Kyoto, Japan

Shinsho-an

Price per night from$1,265.06

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (JPY200,000.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Shinsho-an Photos

Style

Kanso attitude

Setting

Quiet Kyoto corner

Explore

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Mastering the art of serenity may be commonplace in Japan, but that doesn’t mean it’s not appreciated – especially when you encounter the flawless precision that awaits at Shinsho-an in Kyoto. The four-room hotel may be small, but it’s more than perfectly formed, with shoji screens concealing the televisions, warm wooden accents and comfy clothes to change into should your own attire be spoiling the zen. The garden is just as immaculate, with a table in the pre-dinner drinks space (offically a hanare) to reflect the greenery for added leafy calm. At the restaurant, you can leave the decision-making to the chef, since this is the place to try Kyoto’s famous kaiseki cuisine.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A drink each at the restaurant or gazebo

Facilities

Photos Shinsho-an facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Four suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability (to stay until 6pm, 50 per cent of the room charge will be payable). Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £1114.32 (JPY220,000), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of JPY1,000.00 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates include breakfast.

Also

The communal areas are all wheelchair-accessible and one of the guestrooms has handrails in the bathroom for guests with mobility issues.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, garden and gazebo. In rooms: Bluetooth speaker, adaptor plugs, pyjamas, bespoke bath products, 4K TV, kettle and Illy coffee machine, and minibar with some free soft drinks.

Our favourite rooms

There are just four rooms at Shinsho-an and each has its minimalist charms and genius design details, such as bathrooms with a terrace to sit on after your soak for an onsen feel, shoji screens concealing unsightly tech like televisions, and practical but perfectly formed breakfast areas.

Packing tips

Leave pyjamas at home and wear the ones in your room instead.

Children

Shinsho-an welcomes children aged 13 and up only.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel has partnered with Giving Bag, so that guests can donate unwanted items to local communities before they head home. You’ll find the bag in your room.

Food and Drink

Photos Shinsho-an food and drink

Top Table

Up at the counter, you can watch the masterful chefs at work, while also admiring the symmetry and serenity of the garden.

Dress Code

Minimalists will fit in better.

Hotel restaurant

Everything is an art form at Shinsho-an, not least its restaurant Ogata, where the namesake chef is a master of multi-course kaiseki cooking. His plates are so revered, reservations can book out as far as a year in advance, but luckily hotel guests get priority access. The tasting menus are the chef's choice, but his selections change with the seasons. The fine-dining extends to breakfast, which is also prepared by top chefs, and served in the specially designed area in your room. It’s usually a traditional Japanese offering, but Continental breakfasts are available instead on request.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar, but the hanare (or gazebo) is where to head for pre-dinner drinks in the garden.

Last orders

The restaurant is closed on Tuesday. There are two sititngs for dinner: 4pm and 7pm.

Room service

Drinks can be delivered to your room around the clock, with light meals available from 3pm until midnight.

Location

Photos Shinsho-an location
Address
Shinsho-an
91-5 Okazaki Enshojicho Sakyo Ward
Kyoto
606-8344
Japan

Shinsho-an is in Kyoto, in front of the gates of Nanzenji, a temple in the peaceful Okazaki district.

Planes

The nearest airport is an hour’s drive away in Osaka, or you can land in Tokyo and take the bullet train west (journey time: a little over two hours). The hotel can arrange taxis from Osaka’s Itami Airport, from about JPY25,000.

Trains

The hotel is a seven-minute walk from Higashiyama Station on the Kyoto subway’s Tozai Line. From Kyoto’s main train station, taxis to Shinsho-an should take around 20 minutes.

Automobiles

You’ll be able to get around most of the major sights on foot or by subway – if you have come by car, there’s an underground car park a five-minute walk away from the hotel with free parking for guests.

Worth getting out of bed for

Shinsho-an is in a quiet, residential corner of Kyoto, but you’ll be within walking or swift-driving distance of many of the major shrines and must-sees. One of Kyoto’s most instantly recognisable sights is Kinkaku-ji’s golden pavilion. Other architectural sites of note include the Hokan-ji temple's Yasaka pagoda, Fushimi Inari and its red torii gates, Nijo Castle and the Imperial Palace. The Buddhist temple Kiyomizu-dera is worth the hike to reach it. Gion is the city’s most famous geisha district, with traditional wooden merchant’s houses, teahouses (officially ochaya) where you can watch geiko and maiko entertain, and lots of shops and restaurants.

Local restaurants

One of the best restaurants in the city is right here at the hotel, but you’ll be able to eat your way through more multi-course chef’s-choice meals (kaiseki cuisine originates in Kyoto) at other elevated eateries, such as Gion Nishikawa and Tan. For something a little more casual, try Tempura Endo Okazaki for tempura, Junsei for traditional tofu and Cenci for fusion set menus.

Local bars

Award-winning Bar Rocking Chair is one of the most enchanting cocktail spots in Kyoto, with warmly-lit interiors and elixirs mixed to potent perfection. 

Reviews

Photos Shinsho-an reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this peaceful hotel in Japan and unpacked their tea sets and T-shirts, a full account of their city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Shinsho-an in Kyoto…

If you thought Muji was zen, you haven’t met Shinsho-an in a quiet residential corner of Kyoto, which takes the principles of kanso, Marie Kondo and Japanese cleanliness to create a tiny temple to the art of living. The hotel is invitation-only, but the promise of hospitality has been extended to esteemed Mr & Mrs Smith guests. The decor is classically Japanese, with red cedar wood and traditional shoji screens, but you’ll also find timeless furniture by Italian or Scandinavian brands such as Poltrona Frau. 

Every last detail is ordered and precise. At the hanare (or gazebo), the dining table has a reflective surface to mirror the peaceful garden just in case the tranquillity wasn’t pervasive enough. The restaurant serves several-course kaiseki cuisine, where miniature-masterpiece meals keep on coming at the chef’s whim. And the rooms have pyjamas, comfies and T-shirts (the latter of which guests can take home) aiding your sense of supreme relaxation and ease. You won’t want to leave, but at least you’ll be taking some life lessons home with you when you do. 

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Price per night from $1,265.06

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