A castle built by Yamaha where you can stay overnight

Yamaha is a Japanese brand beloved by musicians around the world. Did you know that the company's group also operates a prestigious golf club and resort hotel? It was Genichi Kawakami, the fourth-generation president who shaped the company into what it is today. He opened Katsuragi Golf Club in 1976, and the Katsuragi Kitanomaru resort hotel two years later in 1978.

This summer, one wing of this historic hotel was transformed into three specially designed suites that meet the modern demands of luxury and sustainability. The project was undertaken by Uchida Design Institute, the design firm behind MUNI KYOTO in Arashiyama, Kyoto, and HOTEL IL PALAZZO, said to be a pioneer of Japanese design hotels. We stayed in a room named "Moon" (Moon) and were also given the opportunity to view the other two rooms.

Both rooms were elegant and comfortable, a 21st century "Japanese-Western fusion" that combined the luxury of Western values ​​familiar to us today with Japanese aesthetic sensibilities.

Genichi Kawakami's thoughts on preserving old houses

"Katsuragi Kitanomaru" is just like a castle in name, appearance, and large grounds that take up an entire mountain. This is no surprise, as when it was first established, the concept was to treat guests like feudal lords, and provide them with meals and relaxation so that they could soothe their fatigue within the castle, with the aim of creating a facility that resembles the Kitanomaru of a castle, in other words, the living space of a shogun or daimyo family. The name "Katsuragi" is said to come from the fact that this area was originally a producer of kudzu (arrowroot).

Located close to the Yamaha Kakegawa Factory and not far from the head office, the hotel also serves as a guesthouse to welcome Yamaha's guests, including world-famous musicians and athletes.

When it came to creating this important hotel, Kawakami Genichi proposed, interestingly enough, to relocate an old house rather than build a new one. The Hokuriku region is home to many fine old houses that exude strength and warmth. He learned that these houses were being lost, and wondered if they could be used in planning a lodging facility.

Seven of the approximately 100 old houses were selected and relocated to this site, with the roofs covered in traditional Enshu tiles, a local tradition. These were connected by corridors and the building was made into four accommodation buildings named after flowers. A large gate with a nightlight was built in front of the building, and a moat was created around it. This gave it the appearance of a flat castle.

Kawakami felt a sense of crisis about the rapid disappearance of old Japanese houses after the period of rapid economic growth, and felt a sense of mission to preserve those landscapes. Kawakami's passion can be seen everywhere in the hotel, such as by deliberately creating a corridor on the second floor, which exposes the view of the rows of Enshu tile roofs.

The warmth of wood permeates the modern Showa-era building

Although the facility has such a historic atmosphere, once you step inside the building, you find yourself transported to a completely different time and space. The interior of Katsuragi Kitanomaru evokes the atmosphere of the good old Showa era, when Japan was prosperous. In front of the entrance, a row of windows facing the Japanese garden is lined with spacious wooden furniture and a Yamaha grand piano.

Opposite the piano is a bar lounge area equipped with a wine cellar and a huge, single-piece bar counter. A horn-shaped light fixture is placed above the bar counter, and a Yamaha compact audio system plays music by classical and jazz musicians supported by the company, reminding you that this is a Yamaha facility.

However, visiting this bar made me realize that Yamaha actually has another face besides being a musical instrument manufacturer. The bar counter, made of a single board, is made from an old pine tree that was struck by lightning on the 13th hole of Katsuragi Golf Club's Ukari Course. The low table nearby is made from Yakusugi cedar. The handrail of the stairs leading to the second floor is made from a pine tree that had fallen under the weight of snow and then stood upright, in its original form.

Looking around, the ceilings, restored from old houses in the Hokuriku region, are also made of wood, and the entire hotel is enveloped in the warmth of wood. Yamaha, a manufacturer of musical instruments, is also a company with excellent woodworking techniques. Indeed, it was precisely for this reason that they were filled with love for wood and could not leave the disappearing old houses of the Hokuriku region alone.

Most of the wooden furniture used in the hotel was made by the now-defunct Yamaha furniture division, and is Western furniture remade to suit Japanese body types and lifestyles. This may be the true nature of the Showa era luxury that gives off a sense of security.

The birth of 21st century luxury "Sakuradono"

With an exterior reminiscent of a modern castle and a Showa-era modern interior, this resort hotel is a crossroads of two timelines, and in the spring of 2025, a third timeline of 21st-century luxury will be added. These are three rooms in the Sakuraden, which has been reborn by Uchida Design Institute.

