A different Kyoto guide: From Brutalist architecture to a hotel located at Nintendo's former headquarters

CNA

4 days ago

Kyoto served as Japan's political and cultural centre for 1,100 years after Emperor Kanmu relocated the country's capital from nearby Nagoka-kyo in 794. It subsequently saw the blossoming of Japanese culture in poetry, architecture, art and religion during the Heian period (794 to 1185), making Kyoto the undisputed wellspring of many generations of Japanese artisanal craft and magnificent temple architecture.
But how about it also being the birthplace of Nintendo, pilgrimages for Brutalist architecture and special contemporary lifestyle experiences? Kyoto is all that as well, fused into structures from myriad eras. We highlight seven experiences that will enrich your Kyoto trip, starting with some wonderful cultural buildings designed by well-known Japanese architects.
POST-WAR AND BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE
The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art (formerly the Kyoto City Museum of Art) is a good example of the Imperial Crown style (known as teikan). Opened in 1933 in the Okazaki district, it was renovated and extended in 2022 by Jun Aoki & Associates (the architecture firm behind projects like Louis Vuitton Omotesando with an ornamented latticed facade) in collaboration with Tezzo Nishizawa Architects.
The renovation sees the foyer of Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art becoming a sunken forecourt that leads into the main entrance. It is a great example of urban design where people intuitively meet and gather. Inside, the original architecture of decorative marbles and a stone spiral staircase showcases Kyoto of another era. The rooftop terrace in the new Hagashiyama Cube has good vantage of the picturesque surroundings.
The museum is home to a 3,600-strong collection of Kyoto artworks but there exhibits are wide-ranging. A showcase of Yayoi Kusama's print works is running from now until Sep 7 Sep while a special display of Kyoto textile artists is on until Jun 16 Jun.
You can combine a museum visit with a trip to the ROHM Theatre Kyoto (officially known as Kyoto Kaikan). I stumbled upon this beautiful piece of Brutalist architecture while looking for a lunch spot after a morning at the nearby Kyoto City Zoo with the kids. Designed by Japanese architect Kunio Maekawa, ROHM Theatre Kyoto is a concrete building that won the 1960 Architectural Institute of Japan Prize. It comprises two multipurpose halls and a 2,000-seater hall.
The programme line-up is impressive – Patti Smith was here with Soundwalk Collective in April – but even if you are not attending a show, there is a Tsutaya bookstore on the ground floor. One can also enjoy coffee at the second floor balcony and admire the building's roof, curved to the shape of the Sanmon Gate of Nanzenji Temple. On Sundays, the ROHM Square holds an outdoor market with food and retail kiosks – ideal for cool autumnal or winter afternoons.
TAKE A BREAK IN RESTORED MACHIYAS
Kyoto has machiyas aplenty, so it is not surprising that luxury brands look for these architecture gems when seeking to open stores with a strong genius loci. Rather than simply restore the structures, these shops have a layered narrative through modern design and special programmes.
One such destination is Le Labo Kyoto Machiya, opened in March 2024. This was the New York fragrance brand's 13th store in Japan, housed in a 145-year-old machiya in the Nakagyo-ku neighbourhood that used to be a family-owned sake brewery. Schemata Architects' wabi sabi aesthetic honouring Japanese heritage and craftsmanship gels with Le Labo's signature use of raw finishes and vintage elements.
The countertops, wall shelves, staircase and other architectural elements draw are accented with paints in the antique colours of bengara (red earth pigment) and shoen (pine soot). There is also a wooden fragrance lab booth made with reclaimed Japanese materials. Upstairs, changing exhibitions are held in tatami rooms.
The first storey also houses Le Labo's first cafe in Japan; come here to have your morning brew with the view of an internal courtyard before stocking up on your Le Labo favourites.
For afternoon tea, head to Gion. New York-based fashion designer and artist Taiga Takahashi passed away in 2022 but he left behind a wonderful shop and teahouse in a machiya at the popular Hanamikoji Street. Taiga had trained under stonemason Masatoshi Izumi who was a lifelong collaborator of Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and his influences come through in the interior design featuring boulders as water features and rock gardens.
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The two-storey space is a gallery and retail venue on the ground floor (called TT), and the second storey holds a modern teahouse called Sabi. The latter pairs Japanese sweets with either alcohol or non-alcoholic beverages made in front of guests. For example, the April menu featured Glittering Fruit – a drink with hojicha, citrus vinegar, white sage and Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky – and Spring Sundown, a dessert with strawberry, chocolate and cardamom that 'laments the passing of spring and its glowing crimson skies.'
OLD-MEETS-NEW SHOPPING
Also in Gion is Casa Valextra, housed in a former traditional teahouse and heralded by a white Noren with the Milanese brand's logo. It was designed by Milan-based practice LGB-Architetti, who melded custom-made brass and green-lacquered mirrored furnishings with brushed and dyed hemlock wood that showcases Japanese timber craft.
