Can you bathe here with a tattoo?
This is the question we built the site around, so we answer it per situation.
Staying overnight
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.
The baths
Indoor bath
Seven of the inn's own springs deliver about 1,600 litres a minute. The signature bath, Gomuso-no-yu, is a two-storey open well of a room with the women's bath above and the men's below, and the water rising up through a pebbled tub floor; different tubs are kept at different temperatures. NOTE: the women's indoor bath at Gomuso-no-yu has been out of service since 2025 with no reopening date, so since 7 May 2024 Gomuso-no-yu and the adjoining Ouketsu bath run on a timed swap - women 15:00-21:00, men 21:30-09:30.
Open-air bath
Several open-air baths, including a garden open-air bath modelled on Shima's famous river potholes, and a rough mixed-bathing riverbed bath dug into the gravel of the Arayu River known as 'maboroshi-no-yu' (the phantom bath) because it disappears under water when the river rises.
Private (kashikiri) bath
A bookable private bath is available to staying guests.
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
- No — overnight guests only.
- Day visit price
- Not confirmedDAY-USE BATHING HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN. The inn announced on 1 June 2026 that both Shima Tamura and its sister hotel Shima Grand Hotel have stopped taking day bathers, in order to concentrate on overnight guests. Older guide pages still quote a day-use fee of around 1,730 yen; that is out of date.
- Staying overnight
- Yes
- Getting there
- In Shima Onsen. From JR Nakanojo Station take the Kan-Etsu Kotsu bus about 40 minutes towards the Shima Onsen terminus. The inn closes entirely on scattered dates - 15, 16 and 17 September 2026 among them - so check before booking.
- Official website
- shima-tamura.co.jp
Book it
The links below are affiliate links — we may earn a commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we list or how we score it.
Why Agoda for Japan: it lists a lot of ryokan and small inns that the Western booking sites never picked up, and it usually prices Japanese properties in yen, so you are not paying a conversion spread on top of the room rate. Worth comparing before you book — the difference on a ryokan is often larger than you would expect.
What we have not confirmed
We would rather show a gap than guess.
- The tattoo policy for overnight stays is not stated on the official website.
More onsen in and around Shima
Checked the same way: tattoo policy, private baths and day visits.