7 best ryokans to visit in Japan

The ryokan masterfully detaches you from the world outside — it does this not by locks but through deliberate, graceful constraints. 

Slip off your shoes and feel the first shift. The air, scented with igusa, is quieter, moves more slowly, and carries weight of its own. Then comes the yukata, its loose folds wrapping you, the obi’s gentle tug a quiet reminder to surrender. 

Meals arrive not when you demand, but precisely when they should; dinner commences only when your entire party gathers, so check in late at your disadvantage, but check-out is firm at 10 a.m.

The rules are unyielding, yet these constraints are shackles not. They free you from choice and noise, so you begin to turn inward to see the world anew. Steam curling from a teacup, shadows’ play upon shoji paper, suddenly, these quiet details become entire worlds to explore. 

Ready to step into ryokan wisdom? Let this guide illuminate the path.

Keiunkan: pH matters

A ryokan’s soul lives in its waters, and only true kakenagashi tennen (fresh-flowing natural) onsen (pH 8.5+) can deliver that transformative first immersion. 

At Keiunkan, the world’s oldest inn (Guinness-certified since 705 AD), steam rises from the Fossa Magna — the geological rift that shaped Japan’s iconic mountains, as you sink into its mineral-rich transparent waters. 

For the past 1300 years, Keiunkan’s six baths have been a major attraction. Fed by four distinct alkaline springs (52 deg C, flowing at 2,030 litres per minute) carrying sodium, calcium, sulphate and chloride from the earth’s depths — untouched by human intervention, these waters have eased the bones of samurai, warlords like Tokugawa Ieyasu, and poets seeking solace.  

Reserve the Kawatone stone bath at dawn, when mist dances through Hayakawa Gorge like Shinto spirits. The observation baths — Hinoki-no-yu and Ishikaze-no-yu — offer panoramic views of the Southern Alps, their waters soft as silk. The Bokei-no-Yu cedar tub lets you bathe in moonlight.

The same mineral-rich waters that shaped the ryokan’s history also influence its cuisine: Koshu beef (A5) is grilled on Fuji’s lava stones, paired with eight artisanal salts, on prized dinnerware. 

Since its founding by Fujiwara Mahito, scion of the illustrious Fujiwara clan in the second year of the Keiun(also known as Kyōun) era, Keiunkan has perfected the art of hospitality across 52 unbroken generations. 

With 22 out of the 35 rooms open for reservations, book into one that overlooks the Yukawa Valley. In winter, make a request for Hokudake for samurai-worthy views as steam meets snow.

Nishiyama Hot Spring, Hayakawa-cho, Minamikoma-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture 409-2702

Tobira Onsen Myojinkan: Fresh alpine air

A mountain’s pristine atmosphere acts as nature’s restorative tonic — it makes your body think and act differently. 

At 1,050m, Tobira Onsen Myojinkan works a silent magic the Japanese call kikouchi-keisei ryohou (气候性地形療法) — where high-altitude air does more than invigorate. Thin yet charged, it rewires you and becomes transformative medicine, boosting circulation and heightening mental clarity.

At Myojinkan, where legendary dragon gods once bathed, climatotherapy is perfected over time. Its Hakuryu, Setsugekka, and Kuzan thermal springs’ offering of toji (thermal therapy) in concert with oxygen-rich breezes recalibrates the body: heartbeats slow, senses sharpen, and the world’s clamour fades into the mist.

A mere 30-minute drive from Matsumoto, the winding ascent through rice paddies and ancient forests leads to this 1931 Relais & Châteaux jewel, cradled in Yatsugatake National Park’s sacred peaks. 

Luxury here is measured in silence. Zen-inspired rooms — with breathing clay walls and Nagano oak floors — eschew TVs and clocks, inviting guests to embrace Ma, the art of pause. My 11 sqm Zen-Toji suite with cedar sliding doors blends tatami elegance with forest views, while the 160 sqm Zen-Shirakaba offers starlit baths. This is shinzan yuukoku — deep valleys of solitude — where the world’s noise cannot reach. 

Dining here is a celebration of terroir. Micro seasonal boutique and artisanal ingredients are mindfully curated by executive chef Masahiro Tanabe from producers within Nagano or grown lovingly in Myojinkan’s organic farms: spring’s warabi ferns, summer’s snap peas, autumn’s shiitake, and winter’s subterranean treasures. Every ingredient tells a story of hands and seasons.

At Nature French SAI (vegetable), French cuisine is reimagined through a Japanese lens — using dashi instead of heavy creams, highlighting Shinshu’s peak-season produce. Nagano vintages are featured in the wine list for harmonious pairings. Local bounty — game, heirloom vegetables, and snow-aged roots — is artfully woven into seasonal courses at Japanese restaurant Shinshu Dining TOBIRA, honouring Nagano’s fermentation heritage. 

