眞松庵 shinsho-an

The garden at Shinsho-an has a habit of turning up twice. Beyond the open shoji, a stone pagoda stands among the pines. On the dark tabletop, there it is again, upside down, eaves and all. A room that can do that with a table can be forgiven for making you forget what you were about to say.

Near Nanzenji temple in Kyoto’s Okazaki district, Shinsho-an opened in 2021 with four guest rooms and an older room that had already got things right. The detached hanare, built in 1966 by master carpenter Sotoji Nakamura, is just eight tatami mats in size. Architect Toshihito Yokouchi’s practice restored it as the hotel’s reception room. Eight mats is a modest footprint for a room that still sets the proportions of the story.

Upstairs, the guest rooms carry the materials and fine joinery of sukiya, the architectural tradition associated with Japanese tea houses, into rooms with proper beds and chairs. A sliding screen opens the bedroom to a low sitting room. In one bathroom, a long wooden tub points towards the trees, a persuasive argument for taking a bath before there’s any practical reason to have one.

At Higashiyama Ogata, the restaurant downstairs, the counter faces the garden. The kitchen follows the seasons, and so, with rather less effort, does the view. Breakfast comes to the room. On the table, black lacquer lids and little dishes gather around a wooden vessel. Beyond the glass, the maples are beginning to turn. There’s an itinerary somewhere, presumably under the menu.