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Materiality, Methods and Intentions

Michael McDowell

Jungyun Lee (Boi)

Priyanka Shah

KENGO KUMA: Ginzan Onsen Fujiya

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Building Information

• Three storeyed

• All-wooden

• Japanese-style inn

• Renovated by July 22, 2006

• Architect: Kengo Kuma and Associates

• Guest Rooms: 8

• Capacity: 16 guests

• Facilities: 5 private natural hot spring baths, café, parking

• Gross square footage: 9,990 sq. ft.

Kenzo Kuma on designing the Fujiya Inn

When designing Fujiya inn, I developed the concept of layers, both in time

and space.

I devised a layered effect in the architecture by using fine filters. These filters

employed the craftsmanship of Mr. Hideo Nakata, who made the bamboo

screens called ‘sumushiko’, and also the work of Mr. Masato Shida, a stained-

glass expert who used traditional techniques to produce the light-green

stained glass called ‘verdátre’.

Both are delicate filters that require special care to make and to maintain. But

it is this careful treatment that helps these delicate structures to mature, and,

after time, to radiate a rich flow.

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Materials used in the building

Exterior Cladding Wood Plastered wall, elm

Roofing Metal Yodoko (galvanized

steel plate)

Glazing Glass Floating glass, stained

glass

Doors Metal doors Metal flash door

Wood doors Wooden flash door

Sliding doors Wooden flash door

Upswinging doors, other Wooden flash door

Hardware Closers Concealed door closer

Cabinet hardware Special order

Interior finishes Suspension grid LGS system

Cabinetwork and

custom woodwork

Elm

Paints and stains Acrylic emulsion paint,

Urethane clear paint

Wallcoverings Japanese rice paper

Floor and wall tile Coral Gray Stone

Furnishings Reception furniture Tendo Mokko: Steel

frame, 10x10

phosphoric acid treated

Fixed Seating Chairs Tendo Mokko: Steel

frame, 10x10

phosphoric acid treated

Tables Tendo Mokko: Steel

frame, 10x10

phosphoric acid treated

Lighting Interior ambient lighting Indirect lighting

Conveyance Elevators/Escalators Mitsubishi (elevator with

capacity for 6 people

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and finished with special

paint

Accessibility provision

(lifts, ramping, etc.)

Lift for food

Plumbing Toilet Imax-Satis

Shower Fantini

Sink Agape and Toto

Faucet Cera and Advan.

(Onsen faucets are

custom)

Other building

components or special

equipment

Sumushiko Made by master

craftsman Hideo Nakata

and his son (Sumishiko:

bamboo cut into 4 mm

pieces. 1200000 pieces

used in this project

Stained glass Pientre Verrier by

Masato Shida

• The vitreous panels, set within a steel-frame, create a slightly mottled,

subtly stained greenish-blue surface that infuses the lobby with an almost

aqueous character.

• Knotted bamboo and vertical wood pieces compose these screens’ filigree

• A delicate screen made from 4 mm wide slits of bamboo (Sumushiko)

surrounds the atrium. The surface is rough.

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• A transparent stained glass called Dalle de Verre first used in the Middle

Ages is fit into the opening which faces the exterior space: light-green

stained glass called ‘Verdatre’.

• Choreographing a sequence of entry rooms divided by veil-like walls of

remarkable materials.

• Handmade Echizen-style Japanese paper

• Other materials used elsewhere: Aluminium, Acrylic Glass

• Between the reception in the front and the ground level’s baths in the rear,

a sandstone-floored atrium is surrounded on three sides by screens made

of 1/10 inch thick bamboo strips. The main stair, which connects the first

and second levels, combines elm treads and acid-etched steel railings.

• A suite’s cabinetry, veneered in white ash, double as a headboard.

• Steel rods bolted to the ceiling support the treads of the back stair, which

links the top two levels.

• The exterior is cladded with white-washed stucco and aged wood

elements.

Site Plan

• Rural Japan

• Tucked within several rural buildings that were scaled at similar

dimensions

• Lushly vegetated mountains surround the site

• The primary stretch of buildings is organized along the embankment of a

canal in meandering fashion.

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Approach and Programme

• The approach leads one past a bridge, over the canal and over a smaller

footbridge and a reflecting pool at the entrance.

• The entry is a succession of glass and wood screens

• The lofty entrance hall can be reached without any easily discernible

distinction between the inside and the outside

• Sitting areas and the café in this large hall

• Spa’s numerous bathing alcoves dot each of the floors

• Upper two stories contain eight guest rooms

• Each encompasses a main area sized at ten tatami mats, and each is

sparingly outfitted with a long wooden bathtub, a counter and a washbasin.

