Ikaho Onsen Tsukagoshiya Shichibee

An Edo-era Ikaho inn whose indoor bath pours the iron-brown 'golden' spring free-flowing, with warm, attentive service and table-grilled Gunma beef at modest prices — but the outdoor baths aren't hot-spring water, meals are mostly in halls, and 2026 reviews flag an ageing building

Tsukagoshiya Shichibee dates from the Bunkyū era at the end of the Edo period — the inn gives 1863 — and calls itself an inn loved by the painter-poet Takehisa Yumeji. The family company moved to the present site in 1963 and adopted the Shichibee name in 2004; the building is modern Japanese in style, with mostly tatami rooms, banquet halls and a 180-seat convention hall that hint at its group-tour side. It sits on a steep lane 10–15 minutes' walk below Ikaho's stone steps. The draw is the water: the inn says it is one of only eight ryokan holding rights to Ikaho's source, and its indoor bath runs the brown, iron-rich Kogane-no-yu ('golden water') free-flowing — so dense that one 2026 guest watched the sediment swirl up 'like miso soup' and found their towel tinted brown. Japanese guests rate it 4.40 across 934 reviews on Rakuten Travel, with service at 4.57 and baths at 4.51; first-hand blogs date from 2022 to 2024, so most recent evidence comes from booking-site reviews. Those reviews and the blogs praise the staff (pick-ups from the bus stop and lifts to the stone steps), roomy 10–12-mat rooms and renovated bedroom suites, dinners built around Gunma beef, pork or chicken grilled at the table with rice cooked in your own small pot, and konnyaku daifuku for dessert. The catches: the outdoor baths are not hot-spring water, and two October 2026 guests noticed chlorine there; meals are mostly served in halls. Other 2026 complaints include a dirty toilet, dust and musty smells in an older building, untidy changing rooms, sold-out vending machines, and two guests who felt the food had slipped or didn't match the price. Two-meal plans on Rakuten run about ¥14,300–24,200 per person for two sharing.