Higashiyama, Kyoto, Japan
Park Hyatt Kyoto
Seventy rooms woven into the temple lanes of Higashiyama, framed on the Yasaka Pagoda.
The Park Hyatt is built into the hillside of Higashiyama, Kyoto's historic temple quarter, on the grounds of Kyoyamato, a kaiseki ryotei founded in 1877 and still run by the seventh generation of the same family. The two share the site. Kyoyamato's heritage buildings are designated Kyoto City cultural assets, and its two-Michelin-star kitchen supplies the hotel's Japanese breakfast.
It was capped at seventy rooms on purpose, to protect the sightlines through Kyoyamato's gardens. Kyoto's height rules pushed the architects to terrace the building down the slope rather than up, so it reads as a series of low timber wings in hinoki, kawara tile and local stone. Everything is framed on one thing: the pagoda of Hokan-ji, directly below.
What makes it special
It is grafted onto a 19th-century ryotei
Kyoyamato has been serving kaiseki since 1877 and co-owns the hotel. No other luxury hotel in Kyoto is built into a culinary institution this way.
The pagoda view is the whole thesis
Pagoda-view rooms, the Yasaka teppanyaki counter and Kyoyamato's tatami rooms all look straight at Hokan-ji and the machiya rooftops. The Ritz-Carlton has the river and the Four Seasons has a pond garden, but neither has this.
Seventy rooms, and they are large
Standard categories run 45 square metres, which is generous for Japan. Nine suites. Interiors by Tony Chi, gardens by Ueyakato, architecture by Takenaka.
You are inside the postcard
Ninenzaka begins about sixty metres from the door and climbs to Kiyomizu-dera. Kodai-ji is a five-minute walk. Most visitors commute into this neighbourhood; you are staying in it.
The bathhouse, not a pool
Hot and cold vitality baths, dry sauna and steam on the third floor, with treatments using Kotoshina, an organic line made from Uji green tea.
A closer look
What to do
- 01
Walk Ninenzaka at 6am
The stone lanes outside are genuinely mobbed from mid-morning. Before seven, or after dark, they are empty and they are extraordinary. This is the real reason to stay here.
- 02
Dinner at Yasaka
Teppanyaki with French technique, floor-to-ceiling glass, and the pagoda lit up behind the grill. Two seatings, at five and eight.
- 03
Kaiseki at Kyoyamato
Up the garden steps from the hotel, two Michelin stars. If that is too much, take the Japanese breakfast instead, which many guests rate the best meal of their trip.
- 04
Kodai-ji, five minutes on foot
Effectively across the street, and its spring and autumn night illuminations are a short stroll from the lobby.
- 05
Climb to Kiyomizu-dera
About 1.4 kilometres and twenty minutes up through Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka. Go at opening time.
- 06
Yasaka Shrine and Gion
Nine and ten minutes respectively, through Nene-no-Michi and Maruyama Park. Easy to fold into an evening.
Good to know
- Rooms
- 70, including 9 suites. Standards are 45 sq m
- Dining
- Kyoyamato (two Michelin stars), Yasaka, Kyoto Bistro, The Living Room, Kohaku
- Spa
- Treatment suite and a bathhouse with hot and cold baths. No pool
- Location
- Base of Ninenzaka, beside Kodai-ji. Taxi from Kyoto Station, 15 to 20 minutes
- Families
- Children welcome, but no extra beds and rooms are sized for two
- Rates
- Roughly $1,000 to $1,400, rising past $2,000 in blossom and autumn season
My honest take
Two honest caveats. There is no pool, and the bathhouse is small enough that regulars describe it as fine for two people and crowded with four. And the location cuts both ways: the lanes that make this hotel are a tourist thoroughfare from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and street-facing rooms need their screens drawn. If you are a late riser who wants a resort, this is the wrong Kyoto hotel. If you will get up at six to have Ninenzaka to yourself, nothing else compares. Book a year out for cherry blossom.
Written from research and public information, and kept current as I go. Photography is courtesy of the property. For live availability, rates, and the perks I can add as a preferred partner, let's talk.