Maebashi, Japan

Shiroiya Hotel

Price per night from$195.74

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (JPY31,070.90), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Shiroiya Hotel Photos

Style

Master of all crafts

Setting

Mountain-framed Maebashi

Explore

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Art truly is life at Japan’s Shiroiya Hotel, where the two are bonded like paint on canvas. There’s much to muse on, be it a sculpted bar or custom tea set, a four-storey atrium filled with greenery and artworks, or an immersive room designed by a creative legend. As part of Maebashi city’s regeneration, the hotel has benefited from many big-deal, global talents, but it's the details that draw you in: soothing saunas, warming noodle dishes and an extra-long happy hour — it’s the fine art of life, beautifully exhibited. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

One free sauna session during your stay, or a JPY5,000 credit if the sauna is unavailable

Facilities

Photos Shiroiya Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

28, including four artist- and architect-designed concept rooms and three residences.

Check–Out

11am; earliest check-in, 3pm.

More details

Some rates include the bento-box breakfast; all include ‘happy-hour’ alcoholic and soft drinks, and snacks (served in the lounge from 5pm–11pm), and bowls of regional noodle dish okirikomi (served from 9pm to 10.30pm).

Also

Unfortunately, due to raised areas in rooms and many staircases, Shiroiya Hotel isn’t especially accessible — if you have mobility issues, you may require some assistance. However, bath tub seats, bed guards and wheelchairs are available to rent, if needed, and there are accessible public restrooms and an entry ramp.

At the hotel

Art collection, pâtisserie, bakery, tea room, lounge, courtyard, charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV , tablet, minibar, kettle, Onca coffee, air-conditioning, humidifier, bottled water, pyjamas, bathrobes, slippers and Osaji bath products and skincare. The ‘concept’ rooms and residences don’t have a TV, but the latter has a kitchen and a record player.

Our favourite rooms

There's aesthetic appeal aplenty here — even entry-level rooms have been accentuated with original works by exciting global talents: Kengo Kito’s glitter-blitzed canvases; Naoko Ushijima’s ethereal, translucent scenes; Silke Otto-Knapp's monochrome watercolours… The hotel is basically a gallery with beds; especially so in the ‘concept rooms’, each designed by a different legend: Michele De Lucchi’s is dressed in darkly dramatic shingle curtains; Sou Fujimoto’s has fun and sustainable furnishings that double up as plant-holders; Jasper Morrison’s epitomises wood-lined minimalism. Each is an immersive and thought-provoking place to rest or engage your head.

Spa

Pick the sauna that suits your personality type from the hotel’s steamy trinity. Maybe the one rendered translucent with herbal-mist blends cooked up from Traditional Chinese Medicine; one designed like a suite, ramping up relaxation with a double wooden bed to lie on; or the Finnish one, where you ladle water over coals, brave a cold plunge, then tag on a meditation in the adjacent hut, mindfully admiring pieces by Tatsuo Miyajima as part of the ritual. They can only be booked for private sessions (JPY5,000 each for 80 minutes, but one free session is your Smith Extra, subject to availability), so secure your slot in advance.

Packing tips

Make some space for the creative spirit and any summoned muses — and bring art supplies to capture any inklings for posterity. Your suitcase might even have room for a few A1 pieces or chunkier sculpture because the hotel has an impressive range of extras to rent, from nail-clippers and straighteners to chargers, bottle-openers, desks for remote working and shoe-dryers.

Also

Shiroiya Hotel is the brainchild of Maebashi-born Hitoshi Tanaka, founder of JINS eyewear, who has been developing the city with many creative talents.

Pet‐friendly

Shiroiya Hotel is not dog-friendly; four-legged friends will need alternative holiday plans. See more pet-friendly hotels in Maebashi.

Children

Welcome. Children aged 12 and up will be charged as adults. Under-13s can’t eat in the main restaurant, but there is a private table in the lounge for family dining and a children’s menu. Some baby kit (nappy bins, bed guards) can be rented on-site.