While the structure is distinctive Japanese, the interiors incorporate the best of Italian modern design sourced from the private vintage collection of the Galleria Luisa Delle Piane in Milan. The store also features a new typeface conceived by Studio Temp, inspired by the Valextra logo created by legendary architect and graphic designer Angiolo Giuseppe Fronzoni in 1962. Apart from the brand's full range of bags and leather goods, Casa Valextra also sells store-exclusive items and colours.
To make your own souvenir, head to Porter Classic Kyoto in Nakagyo-ku. Porter is known for its well-made bags and this is the Japanese brand's first directly managed store in the Kansai region. iHoused in a two-storey machiya, every spot is well curated, right down to the dressing room that displays paraphernalia of the brand founded in 2007 by Katsuyuki Yoshida.
On the first storey is an open courtyard for lounging between shopping. On the second storey is a small atelier where one can sometimes witness a seamstress at work, a museum, and a cosy library with books and artefacts. Do not leave without making a screen print t-shirt in the backyard as a special memento.
Kyoto is not a place to go for shopping malls but if you do need a style-based retail fix, head to Kyoto BAL located along the city's main Kawaramachi-dori Street shopping thoroughfare. Opened in 1970, the building underwent a renovation in 2015. Some of the top 'quiet luxury' brands are housed here – Tomorrowland, JM Weston, Jil Sander and Marni among them.
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The mall is modestly sized, making it pleasant to amble through. Beauty skincare and apothecary brands like Byredo, Diptyque, Kotoshina (an organic Kyoto brand) and Officine Universelle Buly 1803 cluster on the ground floor and make for an inviting welcome into the mall, whose curated offerings include a large Maruzen bookstore in the basement with a cafe, fancy cafes like Ralph's Coffee and aesthetic pop-up exhibits in the atrium.
HOME OF NINTENDO
For a truly unique stay, choose Marufukuro. The 18-room hotel is named after Marufuku, the store in Kyoto that Fusajiro Yamauchi opened in 1889 selling hanafuda playing cards that grew into the famous games company Nintendo, known for mascots like Super Mario and Donkey Kong, and whose game consoles have sold over 836 million worldwide (as of March 2023).
Marufukuro is located in the company's former headquarters (1933 to 1959) in Kagiyacho that was completed in 1930. The hotel has no ties to Nintendo but the building is still owned by the Yamauchi family (who had sold their remaining shares to Nintendo in 2014). Through the hotel are interesting preserved features such as the old warehouse lift, and the logo at the entrance that reads 'The Nintendo Playing Card Co' in English and Japanese.
The hotel, operated by PSD Hotels, has three separate buildings: The office wing, the residential wing and the warehouse wing, designed in the Art Deco style popular in early Showa ear Japan. A fourth building was demolished and rebuilt by acclaimed Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
One can choose to stay in the old or new buildings, where each of the 18 rooms is different. For example, in the old wing is the Japanese Suite that was a former bedroom of the Yamauchi family. There is also a room with a preserved fireplace made of rare Taishan tiles. In the new wing, Ando's signature animates some of the guestroom walls.
Guests can rest on Mid-Century Modern furniture in the lounge that was used by the Yamauchi family or browse Nintendo- and Japan-related books in the library designed by Suppose Design Office. The hotel can also organise special experiences such as a helicopter ride over Araishiyama and the Nintendo Museum.
True fans can allocate some time at the Nintendo Museum that opened on Oct 2, 2024 (tickets were sold out for the first two months). The building was converted from Nintendo's former Uji Ogura plant that had manufactured playing and hanafuda cards.
The Nintendo Museum is entertaining and informative for both adults and children, with interactive games and a display of every Nintendo game invented – from the handmade playing card in the 1880s to now globally beloved video games. One can also try making Hanafuda playing cards and learn the rules of the game. The museum shop also carries Nintendo Museum-only items. At the cafe, have fun customising a hamburger out of 270,000 possible combinations.
Tip: Tickets are sold via a random selected drawing. Purchases must be made before the visit and there is a deadline for entries so check the museum website for relevant dates.
CASTLE NIGHT TOUR
If you are looking for a memorable evening activity, consider a night tour at Nijo Castle, built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa leyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1868). Designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994, the castle and its grounds surrounded by stonewalls and moats is open to the public as a historic site.
There are tours during the day but a night tour offers a different way of appreciating the castle grounds, decorated with water bodies, ornamental stones, manicured pine trees and many varieties of cherry trees. The castle and landscaping are lit up to accentuate their beauty; the focused lighting also brings some details of the architecture and garden to the fore.
The weather is also cooler, and there is something contemplative about ambling under the stars with lanterns strung along pathways that slows the pace and has everyone talking in hushed tones. The palace walls also become canvases for digital projections.
The night tours only happen twice a year – during cherry blossom season and in autumn. Tickets can be purchased online but if you are a guest of Garrya Nijo Castle Kyoto across the road (part of the Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts family), you can get the hotel to arrange the tour for you.