Katsuragi Kitanomaru has four accommodation buildings named after flowers. "Aoiden" is the most popular room, measuring 28 square meters, and is a modern Japanese room where you can enjoy the deep green of the mountains. "Fujiden" is a 33 square meter room with a balcony facing a wisteria trellis in a corner of the vast garden. "Hagiden" is a building that retains the appearance of an old Japanese house, with a total of five guest rooms arranged around a large common space equipped with an irori hearth.

The newly renovated Sakuraden is said to have been built in a similar style to Hagiden. However, while the exterior of the old house has been left intact, the interior has been dramatically transformed to the point where it is difficult to imagine what it used to look like.

By eliminating the shared spaces, each room was made larger, measuring 80-100 square meters, and three completely different rooms, named "Moon," "Light," and "Nagi," were created, each with its own private garden and open-air bath.

The three rooms were designed according to the traditional Japanese aesthetic and formal classification of "Shin, Gyo, So." In other words, "Tsuki" was created as a neat and elegant "Shin" room, "Hikari" was created as a "Gyo" room with softness and elegance, and "Nagi" was created as a "Kusa" room with the most free and relaxed atmosphere.

Carrying on the traditional Japanese style of space to the present day

The designs of the three rooms have many things in common, one of which is the traditional Japanese spatial form.

All three rooms have a magnificent entrance hall, equipped with a water basin, which symbolizes "purification" and "hospitality" (the appearance of the water basin is different for each room, depending on the concept of the room). After taking off your shoes and stepping onto the floor, you will find a spacious hall where you can relax and enjoy the open view that connects to the outside, and there are comfortable sofas that characterize each room. The further you go from there, the more private the feeling of privacy increases.

All rooms have been designed with the high ceilings removed, giving a sense of openness, and guests can enjoy tracing the memory of the building, such as the beams and pillars that have been inherited from the original old house. This attitude of cherishing the memory of this old house is in line with the wishes of Genichi Kawakami.

The ambiguity of the space inside and outside the rooms may also be a characteristic of Japanese spaces. Each room has a unique terrace, but Uchida Design Institute, which designed the house, calls these "hiroen" (wide veranda) rather than terraces. While a terrace is an outdoor space, a hiroen is a veranda that extends outside the room, and is an intermediate area between indoors and outdoors. It is a comfortable place where you can feel a connection with both the large garden beyond and the dignified indoor space.

The veranda and the open-air baths in each room have their own private gardens and plants, including a rock garden, and the design of these, as well as the hand washing basin at the entrance, was created by the landscaping planning group Waso Design.

A distinctive feature of Japanese architecture is the separation of the interior and exterior of such rooms with soft boundaries such as lattices and shoji screens that allow light and air to pass through, and the three rooms of the Sakuraden Hall incorporate these elements, reinterpreting them in a modern way that suits their chic appearance.

The appeal of Mimuro Sanyo
- "Tsuki" - A space of the highest quality, brimming with true elegance

We'll start with the "Tsuki" room, which corresponds to the "Shin" in the "Shin, Gyo, So" (sin, gyo, so). This room is authentic and best represents the history and character of Sakuraden. After taking off your shoes and going up to the entrance, you open the door and enter the living room, where you'll find the terrace on the right and the bedroom lined up in a straight line at the back on the left. When you fully open the wooden sash, you can enjoy the sense of unity between the living room and the terrace overlooking the garden. The interior area is 101 square meters. The combined area of ​​the terrace and open-air bath is 37 square meters, making it the largest of the three rooms.

The contrast between the white plaster walls, black beams, and built-in furniture, a structure that retains the memory of an old house, and the modern furniture creates a chic space that is impressive, and the fairly high ceilings make it comfortable. In one corner of the living room, a work by calligrapher Hiroko Osugi, selected by Yamaha Resort to match this chic black and white space, is displayed.

Opening one of the sliding doors in the living room reveals the sink and bathroom. The bath is an open-air bath where you can enjoy the moss-covered dry landscape garden and green maple leaves, but it is also the only room of the three that has a private bedrock bath overlooking the rock garden. Bedrock bath lovers can use it as many times as they like, day or night, to work up a sweat and refresh themselves.

The bedroom can be used with the sliding door open to enjoy the garden view, or closed to transform into a private, peaceful space with no outside presence. When lying in bed, you can enjoy the view of large black beams crisscrossing above you, evoking the building's history. Next to the bedroom is a large powder room that also serves as a closet, allowing you to enjoy some time to reflect.

— "Light" — The splendor of the line and the charm of the flame

The room with the "Hikari" style, which corresponds to the "Gyo" part of the "Shin, Gyo, So" style, has a completely different atmosphere. The floor and ceiling use the natural color of the wood, which gives a warm feeling, and the overall impression of the room is bright.