8967 Iriyamabe, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-0222, Japan

Ryokan Ohana: Cultural weight

More than a stay, the ryokan is your masterclass in Japanese history and culture. Sleeping where samurai once rested, dining on ceramics that served feudal lords, this is cultural immersion at its most profound.

Nestled in the watery embrace of Yanagawa’s ancient canals, Ryokan Ohana, Japan’s sole accommodation granted the rarefied status of Place of Scenic Beauty, is where the legacy of the Tachibana clan — feudal lords turned counts of the Yanagawa domain, still breathes in the tatami and gardens. 

A destination in itself, Ohana exists as both a sanctuary and a living museum. Its 162 sqm Grand Hall, with a sea of 100 tatami mats, vibrates with the same power that animated samurai Tachibana Muneshige’s 17th-century reign. Nearby, the western-style Seiyo-kan’s original chandeliers still illuminate the mansion where Meiji-era dignitaries were received, its gilded mirrors reflecting Yanagawa’s golden age of cultural fusion.  

Nationally protected since 1978, Ohana’s Shoto-en garden features black pines standing sentinel over a tranquil pond dotted artfully with islands. The private museum here is filled with 30,000 artefacts (including one National Treasure) that tell an unbroken story of 400 years of samurai heritage. Yet this is also a family home where 18th-generation successor Chizuka Tachibana preserves traditions with quiet pride. 

Among the estate’s eight suites, Shakuyaku and Kuromatsu reign supreme — their windows framing the Grand Hall’s majesty and Seiyo-kan’s Meiji-era grandeur, while transforming Shoto-en’s garden into a living scroll painting. 

But true magic awakens at dawn aboard Yanagawa’s legendary “Breakfast on the Boat”. As you drift past stone bridges worn smooth by centuries, you’ll understand why Studio Ghibli’s masters created The Story of Yanagawa’s Canals, and why famed photographer Nobuyoshi Araki immortalised his honeymoon here. As the boatman’s song echoes off stone bridges, 400 years dissolve — you’re no longer just visiting history, you’ve become part of its flow in this “City of Water”.

1 Shinhokamachi, Yanagawa, Fukuoka 832-0069, Japan

Beniya Mukayu: Untamed beauty

For the Japanese, gardens are living poems. Whether meticulously manicured or artfully untamed, those that inspire contemplation often feature ancient cedars, towering camphor, vibrant Japanese camellias, and azaleas.

Moss-draped stone paths meander beneath them, accompanied by the gentle susurrus of a stream and punctuated by birdsong — completing a profound sense of harmony and unity.

In Ishikawa’s Yamashiro Onsen, Beniya Mukayu’s Forest Garden is a wild tangle of maples, camellias, and quince growing freely amongst centuries-old pines and sakura, their unmanicured grace echoing wabi-sabi principles. 

Owned by the Nakamichi family since 1928, this 16-suite Relais & Châteaux sanctuary is, as its name suggests, Mukayu, or “richness in emptiness”. The ryokan channels the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, who believes that authentic nourishment, profound abundance, and infinite potential can be harvested from emptiness.  

Architect Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama of Studio Amorphe is a devoted disciple. In the 16 suites (from 60 to 120 sqm)  he designed, he strips away all but the indispensable and pursues luxury through essence: tatami floors, clay walls, and shoji screens that open wide so nature can come in.

Private wooden baths, brimming with thermal waters, mirror the trees like liquid canvases. Light, mist, and birdsong flow freely through the windows, filling the void with ever-changing beauty.

Perched on Yakushiyama (Healing Buddha Mountain), this sanctuary stands where Yakuoin Onsenji temple once was. Signature therapies here use Yamashiro Onsen’s mineral waters and medicinal herbs, continuing the monks’ ancient healing traditions, perfected over thirteen centuries of pilgrimage.  

Another highlight is when Mukayu’s third-generation owners host tea ceremonies, steeped in ichigo ichie; every moment is in honour of that which will never recur. 

55-1-3 Yamashiroonsen, Kaga, Ishikawa 922-0242, Japan

IWASO Inn: Spiritual depth

A ryokan that is steps from Japan’s sacred sites and power spots offers more than convenience; it grants after-hours privileged access — when shrine gates and mountain trails become extensions of your tatami room, the boundary between your quarters and the sacred blurs.

A three-minute stroll from UNESCO-listed Itsukushima Shrine, IWASO Inn has stood guard over Miyajima’s sacred beauty since 1854. In the 170 years that have gone by, this ryokan has seen Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi draft Japan’s future in candlelight, novelist Natsume Soseki chase metaphors, and American author Helen Keller trace its wooden grooves. 