Sustainability efforts

Shiroiya Hotel is part of a wider regeneration of Maebashi, where many of the artists and designers whose work you’ll see on-site have contributed to other projects in the city. You’ll get a sense of this growth with the Green Tower, a grassy hillside structure, built to enhance the hotel’s leafiness. There’s a very strong sense of locality here, from native noodle dishes and pastries to artists with roots to Gunma Prefecture produce served at dinner; and the hotel collaborates with Onca Coffee, supporting their work helping people with disabilities.

Food and Drink

Photos Shiroiya Hotel food and drink

Top Table

To give you a closer look at the kitchen’s artistic process, there are mostly seats at the counter, which is fashioned from earth, to symbolise how fresh the ingredients are. For alfresco drinks, there’s a courtyard with Liam Gillick works.

Dress Code

Considered compositions: wabi-sabi asymmetry, striking proportions, cool contrasts and elegant framing… Something that’ll make fellow diners look (but not in the way verboten flip-flops or sportswear might).

Hotel restaurant

You can tell you’re in capable hands with the Restaurant’s chef, Hiro Katayama, just by looking at his impeccable plating: precision-sliced meat and fish, herbs arranged like ikebana, Pop Art dollops of sauce. Entrust your tastes to him on the 10-course kaiseki tasting menu, which splices innovative French cuisine with Japanese culinary tradition, showing off Gunma’s gourmet produce and natural bounty. (Note that reservations are required by 10am on the day of dining.) A bento-style breakfast, dainty afternoon tea (from 2.30pm to 5pm) and casual local-style meals (sea bream in wasabi, pork and ginger) are served in the lounge; from 9pm, this is where you can savour chef's okkirikomi, a comforting local noodle dish worth leaving room for. The bakery makes gorgeous breads and pastries from scratch; plus, a patisserie sells local favourite, miso-flavoured financiers; cookies, chocolates, seasonal sorbets and fresh fruit tarts. 

Hotel bar

You’ll find more of the trendy, green drink that Bar Matcha Tei (last entry at 10pm, closed Thursday and Sunday) is named after in the adjoining tea room, but it pops up in some cocktails and mocktails, too. It’s not the only premium ingredient sloshing around — the ‘legendary’ cocktail list has high-rolling sips such as Hennessy XO with white Alba truffle; or a champagne cocktail with Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, 25-year-old Cognac and Grand Marnier Cuvée de Centenaire. Plus, whiskies run rare. Decor is as refined as what’s in your glass, with a long bar made using a single piece of cedar — a collab between artist Hiroshi Sugimoto and architect Tomoyuki Sakakida of New Material Research Laboratory.

Last orders

Breakfast runs from 7am (last orders, 9.30am); lunch, 11.30am–2.30pm; free drinks, 5pm–11pm. Dinner in the Restaurant is 6pm–10pm (last entry, 7.30pm), Monday to Thursday; and at 5pm and 8pm sittings, Friday and Saturday. Hours differ on public holidays.

Location

Photos Shiroiya Hotel location
Address
Shiroiya Hotel
2-2-15 Honmachi
Maebashi
371-0023
Japan

The hotel’s 1970s tower and new build by architect Sou Fujimoto sit in central Maebashi (you’ll spot Lawrence Weiner’s typographical installation on the façade) near galleries and shops, within easy reach of Gunma Prefecture’s wilder greenery.

Planes

You’ll need to touch down in Tokyo; Haneda is the closer of the two international hubs, around two hours’ drive away, and Narita is about two-and-a-half hours by car.

Trains

Japan’s fast and efficient train services make the journey from Tokyo a breeze. Hope on the Hokuriku or Joetsu Shinkansen to Takasaki Station (about an hour’s journey), then ride the Ryomo Line to Maebashi Station, about a 15-minute walk from the hotel.

Automobiles

Maebashi city has a reliable public-transport system, but a car will come in handy for day trips to scale the Gunma Prefecture’s mountains and wallow in its hot springs. For overnight stays, you can park in the local Mizuho Bank’s underground lot from 3pm on the day of arrival until noon the next day (show your ticket at reception); longer stays are charged at JPY300 an hour. Or leave your vehicle at Genki 21 parking, which is free for guests from check-in till check-out.

