OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Kumamoto

Shinmeikan

黒川温泉 山の宿 新明館 · Kurokawa 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. A private (kashikiri) bath is available, which is often an option for tattooed guests.

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
Access2
×Somewhere to sit — Bathe and leave
○Anything else nearby — In the middle of things

The hand-dug cave bath that made Kurokawa's name, and at 500 yen the cheapest inn bath in the village. There is nothing to see from inside a tunnel, which is rather the point; the open-air Iwato-no-yu on the men's side is where the daylight is. Day visitors can also take a private bath for 1,500 yen per group, which is unusual in Kurokawa — most inns keep those for staying guests.

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

The cave baths (dokutsu-buro), one for men and one for women — a tunnel some 30 m long that the late owner Tetsuya Goto dug by hand with a chisel and mallet over ten years. It is the image most people have of Kurokawa.

Open to day visitors

Open-air bath

Iwato-no-yu, an open-air rock bath (men's side).

Open to day visitors

Private (kashikiri) bath

Two mixed-use private baths. Free for staying guests; day visitors pay 1,500 yen per group for 40 minutes, bookable 12:00-15:00.

Open to day visitors

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.
10:30-15:00 (last entry 14:30)
Day visit price
¥500
500 yen — the cheapest inn bath in Kurokawa, and the 1,500 yen nyuto-tegata pass is accepted. A private bath can also be booked by day visitors at 1,500 yen per group for 40 minutes, no extension, 12:00-15:00 with last reception at 14:30.
Staying overnight
Yes
from about ¥23,100 per person
Getting there
At 6608 Manganji, Minami-Oguni Town, on the Tanohara river in the middle of the Kurokawa village, so everything in Kurokawa is on foot from the door. Kurokawa is reached by the Kyushu Odan bus from Kumamoto or Beppu, or highway bus from Fukuoka; there is no railway.
Official website
shinmeikan.jp

Visit the official website ↗

Book it

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Check rates and availabilityBooking.com ↗Day-pass tickets and coupons for Kurokawa OnsenAsoview (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.