Yufuin Tamanoyu
由布院 玉の湯
Area photo — not the ryokan itself · Mount Yufu from Yufuin Station · Kitayama / CC BY-SA 4.0
Sixteen cottages in a woodland garden, each with its own free-flowing hinoki bath, and a breakfast soup people call Japan's best — but dinner splits opinion
Tamanoyu began in 1953 as a retreat for a Zen temple and is one of the inns that made Yufuin famous. Its sixteen rooms are cottages and small wings scattered through a deliberately wild woodland garden, linked by roofed paths, and every one has a wooden bath filled with free-flowing spring water — 'available 24 hours, which is wonderful', as one guest put it. On Japan's leading luxury booking site it averages 4.73 across 41 reviews, with baths and service at 4.80. The quieter pleasures are what regulars love: the lounge with its fireplace and gramophone, the tea room and bar named after the writer C.W. Nicol, and above all the Western breakfast, whose cress and vegetable soup and Yufuin ham one blogger called the best breakfast in Japan. Food is also where the complaints are. Dinner is unshowy country cooking built around a hotpot or charcoal-grilled beef you choose in advance, and it scores lowest (4.51); one 2023 family waited 30 minutes for their hotpot in a three-hour dinner without an apology, a 2026 guest found it 'far too meagre' for the price, and others mention casual service, an ageing building and firm Airweave beds. Expect around ¥77,500 for two with breakfast only. It holds one MICHELIN Key in the 2026 Japan selection.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
The standalone cottages (e.g. Koji 柑子)
Koji is a single-storey cottage at the back of the garden with two 10-tatami rooms; a July 2024 guest loved its 24-hour free-flowing hinoki bath (it runs hot — add water). Rooms range from 60㎡ to 140㎡, and several, including Yamabuki, Hiwa, Murasaki and Sakura, were renovated in 2023–2024.
Suhau (すはう), Kuwa (桑) and Murasaki (むらさき)
Suhau is the only cottage with two Western-style rooms (a repeat guest spent New Year's Eve 2025 there with underfloor heating). Kuwa was C.W. Nicol's regular room, and Murasaki is the inn's top-grade room.
Request To Avoid
Any room, if you sleep badly on firm beds
Rooms use Airweave mattresses, and guests in 2024 and 2026 found the bed and pillow firm or not very comfortable. A 2026 guest also missed a comfortable sofa, and some rooms show their age.
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Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
4.7/5Choose Western: the special vegetable soup with watercress (refills allowed), fromage blanc, Yufuin roast ham and toast or French toast. 'The Western breakfast may be the right answer at Tamanoyu,' wrote one guest.
Spend the afternoon in Nicol's lounge (tea room 13:00–17:00, guests only from 17:00): its apple pie is limited to about a dozen a day. Check-in is at 14:00 and check-out not until 12:00, so you get a long stay.
Dinner Insights
3.8/5Dinner is mountain-village cooking served at the inn's restaurant, Budoya, or a private dining room — not in your room (except a ¥7,200 seasonal bento). You choose a main in advance: charcoal-grilled wagyu, local shamo chicken hotpot, soft-shell turtle hotpot, watercress and duck hotpot, or Himeshima prawn shabu-shabu. Recent guests praised delicate simmered dishes, but critics call it 'unshowy country cooking', say the menu hasn't changed in years, and report slow service: in November 2023 dinner took three hours with a 30-minute wait for the hotpot, and in 2026 one guest found it 'far too meagre' for an inn of this reputation.
Onsen & Wellness Realities
A simple, weakly alkaline spring (the inn gives pH 8.2), colourless. The in-room baths are 100% free-flowing; the shared baths are listed on one booking site as having water added, and a blogger photographed a notice saying they are filtered and chlorinated.
Every room has its own wooden bath with free-flowing spring water, so most guests barely use the shared baths — one found them almost empty. The shared baths (separate for men and women, each with an indoor and an open-air tub looking towards Mount Yufu) are open 6:00–10:00 and 15:00–23:00.
No policy stated in any source we read. With a private onsen bath in every room, you never need to share.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Prices seen on a Japanese booking site for two: from ¥77,500 with breakfast only, and from ¥93,340 with the in-room bento dinner. The chef's dinner course is ¥22,000 per person. A family of three paid about ¥150,000 with two meals in 2023.
- 02
Pre-school children cannot stay in some rooms (Kihada, Suhau, Hiwa, Kuwa and Kuhina).
- 03
It's about 15 minutes on foot or 3 minutes by taxi from JR Yufuin Station; there is no shuttle, and parking is free.
- 04
The inn is not step-free throughout: Japanese booking sites mark it as not barrier-free, although the Hiwa room's bath has a handrail and slope.
- 05
Cancellation fees start 14 days before arrival (10%), rising to 100% on the day.
Before your stay
Souvenirs from Yufuin and practical help for your trip.
Yufuin 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
Yufuin: sights, experiences and seasonal events from Trip Gacha, our sister site.
Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
- 私の温泉宿１００選＊＊＊＊＊雨の由布院温泉・玉の湯（大分県） (4travel.jp, by yakkunn)
- 2026年1月 由布院の温泉旅館と高崎山のお猿さんとふぐを愉しむ大分「由布院 玉の湯」 (4travel.jp, by ニーコ)
- 年末年始！くつろぎステイの由布院！①「由布院 玉の湯」でのんびり編 (4travel.jp, by taroトラベル)
- 2023.11 別府～由布院旅行４ 「玉の湯」 (紀子の部屋・New)
- 「由布院玉の湯」(九州／由布院温泉) (いい旅館訪問記)
- 由布院玉の湯に泊まってきた。宿泊前に知りたかった情報 (転勤族のバイブル)
- 由布院 玉の湯 クチコミ (一休.com)
- 由布院 玉の湯 (公式サイト)
- All the MICHELIN Key Hotels in Japan (MICHELIN Guide)
Featured in our guides
Side-by-side comparisons that include this ryokan.
Best ryokan in Yufuin: 6 inns compared on onsen, food and price
Six Yufuin ryokan compared: free-flowing baths in the room, villas with no shared baths, food, MICHELIN Keys and price — with the catch at each inn.
Read the guide
Free-flowing or recirculated? How to tell real onsen water before you book
'Hot spring' on a booking page can mean anything from water straight from the source to recirculated, chlorinated tap water in your room. What the Japanese terms mean, and which ryokan in our directory pass the test.
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MICHELIN Key ryokan — what Japanese guests actually say
Twenty ryokan in our directory hold MICHELIN Keys in 2026. The Key tells you a stay is special; Japanese guests' reports tell you the catches — recirculated baths, uneven service, steep stairs and steeper prices.
Read the guidePhoto credits
- Mount Yufu from Yufuin Station · Kitayama / CC BY-SA 4.0
- Mukaitaki in the snow, Higashiyama Onsen, Aizu-Wakamatsu · Fumihiko Ueno / CC BY 3.0
- Gora Kadan — the former Kan'in-no-miya imperial villa, Hakone · 663highland / CC BY 2.5
More Consensus Reports
Area photoYufuinPremium
Kawakami, Yufuin, Yufu, Oita — beside Lake Kinrin
9 sources
Kamenoi Bessou
亀の井別荘
Yufuin's century-old forest retreat: Japanese guests rave about the space and the baths, and are more measured about the food
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoYufuinLuxury
Kawakami, Yufuin, Oita — twelve detached villas on a quiet hillside about 5–10 minutes by car from Yufuin Station
9 sources
Sanso Murata
由布院 山荘 無量塔
Twelve villas built from relocated old farmhouses, each with its own onsen, and a bar with a 1930s theatre speaker — Yufuin's most atmospheric hideaway, if you don't need a view or a big bath
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Design-Led
Area photoYufuinPremium
Kawakami, Yufuin, Oita — set back from the Yunotsubo shopping street, a couple of minutes' walk from Lake Kinrin and about 15 minutes on foot from JR Yufuin Station
9 sources
Yufuin Souan Kosumosu
由布院温泉 草庵秋桜
A 12-room 'cooking inn' remodelled by Seven Stars train designer Eiji Mitooka, steps from Lake Kinrin, with free-flowing spring water in every bath and open-air tubs in the cottages — but it sits on Yufuin's busiest strip, the shared baths are small and the cheapest rooms have only a shower
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Destination Dining
Area photoYufuinPremium
Kawakita, Yufuin, Oita — a quiet wooded foothill about 2 km from the Yunotsubo shopping street, 5 minutes by car from JR Yufuin Station and 3 minutes from the Yufuin interchange
11 sources
Yufuin Sanso Warabino
由布院温泉 山荘 わらび野
A 1988 inn rebuilt in concrete after the 2016 earthquake: 13 modern suites in a wooded garden, each with its own free-flowing onsen bath on heated stone floors, and noon check-out — Japanese guests rate it near-perfect, but most baths are indoor tubs with opening windows, not true open-air baths
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Design-Led
Area photoYufuinPremium
Kawakami, Yufuin, Oita — 18 detached cottages on about 33,000㎡ of wooded hillside beside a stream off the Shirataki River, about 7 minutes by car from Yufuin Station
10 sources
Yufuin Gettoan
ゆふいん 月燈庵
Eighteen detached cottages in the woods outside Yufuin, each with its own free-flowing onsen bath, reached by a suspension bridge from a 300-year-old farmhouse — the food wins praise, but the main-wing rooms are dated, the room baths are small and enclosed, and the paths are hard going
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Secluded Retreats
Area photoTakayamaClassic
Shiroyama, Takayama, Gifu — on the hill below Shiroyama Park, where Takayama Castle once stood, three minutes' walk down a steep slope to the old town and about 15 minutes' walk (or a free shuttle) from JR Takayama Station
9 sources
Hida Takayama Onsen Hoshokaku
飛騨高山温泉 宝生閣
A five-storey hilltop inn above Takayama's old town, loved for warm, old-school service and huge Hida-beef dinners — but only the shared outdoor rock baths use (heated, recirculated) hot-spring water, and the in-room open-air baths are not onsen
Read the ConsensusPhoto credits: Mount Yufu from Yufuin Station · Kitayama / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Sanmachi Suji old town, Takayama, Gifu · Ankur P from Pune, India / CC BY 2.0
Yufuin Tamanoyu
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