Onsen Guide Japan
Kin no Yu (Arima Onsen)

Tattoo-friendly onsen near Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe

Kin no Yu (Arima Onsen) — Photo: Wpcpey / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Every Kansai hot spring we cover — Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and around — sorted by whether tattoos are allowed and who says so: the bath itself, a third-party list, or nobody yet.

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Kansai — Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and the prefectures around them — has some of Japan’s oldest hot spring towns, but there is no single rule on tattoos. Each bath decides for itself, and third-party lists online are often out of date. (Why that is, and what the law says, is in Tattoos and hot springs in Japan.)

The list below is every Kansai bath we cover, grouped by whether tattoos are allowed and who says so. That matters: in September 2026 we found a bath that a third-party site listed as “conditional” while the bath’s own website said tattoos are refused.

Quick answers

  • Osaka: the large spas in the city mostly refuse tattoos. Two allow them if you cover them with the bath’s own stickers.
  • Kyoto: Kurama Onsen, in the mountains north of the city, says tattoos are allowed.
  • Hyogo: Kinosaki Onsen (Toyooka) says all of its public baths allow tattoos, uncovered — see Tattoo-friendly onsen in Kinosaki.

Before you go

  • Where only a third-party list says “allowed”, call before you go.
  • Rules change. Check the bath’s own page (linked from each detail page) on the day.

The bath itself says yes (7)

Allowed if you cover the tattoo (5)

Allowed with conditions (2)

Only a third-party list says yes — call before you go (2)

The bath says no (30)

Not known yet (3)