Fuminari Yoshitsugu
In Japan, domestic tourism is booming and long-slated projects are opening. In the luxury sector, brands such as Park Hyatt, Aman and Four Seasons have put home-grown options in the shade. That was until November 2020 when Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto opened its grand Kajiimiya Gate, dating from 1703. The 161-room hotel with a hot spring was a fresh and unmistakably Japanese launch.
Underground corridor
Sun-lit lobby lounge
The site, which is opposite Kyoto’s Nijo Castle, had belonged to the Mitsui family since 1691. The family lost the plot of land after the Second World War, before the Kyoto International Hotel opened here in 1961. When the Japanese institution closed in 2014, Mitsui Fudosan, the property wing of the vast Mitsui Group, saw an opportunity. “Mitsui has been in the luxury hotel business in Japan by bringing in foreign names, such as Mandarin and Ritz,” says general manager Manabu Kusui. “From here we wanted to build a Japanese luxury hotel from scratch under the Mitsui family name.”