The Reign Hotel Brings Something New to Kyoto
With the recently opened Reign Hotel Kyoto, product and interior designer Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio set out to create a new type of Kyoto hotel, a contemporary take on the ancient capital that fuses Japanese craft with a minimalist touch of Scandinavia
The words ‘Kyoto hotel’ often evoke a string of classic elements — the scent of tatami, sliding paper screens, crafted woodwork, discreet kimono-clad service.
The Reign Hotel Kyoto, however, thrives on something entirely different. A resolutely 21st-century take on Japan’s ancient capital, the new hotel is home to a laid-back atmosphere and a contemporary décor scheme that fuses Japanese craft with a minimalist touch of Scandinavia.
Designed by Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio, the hotel stretches to five storeys on a prominent corner of a busy street in southern Kyoto, an area not on the typical tourist trail but emerging as an edgy arts hub.
‘Most hotels here are designed in a Kyoto style inspired by traditional Japanese culture,’ Yanagihara explains. ‘But here the owner wanted to create something different, a new Kyoto style focusing on daily life and relaxation.’ A clue to this concept lies in Reign Hotel’s name: something of a play on words, the idea was conceived in 2019, the first year of Japan’s Reiwa era, while the city is also known for its long rainy season.
The rain theme flows throughout, from shades of blues and the playfully minimal logo and signage by Copenhagen-based All the Way to Paris to rain motifs on bespoke goods like the 1616/ arita japan cups.
The heart of the newly built 51-room hotel is its staggered ground floor, home to the lobby and a restaurant with natural light pouring through windows. A gallery-like atmosphere takes hold in the lobby, with a grey timber front desk, muted grey mortar walls and photography by Kyoto-based artist Yuna Yagi.
The restaurant is a smorgasbord of Japanese and Scandinavian craft: ten custom-made brass New Light Pottery lights hang in sharp lines above white-ash tables by Yanagihara’s studio and earthy concrete flooring. A comfortable cushioned sofa in a Kvadrat/Raf Simons textile provides a rain-inspired splash of blue, while a communal wenge wood-topped table sits in the centre and plants cast shadows through the windowed facade. A further six New Light Pottery pendants — brass topped with black stone, a crafted detail that catches the eye from the lobby — hang above a terrazzo worktop, where delicious Danish dishes are served.
‘I used very neutral materials — mortar, concrete, wood,’ says Yanagihara, who is also the creative director of 1616/ arita japan. ‘But it still feels like a Japanese space due to the deep attention to details: the softness of the sofa, the hidden air con units, the angle of morning sunlight at breakfast.’
The Scandinavian love affair continues in the guestrooms, with felt headboards and layered curtains by Kvadrat (in deep blues, yellows, reds), slated wood Skagerak benches, and boxes and carpets by Osaka-based Hotta Carpet.
Highlights include two roof terrace rooms, with hunter-green Skagerak furniture and mountain views; while four ground-floor rooms have bunk beds to accommodate bicycles underneath.
‘I didn’t design too strictly,’ Yanagihara notes. ‘It’s hard to relax in a strict interior. Instead, I wanted to make a more relaxed style, by mixing some rough elements with attention to detail, to create a new kind of Kyoto hotel.’
Text / Danielle Demetriou
Images / Yuna Yagi
Read more about prolific product and interior designer Teruhiro Yanagihara, who collaborates with a host of international partners and is the creative director of ceramics brand 1616/ arita japan
