OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Kumamoto

Sakura-yu

山鹿温泉元湯 さくら湯 · Yamaga Onsen

Policy not published (day visit)

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.

How it scores

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

ViewWaterComfortSettingAccess

Verified by the editor

View1
Water3.5
Comfort4
Setting2
Access3
×Somewhere to sit — Bathe and leave
○Anything else nearby — In the middle of things

A town bathhouse whose building is the attraction: a full timber reconstruction of the 1640 lords' bath, open from 6am to midnight for 350 yen. There is nothing to look at from the water — one indoor tub per side and no open-air bath at all — but the water is genuinely undiluted at pH 9.62, and you step out into the Yachiyoza theatre district. The changing room is small and gets congested at weekends.

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

One large tub each on the men's and women's side, inside a 2012 rebuild of the bathhouse that stood here from 1640 as the Hosokawa lords' tea house — said to be the largest wooden bathhouse building in Kyushu. The operator states plainly that there is no sauna, no open-air bath, no cold plunge and no electric bath. Alkaline simple spring, pH 9.62, 40.0C, free-flowing from the source. Phones and cameras are banned in the changing room and bath.

Open to day visitors

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
6:00-24:00
Day visit price
¥350
350 yen for adults (junior-high age and over), 150 yen for children aged 3 to 12. Changing-room lockers cost an extra 10 yen coin; a change machine sits next to the ticket vending machine. Closed the 3rd Wednesday of every month (the next weekday if that falls on a holiday). No shampoo or soap is provided, but single-use amenities and towels are sold at the machine.
Staying overnight
No
Getting there
In the centre of Yamaga at 1-1 Yamaga, next to the Yachiyoza kabuki theatre and the lantern museum. Yamaga has no railway station: take a Kyushu Sanko bus from Kumamoto Kotsu Center (about 40 min) or from JR Shin-Tamana shinkansen station (about 50 min) to Yamaga Bus Center, then walk. About 20 parking spaces, plus two free hours in the adjoining Onsen Plaza car park if you show your ticket at reception.
Official website
yamaga.site/?page_id=1548

Visit the official website ↗

Staying nearby

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Where to stay in Yamaga OnsenBooking.com ↗Day-pass tickets and coupons for KumamotoAsoview (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.