Light and Texture

• Understated protagonist in this project

• The spaces rely on diffused and reflected light

• This light is tempered through one or more layers of screens

• Approximately 1.2 million thin, knotted bamboo and vertical wood pieces

compose these screens’ filigree.

• The sources of light are hidden (even the artificial sources), creating a soft

glow around the edges of the spaces, above or below, depending on the

room.

• Crucial relationships between the light, screens and views, at a very fine

scale.

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Construction and other Details

“We wanted to retain the continuity of the old facade while introducing a new

spirit and modern amenities,” explains Kuma. To do so, the architect took

apart the existing building, then reassembled it using old and new wood

members. He kept the original silhouette and traditional Japanese post-and-

beam construction, but inserted larger, wood-framed windows and a new

sliding glass entry wall. “The idea was to connect the street with the lobby

inside,” says Kuma. “So we established a new sense of transparency.”

So breaking ranks with the scale or massing of its neighbors was out of the

question.

Recessed beneath sloping wooden eaves and set behind a pair of reflecting

pools, the entry wall reveals a materiality that hints at the era-blending design

within. Here, Kuma employed a centuries-old, hand-blown-glass technique

from France called dalle de verre. The vitreous panels, set within a steel-

frame, create a slightly mottled, subtly stained greenish-blue surface that

infuses the lobby with an almost aqueous character. And instead of welcoming

guests into a low-ceiling reception space (as is customary in Japanese inns),

he wows them with a two-story-high atrium furnished with modern tables,

chairs, and sofas that he designed with a Zen-like simplicity of form.

Layering space with screens is a traditional Japanese device, but Kuma

imbues it with an inventive spirit by choreographing a sequence of entry

rooms divided by veil-like walls of remarkable materials.

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Other features in the building

Fusuma doors:

Fusuma doors are vertical rectangular panels that can slide from side to side

to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors. They typically measure

about 90 cm (3 feet) wide by 180 cm (5.9 feet) tall, the same size as a tatami

mat. They are about two or three centimeters thick.

The height has increased in recent years due to an increase in the average

height of the Japanese population, and 190 cm height is now common.

They consist of a lattice-like wooden understructure covered in cardboard and

a layer of paper or cloth on both sides. They typically have a black lacquer

border and a round finger catch.

Tatami:

A tatami is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-

style rooms. Traditionally made of rice straw to form the core, with a covering

of woven soft rush (igusa ) straw, tatami are made in standard sizes, with the

length exactly twice the width. In the Muromachi period, tatami gradually

came to be spread over whole rooms, beginning with small rooms. Rooms

completely spread with tatami came to be known as zashiki (lit. room spread

out for sitting), and rules concerning seating and etiquette determined the

arrangement of the tatami in the rooms. It is said that prior to the mid-16th

century, the ruling nobility and samurai slept on tatami or woven mats called

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goza , while commoners used straw mats or loose straw for bedding. Tatami

were gradually popularized and finally reached the homes of commoners.

The size of tatami differs between different regions in Japan. In the Kyoto 

area, tatami generally measure .955m by 1.91m. Tatami of this size are

referred to as Ky ma ō  tatami. Tatami in the Nagoya region generally measure .

91m by 1.82m, and are referred to as ainoma (lit., "in-between" size) tatami.

In the region around Tokyo, tatami generally measure .88m by 1.76m. Tatami

of this size are referred to as Edoma or Kant ma ō  tatami. In terms of thickness,

5.5cm is average for a Ky ma ō  tatami, while 6.0cm is the norm for a Kant ma ō   

tatami. A half mat is called a hanj ō , and a mat of three-quarter length, which is

used in tea-ceremony rooms (chashitsu), is called daimedatami.

One possible layout of a 4½ mat room

In Japan, the size of a room is typically measured by the number of tatami 

mats. Tatami in the Nagoya region are based on the English measurement

system. The metric measurement .91 m by 1.82 m is about 2 11.83 by′ ″  

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5 11.65 , which can be rounded to 3′ ″ ft × 6 ft. Some common room sizes are

(in the Nagoya region):

4½ mats = 2.73 m × 2.73 m 9≈ ft × 9 ft

6 mats = 2.73 m × 3.64 m 9≈ ft × 12 ft

8 mats = 3.64 m × 3.64 m 12≈ ft × 12 ft

Shops were traditionally designed to be 5½ mats, and tea rooms are

frequently 4½ mats. There are rules concerning the number of tatami mats

and the layout of the tatami mats in a room. In the Edo period, "auspicious"

tatami arrangements and "inauspicious" tatami arrangements were distinctly

differentiated, and the tatami accordingly would be rearranged depending on

the occasion. Nowadays, the "auspicious" layout is ordinarily used. In this

arrangement, the junctions of the tatami form a "T" shape; in the

"inauspicious" arrangement, the tatami are in a grid pattern wherein the

 junctions form a + shape.

