Welcoming the West

Welcoming the West

Japan’s Grand Resort Hotels Andrea P. Leers

Contents

1 2 3 4 5

Foreword Foundations Palatial Forerunners Elite Retreats Popular Resorts In Retrospect

7 10 36 56 108 133

Acknowledgments Map Notes Selected Bibliography Image Credits About the Author

137 138 140 141 143 144

6

Foreword

This is a book fueled by curiosity. In 1982 I spent

inspection, I saw that the traditional temple-style

built between the 1880s and 1930s, in places of great

a year in Japan as a National Endowment for the

entry was marked with a signboard with the words

natural beauty throughout Japan.

Arts/US Japan Friendship Commission Design

FUJI VIEW HOTEL hand-carved in sprightly tall

Arts Fellow. My expressed mission was to study the

Art Deco lettering. The interior was a revelation.

The hotels examined in this book demonstrate

introduction of Western homebuilding (balloon

Four giant polished tree trunks, still containing some

experimentation in a variety of ways. The earliest

frame or 2x4 construction) in post-war Japan and

branches, framed the two-story main lobby. Woven

Victorian guest cottages at the Nikko Kanaya Hotel

how it hybridized with the traditional post and beam

wood and bamboo covered every surface. Mounted

and Fujiya Hotel, created in the late 1800s, are frank

construction of the country. In the end, I traveled

game bird trophies, paper lanterns, and oversized

imitations of Western models, built by Japanese

throughout Japan not only looking at housing but

wood framed armchairs completed the décor. Part

carpenters with local construction techniques and

immersing myself in historic and contemporary

Adirondacks lodge, part Japanese farmhouse, it was

details. They exemplify what is usually termed

design of all kinds: architecture, gardens, and cities.

an entirely original invention. I learned that the

the pseudo-Western style (giyofu). The first fully

hotel was built in the 1930s to welcome international

realized hotel, the Nara Hotel, designed in 1909

Taeko Matsuda, founder of one of Japan’s largest

visitors who came to climb Mt. Fuji. Its hunting lodge

by the extraordinarily gifted and versatile Kingo

homebuilding companies and my host and advisor

atmosphere lent an exotic and adventuresome air to

Tatsuno, is a more confident invention. A true

at this time, initiated one of my discoveries. One

the establishment. I was curious to know whether

hybrid, it evokes aristocratic Japanese palaces while

weekend she proposed a visit to a site she thought might

this was a singular creation or one of a group of

incorporating grand Western spaces and luxurious

interest me near the popular vacation spot of Lake

similar structures, and whether they were all East-

imported materials. Built in the 1930s, the exuberant

Kawaguchi: the Fuji View Hotel. As we approached

West hybrids like the Fuji View. I suspected that they

and glamorous Fujiya, Nikko Kanaya, and Fuji

the hotel, I wondered why she thought the hotel might

were the result of the restless experimentation Japan

View hotels freely blend Japanese and Western

be of significance. Its stucco exterior, with arched porte-

experienced as it rapidly evolved into a modern and

elements in a Picturesque Style. They are con-

cochère and two pagoda-like towers, was a conventional

Westernized society. That curiosity led me to discover

servative in comparison to contemporary advocates

mix of Japanese and Western motifs. Upon closer

the phenomenon of Japan’s Grand Resort Hotels,

of international modernism such as the Japanese

7

10

Foundations

First Contacts

The story of Japan’s grand resort hotels is the story of the first exuberant contact between a broad spectrum of Western travelers and their Japanese hosts. The tale begins not with the American Occupation, as many Westerners believe, but much earlier with the arrival in 1853 of Admiral Perry of the United States. Perry’s mission was the forcible “opening” of the island nation to active trade with the West after two centuries of self-imposed isolation.

1.1 Dinner with foreigners, London Times, 1871 11

An Evolving Architecture for Japan’s Grand Resort Hotels

Once the Japanese began to understand the requirements of the Western hotel, they were anxious to apply that knowledge. However, since the hotel, in the Western sense, did not exist as a building type in Japan, its form had to be invented.

Like other Western building types that had no precedent—government headquarters, banks, museums, department stores—the hotel developed gradually through a series of experiments with Western architecture.

The first period of experiment, exemplified by the foreign settlement construction of the 1850s to early 1870s, resulted in a pseudo-Western style.11 Houses, offices, and even mills and barns contained many apparently Western features, such as glass windows with shutters, hinged doors, porches, towers, and an overall high proportion of wall to window.

