Kamiyashiki Taira no Takafusa

A timber 'mountain-fortress' inn at the far end of Yunishigawa, with irori-hearth dinners, its own free-flowing spring and two free private open-air baths — warmly reviewed, but expect endless stairs, summer horseflies and a tight dinner window

Taira no Takafusa sits beyond the last houses of Yunishigawa, the valley where defeated Heike warriors are said to have hidden. The inn describes itself as a newly built mountain-fortress-style residence raised by a descendant of the clan, and it is all wood: a tall lobby of thick beams and antiques, gravel-lined corridors with lanterns, and 19 rooms spread over a steep 12,000-tsubo (about 4 ha) site, including a farmhouse more than 80 years old, moved here and split into two sauna suites, and a hilltop farmhouse cottage for groups. It belongs to the Japanese Association of Secluded Hot Spring Inns. The draws are dinner around your own irori hearth, a free-flowing alkaline spring from its own well, and two private open-air baths that cost nothing. Japanese guests rate it 4.6 across 1,109 reviews on Jalan (dinner 4.7) and 4.55 across 600 on Rakuten Travel (service 4.63, baths 4.61). Bloggers who stayed in May 2023, early 2024 and summer 2025 were struck by the woodwork and praised the hearth-grilled char, the miso-and-sansho 'isshō-bera' and staff who were always on the move; 2026 reviewers add the bamboo-cup sake and the value for money. The complaints are consistent: many stairs and outdoor walks to the baths, horseflies and bees at the open-air baths in summer, a dinner room that closes at 20:00, and — in October 2026 — requests at dinner routed through a QR code, with a loud group seated nearby. Two-meal rates run from about ¥14,500 per person on the official site; 2026 Jalan reviewers paid anywhere from ¥14,000–15,000 to over ¥30,000 per person, the top end for the farmhouse suites.