Simplicity and modernity meet in Koyasan guesthouse, a new hotel in the eponymous village in Japan’s Kansai region. Befitting its location in a Unesco World Heritage site, and in one of Japanese Buddhism’s most sacred parts, architects Kentaro Takeguchi and Asako Yamamoto of Kyoto-based firm, Alphaville have used humble materials like galvanized steel and aluminium to striking effect, lending visual drama with the clever use of proportions and subtle lighting. The centre of the space features two wooden colonnades surrounding a corridor connecting a private dormitory space, offering capsule-style pods and compact double rooms, with a public lounge area incorporating a café and bar serving refreshments and simple home-cooked meals. Sited in close proximity to the Okunoin mausoleum, the spiritual town’s holiest site, would-be pilgrims are well equipped to explore the area’s ancient monasteries and idyllic woodland trails on foot.
INFORMATION
Website
ADDRESS
49-43 Itogun Koyacho
Koyasan
TELEPHONE
81. 0736 26 7216
RATES
From From 3,500 JPY
-
‘I want to bring anxiety to the surface': Shannon Cartier Lucy on her unsettling worksIn an exhibition at Soft Opening, London, Shannon Cartier Lucy revisits childhood memories
-
What one writer learnt in 2025 through exploring the ‘intimate, familiar’ wardrobes of ten friendsInspired by artist Sophie Calle, Colleen Kelsey’s ‘Wearing It Out’ sees the writer ask ten friends to tell the stories behind their most precious garments – from a wedding dress ordered on a whim to a pair of Prada Mary Janes
-
Year in review: 2025’s top ten cars chosen by transport editor Jonathan BellWhat were our chosen conveyances in 2025? These ten cars impressed, either through their look and feel, style, sophistication or all-round practicality
-
Tokyo’s most cinematic stay reopens as an exercise in architectural self-controlPark Hyatt Tokyo and Studio Jouin Manku demonstrate how design can evolve without erasing memory, balancing modernist heritage with contemporary comfort
-
The Wallpaper* team’s travel highlights of the yearA year of travel distilled. Discover the destinations that inspired our editors on and off assignment
-
Curvilinear futurism meets subtropical beaches at Not A Hotel’s ZHA-designed Okinawa retreatZaha Hadid Architects has revealed the design for the first property in Not A Hotel’s futuristic new Vertex collection, coming soon to southern Japan
-
Free flights across Japan? ANA just made it happenA new All Nippon Airways scheme in collaboration with the Japan National Tourism Organization aims to ease overtourism in major hubs by boosting regional travel
-
Is this Tokyo’s most alluring new hotel?In the world’s busiest capital, a new benchmark for serenity emerges 35 floors above ground. We checked into the Fairmont Tokyo
-
A cinematic members’ club rises in Japan’s forested hillsJoyce Wang Studio unveils The Magarigawa Club Clubhouse in Chiba
-
How Ichio Matsuzawa designed the almost-invisible bar defining Art Week Tokyo 2025During the 2025 edition of AWT, Wallpaper* met the Japanese architect to explore architecture as sensation, not structure
-
In Sou Fujimoto’s far-flung Not A Hotel villa, solitude feels almost planetaryAn underwater sauna, an infinity pool and a circular courtyard garden are just a few of the highlights at Not A Hotel’s latest outpost, on Japan’s Ishigaki Island
