Ryokan: Japan's Finest Spas and Inns
Language: English
Pages: 208
ISBN: 0804838399
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
With over 180 color photographs and extensive commentary, this book showcases the beauty of Japanese inn, or ryokan.
Featured are both old and new-from inns with a history dating back a thousand years to modern inns with the latest facilities that nonetheless capture the spirit of old Japan. Each of the properties has been handpicked by the authors for their strong design aesthetic, commitment to service and purity of their spring waters. The photographs showcase the resorts at their best, and accurately express the unique architectural design of each ryokan.
Each chapter begins by introducing the area surrounding the inns and their spas, or onsen, and provides a background of its local history, culture and traditions, as well as the natural environment. The text provides information on the design and development of each ryokan, and descriptions of the owners and their clientele.
For those planning a visit to an onsen, this book provides contact details and information on the number of rooms, type of facilities and food, as well as vital information on travel and booking procedures and whether English is spoken. For those fascinated by Japanese culture and design, this book is an absolute delight.
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them to Minami-Uonuma, a quiet farm town in Japan’s fabled snow country. In 1964, from northern Japan, Utsugi brought this puzzle of structures that today make a thriving ryokan. The main building is from Shiozawa, other rooms from Takayanagi, and outbuildings are from closer to home. The seven traditional ryokan buildings date as far back as the Bunka-Bunsai Period (1804–1829) and are typical of the residences of samurai warriors that served Lord Kenshin Uesugi of Echigo, the historic name for
Northern Japan MUKAITAKI Higashiyama, Aizu-Wakamatsu 144 SARYO SOEN Akiu, Sendai 148 TSURU-NO-YU Tazawako, Akita 154 KURAMURE Otaru, Hokkaido 162 Southern Japan SEKITEI Ohno-cho, Hiroshima 168 YAMATOYA BESSO Dogo, Matsuyama 172 MURATA Yufuin, Oita 176 MIYAZAKI RYOKAN Unzen, Nagasaki 184 YUSAI Kurokawa Onsen, Kumamoto 190 GAJOEN Makizono, Kagoshima 198 Sekitei, across from Miyajima, is a garden of peace overlooking Japan’s Inland Sea. THE JAPANESE RYOKAN: A TIMELESS RETREAT Edo
of stepping across a footbridge to sip sake in a villa that once served as a weekend retreat for a member of the Imperial family. One must slightly bow beneath a fabric noren curtain to enter the long corridor gently lit with paper lanterns. This corridor leads to the wooden bridge above a flowing brook. Arisugawa-Sanso, the former Imperial families’ house in the woods, is, in its present incarnation, a candlelit bar with several intimate nooks for conversation as well as the telling of tales.
mention the remarkable service and environments of the city inns themselves—offset yearnings for an onsen bath. The numerous active volcanoes in the archipelago of Japan bring with them the agreeable geological phenomenon of over 2,500 sources of healing waters. However, these waters have to pass certain regulations before they can be used as “onsen” waters. As defined by the Japanese Hot Spring Law, onsen waters must flow from underground to the surface at over 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and
To have the space to stretch, to glide, to breathe and move through a spa swimming pool, to contemplatively regard regal palms or meticulously trimmed bushes from the cushy comfort of leather sofas, to dine on beef tenderloin with blueberries and sashimi with wasabi and lime, this spot is not typical in any Japanese or European sense. Seiryuso is hedonistic in a most refined Japanese manner, an opulent melding of the best of East and West. A member of both The Leading Hotels of the World and