Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki

Misasa's century-old grand inn, host to emperors and writers: a 12-bath garden onsen with free-flowing cave and rock tubs and private-room kaiseki — but it's a big 74-room concrete house with fixed air conditioning, thinning service and towels you carry to the bath yourself

Iwasaki opened in 1920 and later took the name Izanro, given by the head priest of Kyoto's Shokokuji temple. Emperor Showa stayed in 1947, and members of the imperial family have stayed ever since, most recently in October 2026. Visiting writers such as Shimazaki Toson and Yosano Akiko are remembered in a lobby gallery, and the Isuien garden, with a 1930s pavilion built for imperial guests and a thatched tea house, is a protected scenic site. Today it's a 74-room concrete inn of up to eight floors on the Mitoku river. The draw is the Yama-no-yu: 12 baths and a radon steam room laid out as a walk through the garden, in two zones that swap daily. The left zone was renovated in July 2025. The inn says most tubs mix free-flowing and recirculated water. The Nageiredo cave bath, two other tubs, the paid private bath and the 13 rooms with their own open-air baths are free-flowing. Japanese guests rate it 4.43 across 2,246 reviews on one major site (baths 4.59) and 4.5 across 1,984 on another (baths 4.7). A smaller luxury site gives it 4.10 from 71 reviews. Bloggers who stayed in January 2025 and March 2026 loved the baths and the kaiseki, but most recent evidence comes from booking-site reviews. Guests praise the variety of baths, the private dining rooms, the Tottori wagyu shabu-shabu and kind staff. The 2025–2026 complaints: central air conditioning that leaves rooms too cold or too hot, worn tatami and a mouldy fridge, no towels at the baths and no coffee in the room, a ¥100 charge to take lobby drinks away, stairs between the baths, dirty stools and buckets, and service some felt had been cut back. Two-meal plans start around ¥16,000–21,500 per person, and live snow-crab menus reach ¥51,150.