The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto

The bend of the Kamogawa at Nijo Ohashi has drawn Japanese nobility since the seventeenth century. Nikken Sekkei kept the building low against its neighbors as a contemporary reading of a Meiji house, and it opened in February 2014 for Sekisui House, with interiors by Remedios Studio and Design Studio Spin and 409 works of Japanese art set through it. Ebisugawa-tei, the all-hinoki villa Baron Fujita Denzaburo built in 1908, was taken apart and rebuilt inside, down to the zelkova tokonoma and the silver door pulls cut with plovers. It is a private dining room now.

Seismic code left a deep beam across every window. Remedios Studio wrapped it in wood and lit it from behind, so the Higashiyama ridge sits framed like a stage, and put a daybed and a chest for tea ceremony where a desk would otherwise go. Rooms average 50 square meters, with carpet woven to look like tatami and cushions taken from Heian court kimono. Wet, the slatted hinoki floor smells of lemon.

Suite Tsukimi sits at the top, its moon-viewing deck opening onto a garden lit by historic lanterns, Daimonji in the view. Suite Kamogawa gets a private balcony over the water on the second floor, and the Ritz-Carlton Suite runs to 212 square meters with a fireplace out on its own. Garden Terrace Suite TATAMI trades beds for futons.

Below the entrance a garden runs up the wall toward the levee at ground level, and the daylight comes down with it to the floors where the pool and the first hotel spa in Asia to run on La Prairie sit under the rooms. Check-in is a cup of tea.