Worth getting out of bed for

Former silk-spinning hub Maebashi is undergoing a Renaissance, and — like 16th-century Florence — it’s driven by art. Shiroiya Hotel is one of the shining threads pulling this together, designed as a ‘living room for the city’; and Maebashi’s new slogan, ‘Where good things grow’, promises progress. Track the transformation on a self-guided tour of the hotel’s art collection (there’s a QR code in your room); or for more insight, check with staff to see if there's a scheduled tour. Municipal art museum Arts Maebashi is a two-minute walk away. The city recently welcomed Maebashi Galleria, a huge cultural complex designed by Akihisa Hirata, which houses various galleries (Taka Ishi Maebashi, Maki, Tomio Koyama, Shiobara Art Office and Rin Art Association). The Jins Park eyewear store, bakery, park complex and communal hub, Nakamata Sweet Shop and even Jasper Morrison’s Babakkawa public toilet are yet more significant additions. And a Mina Perhonen boutique is the hotel's newest neighbour. Go back to tradition in the hotel’s tea room, partaking in a tea ceremony. The hotel can also arrange a kimono-dressing session. And at 9pm, settle in the lobby with a free glass of wine to watch Leandro Erlich’s Lighting Pipes installation change colours.

You’ll want to explore Gunma’s natural glories, too — staff can help with treks and e-bike tours over Oze’s pristine Alpine marshland; hiking missions up Mount Tanigawa, along the scenic Ichinokura-sawa Trail, canoeing over cobalt-hued Lake Shima (with more peaceful early morning tours, too); and visits to Gunma’s 100-or-so hot-spring onsens. Winter adventures on offer through the hotel include snowshoeing and skiing. 

Local restaurants

In Maebashi Galleria, Cépages’ French fare fuses with Japanese tradition in dishes such as foie-gras terrine with sweet, red-bean-paste-filled buns and sauternes wine. A handcrafted-pasta restaurant that has its origins in Oregon, Grassa is your local Italian go-to. Continuing the upscale design trend, Tsujihan’s minimal decor is head-turning work by Fumiko Takahama + Tomohiko Komatsu Architects. Its seafood bowls are things of beauty too, topped with sea urchin, scallops, served with sashimi and an umami-rich broth.

Local cafés

Maebashi has a heady blend of coffee spots including Laugh Coffee, Robson Coffee and Onca Coffee. For a culinary odyssey of high-quality sushi, noodles you can heat up on-site and blend-your-own smoothies, try the 7/11, a short walk away. The hotel's outpost of cult hangout Blue Bottle Coffee café is an especially good-looking one, conceived by Keiji Ashizawa Design, with artwork by Yoshio Shirakawa. 

Local bars

Our pick of local drinking spots is Lu Lu Lu Na Beer microbrewery and Futago Distillery, where the gin is made with Maebashi-grown cucumbers.

Reviews

Photos Shiroiya Hotel 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 not-so-blank canvas of a hotel in mountain-ringed Maebashi and unpacked their watercolours and hiking boots, a full account of their blue-sky thinking break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Shiroiya Hotel in Gunma Prefecture…

Shiroiya Hotel gives Tracey Emin a run for her money, as it’s essentially moved beds into an art gallery. There’s no corner of the two buildings (one a 1970s tower, the other built by starchitect Sou Fujimoto) that hasn’t been meticulously crafted by a legend in their field: the ‘flowing water’, glass-and-cedar bar (a collab between photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and architect Tomoyuki Sakakida), the typography by Teruhiro Yanagihara Studio in the bakery, the pâtisserie’s Fibonacci-esque fruit tarts, the local noodles painstakingly folded into flowers…  

Every detail is an aesthete’s dream, one you can fully give in to, with immersive rooms designed by Michele De Lucchi or Jasper Morrison, overlooking installations that come alive, and art suffused throughout. The living is beautifully considered too, from daily free drinks to sauna sessions and dainty tea ceremonies, you’re very much painted into the picture, and will feel in full colour come check-out.  

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Price per night from $195.74