Kinosaki Onsen Yamamotoya

A 350-year-old, 15-room inn on Kinosaki's willow-lined canal with its own craft brewery, in-room kaiseki and two public baths on its doorstep — but its own baths are small and recirculated, and the 'semi-open-air' baths in the two special rooms aren't hot-spring water

Yamamotoya was founded in the Edo period and describes itself as one of Kinosaki's oldest inns, now about 350 years old: a three-storey wooden building whose basic design dates from the town's rebuilding after the 1925 North Tajima earthquake, on the willow-lined canal that only a dozen or so of Kinosaki's roughly 80 inns face. Yanagi-yu is 40m away and Ichi-no-yu 50m, and every stay includes a free pass to the town's public baths. The inn also brews Kinosaki Beer — four all-malt styles, including a 'crab beer' — served at a lobby bar and brought to your room. A renovation finished in July 2024 turned two ground-floor rooms into special rooms with a semi-open-air bath and redid the women's bath and the exterior. Japanese guests rate it 4.7 across 471 reviews on one leading site (bath 4.3, rooms 4.8) and 4.65 across 522 on another. Travellers from 2023 to 2026 praise the canal views, the friendly, unobtrusive staff, the dinners with Tajima beef, abalone or tagged Matsuba crab, and the rice-porridge breakfast. The catches: the inn's own baths are recirculated and small, and get cramped when other guests are in; the special rooms' semi-open-air baths are not hot-spring water; and 2025–2026 reviews mention weak shower pressure, few amenities, a short room-service menu, few sakes and a car park across the river. Two-meal plans ran about ¥25,000–30,000+ per person in 2025–2026.