JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED HOTELS66 hotels
Hotels designed by architects in Japan
66 hotels in Japan whose architect or design firm is named in official sources. Areas include Shinjuku, Shibuya, Kyoto Station, Kiyomizu-Gojo, Asakusa, Hanamaki. Each page has interior photos, check-in times where published, and how to get there, with the address in Japanese.
A night-view terrace, and rooms that switch to neon
A 38th-floor executive floor that reflects the night view
A beer bar and café on the first two floors: Shibuya's public house
Fittings from a thatched farmhouse, and an outdoor bath of Hakone spring water
A sukiya gate and garden, and an outdoor hot spring bath on the 18th floor
Paving stones from the old tram line, and steel from old ships
Craftsmanship, and greenery all the way up to the balconies
A “creators' residence” with a fashion cloak at the entrance
Kiyomizu-ware lights and Nishijin-weave foil
In front of Omicho Market: natural materials and local craftsmen's pieces
Art reflecting the “elements” of the forest, and a fireplace in the courtyard
A lobby bar lounge that borrows the scenery, and suites with a mizuya
Home-like rooms surrounded by Otaru crafts and art
A living room with a 5 m ceiling, and a private pool you can use with your pet
Shared spaces in traditional colours and sand walls, with old Kappabashi metalware
A wide lounge inspired by sajiki viewing seats
Custom furniture inspired by Nanbu chests and Nanbu ironware
Stay at a national Place of Scenic Beauty, in a lodging wing stripped of ornament
A wood-scented hotel themed on “THE BAR”
A Japanese spa of beautiful shadows, and residential suites of about 50 m²
Rooms with private pools, blending Art Deco and Okinawan modern
Light from skylights, and baths open to the living room
Roomy rooms you can bring your bicycle into
A manga lobby showing an imaginary shopping street
Rooms with saunas in dusty green and pink
A green lounge fitting a town of bonsai
Walls of hana-block, and a music bar inspired by Koza's music
The “Iyotetsu Room”, made from a real train
Villas with free-flowing hot spring baths and a Finnish sauna
A lobby with a lava sculpture and a huge noren curtain
A modern irori hearth, and a large bath that reflects the ripple of water
Curtains with a new pattern from Hakata festival happi coats
Festival manga covering the walls and ceiling
Plastered walls like rock strata, and coral carpets
An infinity pool overlooking Chatan, and blue-grey rooms
A harbour view from every room, and art by young artists
A large bath with an outdoor bath facing a Japanese garden
A “northern inn” of oak and Sapporo soft stone
An entrance lobby like the roji path to a tea room
“Plain space” rooms looking out over Atami Bay
A chandeliered lobby that modernises a classic hotel
Bed throws inspired by Ainu patterns and snowflake carpets
A delicate lobby and rooms with nature as the motif
A long corridor leading to coral-inspired art
“Creative hospitality” linking Japanese and international sensibilities
Kyoto-style corridors and rooms that bring in alleys and courtyards
Detached villas surrounded by a natural beach and old-growth forest
A Tokachi community inn where people gather round a wood stove
A library lounge themed on books
A creative hotel in Kabukicho made with young Asian creators
A Shibuya design hotel that is “minimal”, “pop” and “artistic”
“Light make-up” rooms that set off the quality of the architecture
A clubhouse built of “Japanese wood”
A nostalgic space making use of a temple carpenter's coffered ceiling
Japanese-Western rooms with a raised floor, and original furniture with a wood texture
“Hand Craft Design” with an ocean view from all 100 rooms
A lobby lounge with a hipped ceiling and large lattice doors
A grown-up design hotel of “quality”, “allure” and “play”
An “urban playground” unified in calm tones
Concept rooms made by artists
Long, narrow “machiya-style” rooms
A hotel by a Nordic design firm in a 1923 bank building
A 300-year-old inn turned art hotel, with architecture by Sou Fujimoto
A nine-room hotel on the Shirakawa, designed by Tadao Ando
A hinoki main building in Momoyama palace style, designed by Kingo Tatsuno
Opened 1927: the grand staircase of the main building by Jin Watanabe