Built by Japanese construction crews supervised 1.8 Second Mitsui Bank, Tokyo, 1874 1.9 Tsukiji Hotel, Tokyo, 1878 20

by foreigners, they were in fact traditional timberframed structures clothed in a sufficient number of Western symbolic elements to identify them as Western-style buildings (fig. 1.8). The Tsukiji Hotel, completed in 1868 in Tokyo’s foreign settlement, was the first government-supported guest house (fig.

1.9). The long, two-story wood-framed structure had a hipped roof covered in Japanese tiles (kawara), prominent porches, vertical windows, a tower, and a wall treatment borrowed from Japanese storehouses of tile and heavy mortar joints (dozotsukuri). The result managed to suggest both an English cottage and factory-worker housing. The structure was destroyed by fire shortly after its completion.

The second phase of experimentation involved mastery of true Western-style building. Led by the English architect Josiah Conder, who arrived in 1877 and stayed to found and build Japan’s first school of architecture, Japan began constructing its new institutions in brick and stone in English and European academic revival styles. The new 1.10 Rokumeikan, Josiah Conder, 1883

21

1.19 Nara Hotel, 1909

30

1.20 Nikko Kanaya Hotel, 1935

31

2.9 Nara Hotel, entry axis, exterior

48

2.10 Nara Hotel, entry axis, interior porte-cochère

2.11 Nara Hotel, main lobby

49

2.16 Nara Hotel, transom detail

54

2.17 Nara Hotel, transom detail

2.18 Nara Hotel, guest room

55

double-hung windows, there is less emphasis on

is conveyed by the lofty ceilings, massive furniture,

verticality. The generous expanse of wall between

private bath, and central heating (fig. 3.13).

windows and wood trim creates a more comfortable balance and stability. Despite the explicit Japanese

The Kanaya was used for recreation by American

symbols, Western influences may be seen in the

forces during the Occupation. The main building

overall composition of the facades. The front,

and annex are in good condition today and have

garden-side, and rear facades are each composed

been only moderately altered over recent years.

in a loose symmetry. At the front, the paired iri-

The Samurai House still stands and may be visited

moya roofs and karahafu porch reinforce the center

as an historic landmark. The Nikko Kanaya Hotel

of the wall as a whole, despite local asymmetries

remains a favorite stopping place for visitors to the

of window placement and shifts in the wall plane.

now easily accessible Nikko.

The garden side is expressed as two flanking towers surrounding a regular, three-bay center section (figs.

3.10–3.12).

Inside the guest rooms, traditional craft coexists with Western conveniences. Sliding glass windows are covered with shoji screens. Ceilings are decorated with woven wood and bamboo (ajiro) used in folk houses and tearooms; wall surfaces have wood trim suggesting posts and beams between panels of plaster. At the same time a sense of Western luxury 3.10 Nikko Kanaya Hotel, garden side 66

67

3.15 Fujiya Hotel, tombo for foreigners 72

He continued: It was a long semi-Japanese structure with glassed-in verandahs both in the “nikai” [second floor] and the lower floor, with wings extending at either end and also with glass verandahs. When these were lit up at night with the lamps running the whole length of the building, the first glimpse of the hotel after emerging from the dense corridors of foliage that enclosed the path, was very striking.17 Mary Crawford Fraser recalled: The Fujiya Hotel is almost entirely arranged for Europeans.… I and Mrs. N__ had some pretty rooms 3.16 Fujiya Hotel, sketch by M.C. Bernard, 1800s

on the second floor, with wide views of the valley and not too great a distance of shiny corridor to be pattered over in slippers before we got to the baths; for the baths are Miyanoshita’s reason for existing, and are so delightfully pleasant that it seems a pity ever to come out of the warm reviving water.… At Miyanoshita the woods, of which they are built give out in the warm

73

3.28 Fujiya Hotel, dining room interior 86

3.29 Fujiya Hotel, dining room detail

3.30 Fujiya Hotel, dining room detail

87

recent advances in earthquake-resistant construction.

The basement and first floors were concrete, and upper floors were traditional wood construction.

Large pivot windows were imported from Germany and accounted for one half the construction cost.

Ingenious window-screening “baskets” were devised to accommodate the pivot windows.