Emperors from the Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Reiwa eras, as well as British royalty, have surrendered to the charm of its Taisho-era Hanare cottages. Even world leaders pause here: the inn hosted G7 summits in 2016 and 2023. To stay at Iwaso is to become part of its unbroken lineage.  

Founded during the Ansei era by Iwakuniya Sobei (Iwaso is an abbreviation of Iwakuniya Sobei) as a teahouse, this ryokan nestles in Momijidani Valley, a landscape so revered it was worshipped from ships before shrines were built. Go for the Shukintei, a wooden one-storied cottage with a private indoor bath built in 1928 in the Showa era or the Ryumontei, so named by Hiroshima’s last feudal lord, which still welcomes deer to its garden.

In Senshintei, a 1949 Sukiya-zukuri style (tea ceremony) house, novelist Eiji Yoshikawa penned The Heike Story.  

The magic moment is at dusk, when day-trippers vanish with the ferry, and guests get to inherit the sacred island. Soak in mineral-rich waters open-air baths, drawn from the Wakamiya hot spring, dine on oysters harvested near the floating torii, then wander to Itsukushima Shrine (built 593 AD) at midnight — its vermilion glow echoing the Heian era’s grandeur.

Declared a World Heritage site in 1996, this sacred landscape still takes visitors’ breath away as it did samurai lords and poets a millennium ago.

Momijidani Miyajima Hatsukaichi-city Hiroshima 739-0522

Ryokan Onomichi Nishiyama: Culinary artistry

The finest ryokans stake their reputation on kaiseki to tell the region’s story, moving mountains and seas to craft edible landscapes.

Founded in 1943 in the historic port town of Onomichi, one-Michelin-key Ryokan Onomichi Nishiyama stands as a testament to Japan’s rich mercantile past. Onomichi was once a crossroads of culture and commerce, where Kitamae trading ships converged with the Saigoku and Ginzan Kaido routes.

Wealthy merchant-patrons built temples and hosted tea ceremonies, while the Murakami naval clan safeguarded these cultural exchange routes. 

Today, their legacy lives on in the ryokan’s culinary artistry. At the open-air Yosoro restaurant, French consommé meets Japanese kelp dashi, crowned with sacred pine needles — a nod to Onomichi’s history of gastronomic fusion, made possible by the Kitamae-bune trading ships, which brought Japan’s finest ingredients here, inspiring a unique food culture of blending premium imports with local techniques.

Named after the nautical command for “steady,” Yosoro invites you to dine as you are — or indulge without restraint. 

The ryokan’s six meticulously restored villas — some transported by boat from across Japan — frame an 80-year-old garden overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. Each space whispers of craftsmanship: handpicked roof tiles, heirloom scrolls, and tokonoma alcoves that honour tradition.

The communal lounge, once a gathering place for Onomichi’s elite, still invites quiet contemplation over tea. Frequented by Edo-era merchants and shipping magnates then, this ryokan served as a retreat for Emperor Naruhito during his thesis writing.

678-1 Sanbacho, Onomichi, Hiroshima 722-0052, Japan

Sowaka: Room rules

In the most exclusive ryokans, rooms are collectable private worlds, and each is a curated universe blending artisan traditions and avant-garde comfort, offering exclusivity through one-of-a-kind design elements and furnishings.

Hundred-year-old Sowaka, meaning ”well-being” in Sanskrit, used to be a Taisho-era ryotei (fine-dining house)  and teahouse serving Kyoto’s elite gentry. Revived by architect Shigenori Uoya, this sukiya-zukuri masterpiece now features 23 serene rooms that are individually designed.

For Sowaka’s restoration, more than 100 artisans have been brought in to reconstruct tatami floors, wooden corridors, and shoji screens that frame mossy courtyards. Historic touches — like oval windows and elevated alcoves — embody wabi-sabi, while modern luxuries (cashmere throws, Kitayama cedar Bluetooth speakers, and curated antiques from local specialist Masa) ensure comfort without compromising authenticity. 

Especially noteworthy is the Naguri wall in Room 107. This traditional Japanese woodworking technique involves hand-carving the surface of wooden panels to create intricate textures and patterns, showcasing the craftsmanship and aesthetic principles of Kyoto’s heritage.

Legend says Kyoto’s waters hold sacred power — from Kiyomizu Temple’s Otowa-no-taki waterfall to Yasaka Shrine’s Gion spring, carrying spiritual blessings.

At this Small Luxury Hotels of the World property, these soft yet mineral-rich waters flow through every experience, from their silken-textured drinking water to the exquisite kaiseki cuisine at Restaurant Loka Gion, where executive chef Takaaki Kato transforms Kyoto’s natural abundance through seasonal, sustainable dishes that blend traditional Japanese flavours with modern techniques.

480 Kiyoicho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0821, Japan