OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Gunma

Ikaho Rotenburo

伊香保露天風呂 · Ikaho 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

Rated from research

View3.5
Water5
Comfort3
Setting4
Access3
×Somewhere to sit — Bathe and leave
○Anything else nearby — In the middle of things

This is where Ikaho's brown iron water comes out of the ground, free-flowing and undiluted, in an open-air tub with woods around it rather than a hotel wall - by some distance the most characterful bath in Ikaho. There is no washing area and nowhere to rest, and it is a stiff walk uphill from the stone stairway, past the red Kajika Bridge that draws crowds in autumn.

Scored from official photos, maps and transport information — not from a visit.

The baths

Open-air bath

Open-air bath sitting at Ikaho's spring head, surrounded by woodland, using the Kogane-no-yu source free-flowing. IMPORTANT: there is NO washing area at all - no showers, no taps - so this is a soak, not a wash. Ikaho has two waters and English-language guides rarely explain the difference: Kogane-no-yu ('golden water') is the historic iron-bearing sulphate spring that runs colourless underground and turns rust-brown on contact with air, while Shirogane-no-yu ('silver water') is a much weaker clear, odourless metasilicic-acid water tapped later and used by many newer hotels. This bath is fed by the golden one.

Open to day visitors

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
Apr-Sep 9:00-18:00, Oct-Mar 10:00-18:00 (last entry 17:30 year-round)
Day visit price
¥600
Adults 600 yen, elementary school age and under 300 yen, disabled visitors 150 yen. Towels sold on site (face towel 400 yen, bath towel 1,200 yen). Closed the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month, but open if that falls on a public holiday, and open every day in August.
Staying overnight
No
Getting there
At the top of the hot-spring village above the stone stairway, about five minutes' walk on from the Kajikabashi car park (free, about 20 spaces). The Ikaho Town Bus runs up to the Kajikabashi and open-air bath area; to reach Ikaho itself take a Kan-Etsu Kotsu bus from JR Shibukawa Station or a Gunma Bus from Takasaki Station. On the walk up there is the only place in Ikaho where you can drink the golden water.
Official website
www.ikaho-kankou.com/spring/spa1

Visit the official website ↗

Staying nearby

Where to stay in Ikaho OnsenBooking.com ↗

What we have not confirmed

We would rather show a gap than guess.