Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Japan / Kyoto / Hiiragiya Ryokan
Hiiragiya Ryokan
Kyoto, Japan · Independent · Grand Luxury
Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata treated Hiiragiya as a home away from home, writing beside the garden that still faces the old rooms. The family traces to 1818, when Shogoro I arrived from Fukui as a seafood shipper; the ryokan opened in 1861 under Shogoro II, taking its holly-leaf name from Hiiragi Shrine at Shimogamo. Scholar Seisai Shigeno's motto at the door, Rai-Sha-Nyo-Ki, asks arriving guests to feel they are coming home. A National Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it joined Relais & Châteaux in July 2026 and holds a MICHELIN One Key.
- 23 rooms
- Opened 1861
- Neighborhood: Nakagyo Ward
About Hiiragiya Ryokan
- Nobel Prize novelist Yasunari Kawabata and author Junichiro Tanizaki both considered Hiiragiya their home away from home; Kawabata's essay still hangs with the house history.
- The holly-leaf name comes from Hiiragi Shrine inside Shimogamo Shrine, where holly trees were believed to ward off evil spirits.
- Shogoro I opened a Kyoto shipping house in 1818; Shogoro II, a tsuba-menuki sword-guard maker, turned the family trade into a ryokan in 1861.
- Calligrapher Seisai Shigeno (1827-1910) wrote the inn's wish, Rai-Sha-Nyo-Ki: arriving guests should feel they are coming home. The scroll is still at the entrance.
- Official roster: 16 rooms in the wooden sukiya main house and 7 in the 2006 new wing. National Registered Tangible Cultural Property; Relais & Châteaux as of July 2026; MICHELIN One Key.
History
Hiiragiya traces to 1818, the first year of Bunsei, when Shogoro I arrived from Fukui and opened a transportation and seafood shipping house in Kyoto. The name comes from Hiiragi Shrine in the precincts of Shimogamo Shrine, where holly trees (hiiragi) were believed to ward off evil. In 1861 Shogoro II (Sadajiro), a tsuba-menuki maker under the trade name Hiiragiya Masanuki, opened the ryokan that became the family business.
The wooden sukiya-zukuri main house is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property; a Japanese-style new wing was added in 2006. Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata and novelist Junichiro Tanizaki treated the inn as a home away from home. Hiiragiya joined Relais & Châteaux on 17 July 2026.
The setting
2 km from Yasaka Shrine.
Experiences
- Traditional Japanese bath ritual before dinner — Wash seated on wooden stools at individual faucets with wooden buckets, then soak in a bath hand crafted in Japanese umbrella pine.
- Meals in the guest room — Breakfast and dinner are served in the privacy of your own room, with an undisturbed view of the garden.
Amenities
- Japanese-style baths with wooden buckets and stools for washing before soaking
- Tokonoma alcove in every room displaying family art objects
- Corridor slippers and restroom slippers provided
- Breakfast and dinner served in guest room
- Several English-speaking staff on hand
- Plans for working vacations, dining-only, and event space use
- Limited-time offers
Awards
- MICHELIN One Key (2026)
Open Hiiragiya Ryokan in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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