The Fuji View, in the Japanese Picturesque style, is fundamentally Western in its axial planning and grand spatial quality, and Japanese in its exterior forms, use of materials, and detailing. When presented with the opportunity to create a completely new structure Yamaguchi confidently chose the Western “butterfly” plan for the hotel (fig. 3.41). The center section of the “butterfly” is three bays wide; the two side bays are divided equally into one front and one rear bay. The center bay is divided in thirds—a front zone at the entry doors, the middle open well marked by the four giant pines, and a rear zone leading to a rear verandah.

The center section leads to four nearly equal wings containing grand public rooms for promenade and 3.39 Glacier National Park Lodge 3.40 Fuji View Hotel, lobby 94

95

3.55 Fuji View Hotel, Western-style bedroom

106

3.56 Fuji View Hotel, Japanese-style banquet room 107

4.3 Biwako Hotel, ground floor plan with porte-cochère entries at bottom and left 112

4.4 Biwako Hotel, 2nd floor plan with roof terrace for viewing fireworks at top 113

4.10 Biwako Hotel, wall framing and bracket sets reinterpreted in concrete 118

4.11 Biwako Hotel, Lake Biwa as seen from viewing terrace 119

The hotel has two major roofs of the iri-moya

The

type clad in copper: one over the main pavilion

Western planning and simple, planar concrete

surmounted by a lookout tower, and the other over

construction with effective Japanese symbols. The

the guest wing. Chidorihafu gables mark the center

proportion of roof to wall in the guest wing

of the main pavilion and the end of the guest wing

approaches a comfortable traditional balance and

(fig. 4.18). A small karahafu at the fourth level adds

is skillfully integrated with the four-story castle

a picturesque off-center touch. Hane-koran shrine

pavilion. The result is a happy and graceful

railings and hisashi divide the third and fourth-

marriage of two cultures (figs. 4.23, 4.24).

Gamagori

Hotel

successfully

combines

floor walls. The porte-cochère has a slightly concave gable, signifying dignity, rather than the flamboyant

The Biwako and Gamagori represent some of the

karahafu signifying opulence. Supporting columns are

best efforts of local governments to make the most

clusters of square, unadorned, reinforced concrete.

of their natural attractions. They were popular

Handsome carving in the gable end enhances an

and romantic, easily accessible, and luxurious

otherwise modest entry (fig. 4.19).

when they were built. They represent the common consensus about what constituted a Japanese grand

On the interior, Western modernism prevails over symbolic Japanese influences. From magazine photos at its opening, one detects an art Deco spirit in the wall coverings, wall sconces, and streamlined overstuffed furniture. In the dining room, a modern beamed ceiling supported by Japanese bracketing replaces the familiar coffered wood ceiling (figs. 4.20–4.22).

124

resort hotel.

4.15 Gamagori Hotel, ground floor plan, lower lever entry with lobby, main lounge, and small banquet room

4.16 Gamagori Hotel, second floor plan with lounges surrounding lobby below, main dining room, and guest rooms

125

4.23 Gamagori Hotel, as seen from Takeshima as a castle on a hill 130

4.24 Gamagori Hotel, view from second floor terrace overlooking Takeshima 131

Hotel Information

1 Nara Hotel

2 Biwako Hotel (now Biwako Otsukan)

1096 Takabatake

5–35 Yanagasaki

Nara, Nara 630–8301

Otsu, Shiga 520–0022

Tel: 0742–26–3300

Tel: 0775–11–4187

narahotel.co.jp/eng/

biwako–otsukan.jp/pdf/english.pdf

Reservations Manger: Mr. Makoto Yoshida

3 Gamagori Classic Hotel 15–1 Takeshima

511 Katsuyama, Fujikawaguchiko,

Gamagori, Aichi 443–0031

Minamitsuru, Yamanashi 401–0310

Tel: 0533–68–1111

Tel: 0555–83–2211

gamagorich.com/kts_en/gch/top.html

fujiview.jp/en/

General Manger: Mr. Takaya Yasukawa

General Manager: Mr. Katsunori Katsumata

5 Fujiya Hotel

138

4 Fuji View Hotel

6 Nikko Kanaya Hotel

359 Miyanoshita, Hakone,

1300 Kamihatsuishi

Ashigarashimo, Kanagawa 250–0404

Nikko, Tochigi 321–1401

Tel: 0460–82–2211

Tel: 0742–26–3300

fujiyahotel.jp/en

kanayahotel.co.jp/eng/

General Manager: Mr. Takashi Matsudaira

Assistant Manger: Mr. Nobuhiko Suzuki

6

4 5 2 3 1

Map of Japan, J.H. Colton Company, 1855

139