Ginzan Onsen Fujiya
銀山温泉 藤屋
Ginzan Onsen Fujiya — the facade, Ginzan Onsen · bryan... / CC BY-SA 2.0
Kengo Kuma's eight-room inn in the heart of Ginzan — five private onsen baths, and a design that sometimes forgets practicality
Fujiya is a three-storey wooden inn at the centre of Ginzan Onsen, renovated by the architect Kengo Kuma from a building around a century old, with just eight rooms, walls of handmade Echizen washi paper and screens of fine bamboo. Japanese guests agree on its two great strengths. First, the baths: there is no large shared bath, only five private onsen baths — stone, hiba wood, bamboo, an underground bath and a semi-open-air bath — open 24 hours, and recent guests repeatedly say they never had to wait for one. Second, the food, served in your room at both dinner and breakfast; breakfast, built around clay-pot yudōfu from a local tofu maker, is the top-scoring category on Rakuten Travel (4.80). Current large-sample scores are strong — 4.57 across 189 reviews on Rakuten and 4.3 across 307 on Jalan — and several 2025–26 guests describe staff going well beyond the call, from retrieving a dropped wallet an hour away to helping when a Shinkansen was cancelled. The recurring complaint is that the design wins over usability: rooms without numbers or door handles, hidden switches and outlets, a floor-level TV, hook latches on bathroom doors that one review flagged as a concern for elderly guests, and a lobby and baths too dim at night for older eyes. Newer reports add rushed, uneven room-attendant service and rooms that can be seen into from outside. At ¥41,000–61,000 per person with two meals, you are paying for the architecture: come for that, the private baths and the setting, and expect a few moments of hunting for light switches.
Latest updates
What newer Japanese stay reports, posts and official notices have added since this review was written
Official 2025–26 rates are ¥41,000–61,000 per person with two meals (Type C–A); bookings open 150 days ahead at midnight. Recent guests praise staff going out of their way but report rushed room service and rooms visible from outside.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
Type A / S300 (12-tatami Western-style room with private bath)
The rooms reviewers rave about: a bed, a dining table, high ceilings with exposed beams, Echizen washi and indirect lighting, plus a bathroom with both hand and rain showers. Note that the in-room tub is ordinary hot water — for onsen, you still use the five private baths. Official rates are ¥59,000 per person on weekdays and ¥61,000 Friday to Sunday with two meals (¥118,000–122,000 for two).
Type C (10 tatami with a wide veranda)
The entry room type: official rates are ¥41,000 per person on weekdays and ¥43,000 Friday to Sunday with two meals (¥82,000–86,000 for two), and a February 2026 guest paid ¥41,000. There's no in-room bath, which matters less here than elsewhere because every bath in the inn is private anyway. If you simply want to get in, the 'Ureshi kaiseki' plan (a smaller kaiseki, room type not selectable) costs ¥32,000–34,000 per person.
Request To Avoid
Any room if you value privacy — especially Type C veranda rooms
Three recent reports across different room types say rooms could be seen into from the street or the inn opposite, with no curtains; Type C's veranda looks straight onto the onsen street. Worth knowing if privacy in the evening matters to you.
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Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
4.5/5Served in your room at a fixed 8am: clay-pot yudōfu made with tofu from a local maker who starts work at 3am, a large grilled salmon, seasonal pickles such as watermelon and cherry, and carefully chosen rice
Meals are fixed — dinner at 18:00 for all guests and breakfast at 8am — and the station shuttle back to Ōishida leaves only at about 10:30 (arrivals run about 13:30 and 15:30), so reserve it once you've booked and plan your trains around it.
Dinner Insights
4.5/5A kaiseki of Yamagata ingredients served in the room. Reports mention iwana char, sashimi and Obanazawa beef grilled on a ceramic plate, and a duck hot pot as the main course in January. Reviewers consistently rate the food as the inn's strongest point, with local ingredients singled out.
Onsen & Wellness Realities
Ginzan Onsen hot-spring water in five private baths, described by one guest as leaving the skin 'しっとりツルツル' (moist and silky). In-room tubs in the rooms that have them are regular hot water, not onsen.
Every bath is private: stone, hiba wood with a gravel floor, bamboo, a warmer underground bath, and a semi-open-air bath with mountain views on the top floor (the coldest option on a winter night). There is no booking system — slippers left outside the door show a bath is in use, with no time limit — and five or more recent reviews say they never had to wait, though one found repeatedly checking for a free bath a little tiresome. Three found the baths too dim at night for older eyes, and two found the water very hot.
Not addressed in any source we read. Since there is no shared bath and all five baths are used privately, you won't be bathing alongside other guests either way.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Location is the inn's great advantage: it sits in the middle of the onsen town, on the photogenic riverside street. The free shuttle from JR Ōishida Station (about 20–25 minutes) runs only at about 13:30 and 15:30, timed to Yamagata Shinkansen arrivals, and must be reserved after booking; the return leaves about 10:30.
- 02
The shuttle drops you about 100 m from the door, where vehicles must stop. If you drive, the car park is about 8 minutes' walk away and staff collect guests by car.
