the Japanese Spa
A Guide to Japan's Finest Ryokan and Onsen
Akihiko Seki and Elizabeth Heilman Brooke
photography by Akihiko Seki
contents
The Japanese Ryokan: A Timeless Retreat
Ryokan and Onsen Etiquette: Essential Knowledge
Gora Kadan 強羅花壇 Hakone, Kanagawa
Tsubaki 海石榴 Yugawara, Kanagawa
Atami Sekitei あたみ石亭 Atami, Izu Peninsula
Kona Besso 古奈別荘 lzu-Nagaoka, lzu Peninsula
Yagyu-no-Sho 柳生の庄 Shuzenji, lzu Peninsula
Seiryuso 清流莊 Shimoda, lzu Peninsula
Senjyuan 仙寿庵 Minakami, Gunma
Bankyu Ryokan 本家伴久万久旅館 Yunishigawa Tochigi
Sanraku 山楽 Nasu Tochigi
Hiiragiya 柊屋 Kyoto
Seikoro Inn 晴鴨樓 Kyoto
Kikusuiro 菊水楼 Nara
Ryugon 龍言 Minami-Uonuma, Niigata
Yumoto Choza 湯元長座 Kamitakara-mura
Wanosato 倭乃里 Miya-mura, Gifu
Kayotei かよう苧 Yamanaka, Ishikawa
Araya Totoan あらや滔々庵 Yamashiro, Kaga
Houshi 法師 Awazu Onsen, Komatsu
Mukaitaki 向澈 Higashiyama, Aizu-Wakamatsu
Saryo Soen 茶寮宗園 Akiu, Sendai
Tsuru-no-Yu 鶴の湯 Tazawako, Akita
Kuramure 蔵群 Otaru, Hokkaido
Sekitei 石亭 Ohno-cho, Hiroshima
Yamatoya Besso 大和屋別荘 Dogo, Matsuyama
Murata 起量技 Yufuin, Oita
Miyazaki Ryokan 宮崎旅館 Unzen, Nagasaki
Yusai 優彩 Kurokawa Onsen, Kumamoto
Gajoen 雅叙苑 Makizono, Kagoshima
Around Tokyo
Gora Kadan 強羅花壇
Tsubaki 海石榴
Atami Sekitei あたみ石亭
Kona Besso 古奈別荘
Yagyu-no-Sho 柳生の庄
Seiryuso 清流荘
Senjyuan 仙寿庵
Bankyu Ryokan 本家伴久万久旅館
Sanraku 山楽
Kyoto and Nara
Hiiragiya 柊屋
Seikoro Inn 晴鴨樓
Kikusuiro 菊水楼
Central Japan
Ryugon 記言
Yumoto Choza 湯元長座
Wanosato 倭乃里
Kayotei かよう亭
Araya Totoan あらや滔々庵
Houshi 法師
Northern Japan
Mukaitaki 向瀧
Saryo Soen 茶寮宗園
Tsuru-no-Yu 鶴の湯
Kuramure 蔵群
Southern Japan
Sekitei 石亭
Yamatoya Besso 大和屋別荘
Murata 無量塔
Miyazaki Ryokan 宮崎旅館
Yusai 優彩
Gajoen 雅叙苑
The Japanese Ryokan: A Timeless Retreat
Slip off your shoes and enter a world that is distinctly Japanese. Cherry blossoms. Zen. Foamy green tea. Warm water meditations one might call, simply, a bath. Hospitality of honor. Ritualized routines to quiet, to sooth the mind, the spirit.
The philosophers, the potters, the tea masters and the poets of Japan, who, thousands of years ago halted the elaborate evolutions of beauty in all its sumptuous gold-leaf manifestations, have attracted generations of humbled aesthetics. Van Gogh, Picasso and Frank Lloyd Wright are among the many painters, architects and creative iconoclasts who have looked to Japan for inspiration. Free spirits have marveled at Japan’s studied serenity and heightened awareness of the beauty of a single blade of grass, a single flower petal, a single wave, a single volcanic mountain. They have studied wood, earth and stones, lines, planes and space, and man’s daily interaction with the impermanence of nature.
A Japanese Zen monk once described absolute beauty as "pure white snow in a silver dish." This crystalline perception of beauty, the distilled, asymmetrical, modest interpretations of Japanese art and architecture that now are emulated around the world are no longer easy to find in Japan. A 21st century traveler to Tokyo must visually edit telephone wires, construction cranes, a wealth of concrete box buildings, concrete mountain faces, neon, plastic and florid representations of nature in ersatz form.
The good news is that even the Japanese have begun to look for spaces that are authentic, organic, human, historic, refined and natural. There are classic inns throughout Japan that have maintained and refreshed their thatched roofs, their bold wood beams, their fragrant tatami floors. And there are innkeepers, who, thankfully, have saved farmhouses, samurai and lordly residences, sometimes moving them and adapting them to accommodate modern-day guests. There are also recently built inns that are prize-winning in design, progressive in their reverence for the use of natural