一

The garden path from the entrance to the main hall leads through a brace of gates — first the outer gate of cedar, then the inner gate of stone. Each is a threshold between the world outside and the world within 蛍の宿.

二

The original kitchen at our Kyoto founding was arranged so that no chef stood further than a cat's lives from the irori hearth. That proximity — that insistence on being close to the source — has never left us.

三

Chef Keiji Tanaka spent half a dozen years in Lyon before returning to Japan. He came back not with French recipes, but with French discipline — and a lasting preference for river and pond over vine and cellar. Those seasons abroad only deepened his love of fresh water and what swims in it.

四

The garden faces a different quality of light from each cardinal direction. Morning enters from the east. Afternoon from the south. The western terrace catches the last of the day. The north wall stays cool and still.