An inauspicious layout is said to bring bad fortune. In homes, the mats must

not be laid in a grid pattern, and in any layout there is never a point where the

corners of four mats touch.

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Typical layout of a 4½ mat tea room in the cold season, when the hearth built

into the floor is in use. The room has a tokonoma and mizuya d kō ō.

Dalle de Verre:

Dalle de Verre, also referred to as Faceted Glass, has been used in the

United States since it was first introduced in 1955. Even though it uses hand

blown colored glass, it is a much different medium than traditional leaded

glass. The one inch thick glass slabs are cut to shape and held together with

an epoxy resin. The overall designs are usually mosaic in style. The cut glass

is chipped (which produces facets) to add brilliance and depth to the colors.

The resins are colored and textured to give a mortared appearance.

When created properly, these units are very strong and offer outside

applications that traditional stained glass cannot.

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The story behind this onsen:

Since 1991, San Francisco-native Jeanie Fuji has acted as the traditional

Japanese okami (land lady or female inn keeper) of the Fujiya Ryokan

(traditional wooden inn) in the Ginzan Onsen (hot springs) area.

That year, she married Fuji Atsushi, the son and heir of the 350-year-old inn

and started her rigorous training under her mother-in-law in the art of serving

customers, true Japanese style. This included preparing all meals, washing

the dishes and cleaning all rooms. The goal was to make sure every need of

every customer was anticipated and met following the age-old inn tradition of

providing the right amount of service at the right time.

Fuji describes the types of things she had to learn. “Sliding a fusuma door

open and shut, greeting guests, bringing them meals on small o-zen tables...

everything has to be done a certain way, following the old traditions. And I had

to learn how to talk with the guests using polite, formal Japanese. I often

wanted to give up and go home to the United States. But now I love my work

here,” she says in a Japanese publication.

By the time she had a good decade of experience behind her, Fuji had gained

a celebrity okami status that she modestly and reluctantly dismisses. By 2004,

she and her husband hired Tokyo-based celebrity architect Kengo Kuma to

raise the personal service of the inn to even higher level. Kuma overtook a

complete remodelling of the inn that reopened in July 2006. Kuma is behind

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many well-known buildings, including the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey

headquarters in Tokyo.

The capacity of the thoroughly wooden, three-story Fujiya Inn was reduced to

only eight rooms with full capacity at 16 persons. Considering the location of

the inn, right in the middle of a relatively remote rural area known for its hot

springs and natural beauty, the level of luxury in the inn is astonishing.

Kuma has been able to combine traditional Japanese simplicity with

international tastes and needs, yet avoided the dumbed-down, westernized

version of Japanese style. In fact, Fuji has written an autobiography on this

subject Nipponjin ni wa, Nihon ga Tarinai (Japanese people are not Japanese

enough), in which she emphasizes that it is important for modern Japanese to

recognize and re-claim the value of their own millennia-old customs and

history.At Fujiya Inn, you feel that you are part of an ancient, authentic and

almost organic history that seems to be seeping through every seam and

screen here. Many aspects contribute to this effect. One is Kuma’s brilliant

use of layers, screens as thin as veils, to both hide and reveal space. The

omnipresent samushiko bamboo screens by craft master Hideo Nakata (no,

he�s not the horror-movie director) and his son required 1.2 million four-

millimetre-wide strips of bamboo. Green stained-glass panes by Masato Shida

and the prolific use of the handmade, richly textured Echizen Japanese paper

add to the feeling of lightness and transparency.

The organic, natural quotient of the inn is also boosted by the baths and the

hand-prepared, fresh food. The inn has five beautiful private hot springs baths

including an open-air bath on the top floor. The food is based on a regular

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washoku (Japanese cuisine) menu and features many edible plants and other

local ingredients. Fujiï’s favourites include the sansai, mountain vegetables,

including kogomi (ostrich fern fiddleheads) and urui (plantain lily petioles.) The

only exception to this local-only rule is Cafe Wisteria (English for fuji), open

only in the summer months, and offering international coffees and cakes.

To get to the Fujiya Inn, take the 3.5-hour trip on the Yamagata Bullet Train

(Shinkansen) from Tokyo and then get a bus to the hot springs. Or fly from

Tokyo to the Yamagata airport and arrange for a pick up by the inn.1

1 http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1173/fujiya-ginzan-tokyo

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Context Information

Ginzan Onsen : It is an onsen area in Obanazawa, Yamagata Prefecture,

Japan. It’s name means ‘Silver Mountain’.

Onsen: An onsen is a term for hot springs  in the Japanese language, though

the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the

hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen

scattered along its length and breadth. Onsen were traditionally used as

public bathing places and today play a central role in directing Japanese

domestic tourism.

(Prefectures are governmental bodies larger than cities, towns, and villages.)