- 03
Bookings open 150 days ahead at midnight, with no tentative holds or waitlist — cancellations reappear online automatically. Children are accepted (under 3 ¥7,700–13,200, ages 3–6 ¥17,600, 7–12 ¥22,000) but may be refused for bedding reasons, so phone first; solo guests pay two people's room rate minus one person's meals.
- 04
Check-in is 15:00–18:00 and check-out 10:00, with dinner at 18:00 for everyone; smoking is not permitted in rooms because the walls are handmade washi. Four recent reports describe rushed room-attendant service — plates cleared mid-meal, futons laid on the inn's timing.
- 05
Official prices per person with two meals, two to a room (weekday / Friday–Sunday): Type A ¥59,000/61,000, Type B ¥48,000/50,000, Type C ¥41,000/43,000, plus ¥5,000 on special dates; the cheaper Ureshi kaiseki plan is ¥32,000/34,000.
Before your stay
Souvenirs from Ginzan Onsen and practical help for your trip.
Ginzan Onsen souvenirs on Rakuten
Rakuten prices as of Oct 18, 2026 — check the shop for current price and stock. Supported by Rakuten Developers Rakuten links are affiliate links: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Things to do nearby
Ginzan Onsen: sights, experiences and seasonal events from Trip Gacha, our sister site.
Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
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Read the guidePhoto credits
- Koiwa Station (JR East), Tokyo · MaedaAkihiko / CC BY-SA 4.0
- Nagasawa Bungu Center stationery shop, Japan (2008) · Masahiko OHKUBO / CC BY 2.0
- AEON Style store, Okinawa · Naha Mama Pavilionz / CC0
More Consensus Reports
Ginzan OnsenClassic
Ginzan Onsen, Obanazawa, Yamagata — the towered wooden inn at the heart of the riverside street
12 sources
Notoya Ryokan
銀山温泉 能登屋旅館
The towered Taisho-era inn everyone photographs in Ginzan — warm service, a cave bath and a waterfall-view bath, but book a river-side room and expect an audience
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoTakayu OnsenClassic
Takayu Onsen, Fukushima city — a 50-room mountain inn about 16 km (30 minutes by car or the inn's shuttle bus) from JR Fukushima Station
10 sources
Takayu Onsen Ryokan Tamagoyu
高湯温泉 旅館 玉子湯
Takayu's best-known inn: a thatched bath hut from 1868 and garden rock baths full of free-flowing, bluish-milky sulphur water — with dated rooms, thin walls and a paid private bath
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoTakeo OnsenPremium
Takeo Onsen, Saga — inside the 150,000-tsubo Mifuneyama Rakuen garden, about 5 minutes by car (free shuttle) from Takeo-Onsen Station
9 sources
Onyado Chikurintei
御宿 竹林亭
Eleven rooms, each with its own open-air bath, set inside the Mifuneyama Rakuen garden, with in-room kaiseki on old Imari and Arita ware and two MICHELIN Keys — but the onsen is heated and not free-flowing, and some rooms show their age
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoTakeo OnsenValue
Takeo Onsen, Saga — in the middle of the hot-spring town, about 5 minutes' walk from the vermilion Rōmon gate and 8 minutes from JR Takeo-Onsen Station
9 sources
Takeo Onsen Kyotoya
武雄温泉 大正浪漫の宿 京都屋
A 1910 inn in the middle of Takeo Onsen, kept as a Taishō-era time capsule of music boxes, gramophones and pick-your-own-cup coffee — now room-only with a free bread breakfast, and its own spring is heated and recirculated in an ageing building
- Historic Ryokan
Tamatsukuri OnsenValue
Tamatsukuri Onsen, Matsue, Shimane — a large garden inn in the heart of the spa town
12 sources
Chorakuen
玉造温泉 湯之助の宿 長楽園
Japan's biggest mixed open-air bath in a 10,000-tsubo garden, made approachable with bathing wraps for everyone — at a big, dated, Showa-era inn with so-so food
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoTamatsukuri OnsenPremium
Tamatsukuri Onsen, Matsue, Shimane — on the onsen town's riverside, 5 minutes by car (station pickup by reservation) from JR Tamatsukuri-Onsen Station
9 sources
Kasuien Minami
佳翠苑 皆美
Tamatsukuri's big, polished all-rounder: 108 rooms with plenty of free-flowing in-room onsen baths, a rooftop view bath, sea-bream rice and very high guest scores — but it's large enough for check-in queues, tour groups and a crowded breakfast
Read the ConsensusPhoto credits: Notoya Ryokan in the snow, Ginzan Onsen · さかおり / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Takayu Onsen in winter, Fukushima · Purplepumpkins / Public domain / Takeo Onsen Rōmon gate, Saga · Viy4092 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Chorakuen — the garden, Tamatsukuri Onsen · 663highland / CC BY 2.5 / The Tamayu River in spring, Tamatsukuri Onsen, Shimane · Matsue / CC BY-SA 4.0
Ginzan Onsen Fujiya
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