In one corner of the living room, there is a vermilion round sofa (semicircular sofa) and a round table. This is in stark contrast to the linear nature of "Tsuki." The living room stretches out horizontally along the terrace, and on the other side of the sofa is the bedroom, which is gently connected to the living room, separated only by a latticework. The interior is 80 square meters, with the veranda and open-air bath totaling 35 square meters.

The room's greatest feature is its terrace, which is divided down the middle into a wooden deck with striking red recliners on the left and a fire pit surrounded by stone benches on the right.

At night, under the starry sky, it becomes a place where you can relax and enjoy conversation around a fire. This may also be a modern interpretation of the irori hearth. The terrace can be seen up close not only from the living room but also from the bed, and although it is not completely visible from the open-air bath, you can sense its presence, making this a room centered around the terrace.

To complement the fire pit and red sofa, the room is decorated with sun art and a calligraphy piece depicting the character for "flame" in red ink.

Another distinctive feature of the "Akari" rooms is their sloping ceilings. The three rooms in the Sakuraden Hall have had the false ceilings removed, allowing for a sense of openness that extends all the way up to the roof, but as a result there are high and low ceilings in places that match the shape of the triangular roof. In the "Akari" rooms, the highest part of the roof, at the peak, is located in the entrance hall, and in the living room the shape of the sloping roof forms the ceiling itself.

— "Nagi" — The tranquility of grass and the healing power of water

The third room, "Nagi," has a stepped ceiling with the high and low parts level. The ceiling on the side closest to the terrace is lower, so your eyes are naturally drawn to the lower part of the terrace, but in fact, a water basin has been placed in that part of the terrace, and when the lights are turned off at night, the trees on the terrace are reflected in the basin, creating a beautiful view. During the day, the water basin reflects the sunlight, creating a flickering light effect inside the room.

Like "Tsuki," the bedroom, living room, and terrace are arranged in a straight line, with an interior area of ​​83.4 square meters, and the terrace and open-air bath measuring 25 square meters.

The color scheme is a light wood finish that brings out the natural texture of the wood, and the walls are finished in a clean natural wood finish, creating a relaxing space with a most natural atmosphere, in keeping with the "kusa" (grass) of the "shin, gyo, kusa" (sin, gyo, kusa) philosophy.

A luxury experience created by a leading Japanese brand

All three rooms have large TVs equipped with Yamaha sound bars, allowing you to enjoy movies with powerful sound. In addition to beer, wine, and juices available in the refrigerator, the hotel also offers its own premium deep-steamed tea bags made with local Kakegawa tea, as well as Moriyama-yaki teacups made with locally sourced clay.

Dinner is served in the restaurant "Tsubaki no Ma," where you can enjoy the night garden view from the large windows. Five courses are available, but guests staying at the Sakuraden can choose either the recommended Mai or Gin course.

I was surprised by the soup, which tasted of Fukuroi's famous crown melon, but the menu also included sashimi from nearby waters and charcoal-grilled Mikkabi beef loin, which reminded me that this is a location where you can enjoy both the bounty of the sea and the land. The next morning's breakfast was also packed with shabu-shabu made with carefully selected vegetables and a three-tiered bento box filled with dishes that made use of the region's abundant ingredients.

Both dishes are made with the rich ingredients of the region, where the producers are known to the guests, cooked using traditional Japanese techniques, while incorporating a modern sensibility, based on the culinary philosophy of "Japanese spirit, Western learning." Here too, Genichi Kawakami's concept of "the homeland of the Japanese heart" is consistently expressed.

Within the facility is the Umedono guesthouse, where Yamaha once hosted VIPs and held music events. It is not open to the public, but recently it has been converted into an audio room where you can enjoy your favorite CDs on Yamaha's top-of-the-line audio equipment.

A 20-minute stroll around the garden will take you past the building's distinctive roof. The garden also contains the Seisei-an, a relocated residence of Kawakami Yoshiichi, the father of Genichi Kawakami and the founder of Yamaha's revival, and the Kabokuen, a flower garden where you can enjoy flowers of all seasons.

Genichi Kawakami's desire to "save disappearing traditional houses" that he had in the 1970s has blossomed in a new form half a century later: not simply preservation, but the practice of "design for inheritance," which respects history while evolving it with a modern sensibility.

The three rooms of Sakuraden inherit the philosophy and ideals of the facility, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary, while also demonstrating a new blend of Japanese and Western styles that beautifully combines traditional Japanese values ​​with Western luxury, a style unique to Japan. We hope that this renovation will mark the starting point for the facility's next 50 years.