Satoyama Jujo

Satoyama Jujo

Client: Jiyujin
Design Company: artless Inc.
Creative & Art Direction: Shun Kawakami
Photography: Yuu Kawakami
Graphic Design: Koyuki Inagaki
Assistant Design: Hitomi Yasuda
Project Management: Asami Kinoshita
Country: Japan

Toru Iwasa, founder of Jiyujin lifestyle magazine, redesigned and renovated what is now Satoyama Jujo - one of the two hotels in Japan that has been selected by Design Hotels. Crafted from strong posts and beams, coated thick with lacquer, that has borne the heaviest of snowfalls for over 150 years. Inside, modern designer furniture blends seamlessly with the traditional architecture - a perfect harmony between the old and new, a comforting space.

For this design, we incorporated the thinking: how Satoyama Jujo successfully curates and communicates traditional context into the modern world. By blending Japanese elements (such as the map and vertical texts) with English calligraphy and copywriting, we aimed to achieve a design that appeals to the world. The arrangement and combination of the elements and texts give a patterned perspective as well as maintaining its handmade feel.