lists only the two main baths, so treat this as available to staying guests.

Overnight guests only

In-room bath

Some rooms have their own open-air bath, usable around the clock.

Overnight guests only

A private bath means nobody else is in the water with you — often the practical answer if the shared baths are closed to tattooed guests.

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
8:00-9:30 and 13:00-21:00, though bathing may be suspended between 16:00 and 19:00 and staying guests have priority from 16:30 to 18:00. Check the operator's calendar - the baths also close for maintenance and group bookings.
Day visit price
¥1,000
Adults (junior high school and above) 1,000 yen, children 700 yen, under 3 free. No booking needed for the day-use baths, but ring ahead if you are making a special trip.
Staying overnight
Yes
Getting there
An inn founded about 350 years ago on the Dorogawa hot-spring street, within walking distance of the Ryusenji temple, the Menfudo limestone cave and the Gorogoro-mizu spring water. Nara Kotsu buses reach Dorogawa Onsen from Shimoichiguchi Station on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line, a handful of services a day. There is separate parking for day-use bathers.
Official website
kadojin.com/dayspa

Visit the official website ↗

Book it

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Check rates and availabilityBooking.com ↗Day-pass tickets and coupons for NaraAsoview (Japanese-language site) ↗

About the day-pass link: Asoview is the main place day-use onsen in Japan sell entry tickets and discount coupons in advance. It is a Japanese-only site, so use your browser’s translation — you show the ticket on your phone at the door.

What we have not confirmed

We would rather show a gap than guess.