Need to know
Rooms
22, including four duplex hideaways.
Check–Out
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm; early arrivals may be able to be accommodated if rooms are ready.
More details
Rates don’t include breakfast (JPY4,235 a guest, JPY2,118 for a child). But guests get a citrusy welcome drink and free entry to the baths next door.
Also
While there are some ground-floor rooms with smooth ingress, bathrooms aren’t adapted and the entrance is stepped, so guests with mobility issues may need some extra assistance.
At the hotel
Interior garden courtyard, lounge, free-to-hire bikes, umbrellas to borrow and free WiFi. In rooms: Bluetooth speaker, pour-over coffee-maker, kettle, minibar, and kimonos and slippers.
Our favourite rooms
Azumi Setoda’s rooms are spectacular in their simplicity, styled with just cypress and cedar woods, washi paper, stone and white linens, and formed with the clean lines and contemplative spaces typical of Zen architecture. But, it’s the thoughtful touches that stop the less-is-more design from feeling too stringent: a deep-soaking, wood hinoki tub in the bathroom, a recessed floor to allow for a low workspace, furnishings positioned towards the floor-to-ceiling windows. The Suzumi rooms on the upper floors are slightly more desirable for their private balcony (although you get more green for your buck on the lower level). The two-storey suites give guests a bit more elbow room, with a separate tatami-matted lounge.
Spa
There’s no spa in the 140-year-old Horiuchi family residence, but in a more modern building across the street, you can enjoy the full restorative, authentic Japanese soaking experience in sentō bathhouse Yubune – free for guests to use. In your room, you’ll find a wicker basket with suitable kit (sandals, split-toed socks, towels) and robes; and soothing lemon-infused pools (one for men, one for women), jetted tubs, sauna steaming, and brisk cold plunge baths are just steps away, in spaces that local artist Mai Miyake has decorated with mosaics of marine life and Ikuchijima island scenes. Massages and facials are also available on request (must be booked in advance).
Packing tips
This is a great time to finally download that meditation app and choose a mantra, but also bring your non-chafing cycling kit, as even amateurs will likely hop on one at some point.
Also
The Japanese art of hospitality (omotenashi) is well-practised here, and the aruji (house manager) will take great care of you.
Children
Quiet, calm and contemplative: words that sum up this ryokan, but it’s relaxed too, meaning kids – while not catered to specifically – can stay (the Sora-suzumi or Niwa-suzumi rooms are best) and enjoy bike-riding, lemon-picking and fishing.
Best for
Older children who’ve mastered bike-riding.
Recommended rooms
The two-storey Sora-suzumi or Niwa-suzumi rooms will give you that bit more space.
Activities
The hotel doesn’t specifically cater to kids, but has bikes for hire and can arrange fishing trips, kayaking, SUP sessions, lemon-picking outings and other all-generation enjoyments.
Meals
The hotel’s tasting menu may be a touch challenging for fussy younger ones, but there are plenty of restaurants and cafés close by. Breakfast for under-fives is JPY2,118 a child, available on request at least four days in advance of your stay.
Sustainability efforts
With the backing of the Aman group’s Adrian Zecha, and Kyoto-based architect Shiro Miura at the helm, Azumi Setoda has gently and respectfully revived the 140-year-old estate of the noble Horiuchi merchant family, who dealt in salt and coal. Wherever possible, the design team preserved the fine craftsmanship – wood beams and furnishings, delicate shoji screens, stone flooring – and rebuilt the rest using natural materials, that colour and take on new form as they age, in the traditional sukiya minimalist style. A delicate courtyard garden has been cultivated, and chefs work with local suppliers they have a face-to-face relationship with (within a 50-kilometre radius of the ryokan). This restorative streak has traversed main shopping thoroughfare Shiomachi Shotengai, too: since the hotel opened, its owners have also built a beautiful bathhouse across the way, restored the Horiuchi’s old storehouse into a work and gathering space, and opened the first branch of Portland’s Overview Coffee outside the US, reinvigorating the community.