Sumiya Kiho-an
京都 湯の花温泉 すみや亀峰菴
Area photo — not the ryokan itself · Arashiyama and the Hozu River, Kyoto · KimonBerlin / CC BY-SA 2.0
A quiet hot-spring inn half an hour from Kyoto, with rice cooked over a kamado, inari sushi left in your room at night and an art-filled lobby — choose a room with its own onsen bath, and expect some dated corners
Sumiya Kiho-an began in 1955 as Sumiya, an inn opened by a family of charcoal merchants, and took its present name in 1988; it celebrated its 70th year in 2025–26. It has 25 rooms in the hills of Yunohana Onsen, a simple weakly radioactive (radon) spring in Kameoka, easy to reach from Kyoto by JR and the inn's shuttle. Food is the strongest point: one major site scores it 4.60, the highest of its categories. Dinner is a monthly Kyoto kaiseki with Kameoka beef and Koshihikari rice cooked in a kamado, and bloggers from 2022 to 2026 all mention the inari sushi left in the room as a late-night snack. In 2021–22 the inn added a lobby gallery by artist Yanagi Yukinori and a 140㎡ art suite. Japanese guests rate it 4.40 across 122 reviews, 4.38 across 279 and 4.8 across 118 on three major sites. The weak points are older rooms (one suite's staff said it was 30-plus years old), lukewarm in-room baths in summer, bugs in the wooded rooms, uneven service in late 2025 and 2026, and no coffee in the rooms.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
The six onsen open-air-bath rooms — Honami, Seon, Sawarabi, Tōgasumi, Tsukioboro, Seiyū (68–100㎡)
The official site markets these as having free-flowing onsen open-air baths. A January 2022 blogger in Honami loved its in-room foot bath. A May 2023 guest in Seon bathed four times and enjoyed its private counter dining, and a repeat guest stayed in Seiyū, with its jacuzzi and stone sauna, twice in early 2026.
Art Room Kohoo (呼風, 140㎡)
Opened in April 2022 with two onsen baths ('heaven and earth'). A March 2023 couple paid ¥223,900 for two with both meals, and dinner included fugu, salt-baked nodoguro and sukiyaki cooked at the table by the chef.
Request To Avoid
Older suites, and the Yama-no-Terrace rooms (44㎡)
Honami is dark and has no view, according to a 2022 guest. Seon is over 30 years old, and a 2023 guest noticed a worn wooden bath floor. In August 2026 another guest found its open-air bath extremely lukewarm and slow to warm up. The Yama-no-Terrace rooms have an onsen open-air bath that you fill yourself, but they sit on a wooded slope with insects, and a May 2022 guest found a dead bug floating in the bath. A September 2026 reviewer could see ducting in the woods from their bath. The Yama-no-An rooms without a bath are the cheapest way in.
Know which room you want?
Check live rates and availability for Sumiya Kiho-an.
We may earn a commission if you book through these links, at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure
Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
4.5/5Kyoto obanzai on small plates, rice from the kamado and fresh oboro tofu
Book the inn's shuttle from JR Kameoka (14:55–17:55) or the Torokko Kameoka station; the return runs at 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00 and can drop you at the Hozugawa river-boat pier. Bring your own coffee if you need it — rooms have herbal tea only.
Dinner Insights
4.6/5A monthly Kyoto kaiseki, with seasonal menus of matsutake in autumn (1 September–23 November), fugu, botan nabe or crab in winter, and hamo in summer. It's served in the dining room Shunzen Zuika, with its kamado, or in your room on some plans. Families with children eat in their room. Bloggers praise the redcurrant aperitif wine, Hatchō miso red soup, Kameoka beef sukiyaki and shabu-shabu, and the inari sushi left in the room. There's a sommelier and a list of Austrian wines. In 2025–26 the complaints were about service rather than taste: little explanation of the dishes, plates set down noisily, and one December 2025 reviewer felt it wasn't worth over ¥30,000 per person.
Onsen & Wellness Realities
Yunohana Onsen, a simple weakly radioactive (radon) spring that rises cool, so it is heated. One booking site lists the public open-air bath as heated and not free-flowing, while the official site describes the premium rooms' baths as free-flowing onsen.
Separate men's and women's baths, each with an indoor and an open-air bath, open 15:00–10:00 through the night. The men's side has blue Shikoku stone and a lie-down bath; the women's open-air tub is made from a 1,000-year-old cherry tree. A private open-air bath, Yama-no-Kakureyu, is a 2–3 minute walk up a gravel path (45 minutes, ¥3,300 with tax, reservation required); guests call it smaller than expected and buggy in summer. A 2026 reviewer found the stairs to the public open-air bath slippery.
No policy found on the official site or major booking sites — contact the inn.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Children are accepted only in some room types (Yama-no-An, Akatoki, Sawarabi, Tōgasumi, Seon, Honami), and can't eat dinner in the dining room.
- 02
Check-in 15:00–19:00, check-out 11:00. Late check-out to 12:00 costs ¥2,200–11,000 depending on the room.
- 03
There's no onsen town to stroll around, and mobile signal is weak indoors (Wi-Fi is available).
- 04
Not to be confused with Sumiya (炭屋旅館), a separate ryokan in central Kyoto. 'Kyoto Yunohana Onsen Resort SUMIYA KIHO-AN' is the inn's English branding.
- 05
There's a summer garden pool (25m, no lifeguard), and art events such as the October 2026 'Sainenshō' are held on the grounds.
Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
More Consensus Reports
KyotoLuxury
Fuyacho-Anekoji, Nakagyo, Kyoto — in the city centre, a short walk from Kyoto City Hall
8 sources
Hiiragiya
柊家
Kyoto's 1818 inn of writers and film stars — near-flawless service and kaiseki, koyamaki-wood baths, and no hot spring
- Historic Ryokan
- Destination Dining
KyotoLuxury
Arashiyama, Kyoto — reached by private boat
4 sources
Hoshinoya Kyoto
星のや京都
Reached only by boat, with no TV and no onsen by design — a stay built around stillness, with a few service slips
- Secluded Retreats
- Design-Led
Aizu-WakamatsuClassic
Higashiyama Onsen, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima — a wooden inn beside the Yukawa river, a minute from the Higashiyama Onsen bus stop
9 sources
Mukaitaki
会津東山温泉 向瀧
Japan's first registered-heritage inn: a former Aizu clan bath retreat with scalding free-flowing water, free private baths and carp dinners in your room — and a lot of stairs
- Historic Ryokan
Photo credits: Hiiragiya — the frontage on Anekoji-dori, Kyoto · Mariemon / CC BY 3.0 / Hoshinoya Kyoto — the water garden · Hoshino Resorts / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Mukaitaki in the snow, Higashiyama Onsen, Aizu-Wakamatsu · Fumihiko Ueno / CC BY 3.0
Sumiya Kiho-an
Compare rates across trusted booking partners · Affiliate disclosure