Home/The House

01 — The House

Built around stillness,
not services.

Kinari means "as the wood grew" — unbleached, untreated, left as it is. Everything in the building follows from that one word.

The idea

Nothing added.

The house opened in 2009 in a former sake merchant's residence in Higashiyama. The restoration took four years and consisted mostly of removing things: a false ceiling, two later extensions, three layers of paint, and every fitting that made a noise.

What is left is cedar, stone, paper and water. Nothing in the building is scented, backlit, piped with music or decorated with anything that was not structurally necessary. The garden was replanted with what grows here already.

Guests frequently describe the house as luxurious. There is almost nothing in it.

Our second house opened in Copenhagen in 2019, in a converted harbour warehouse. Same principles, colder water, considerably more daylight in summer.

The way it works

You are not on a schedule.

Arrive

Any time after seven. Shoes at the genkan, phone in the box, robe from the shelf. Nobody will greet you loudly.

Bathe

The four waters, in order. Most guests spend two hours here before anything else happens.

Rest

The stone deck, the tatami room or the garden. Your therapist finds you when your body has settled.

Leave slowly

Tea in the garden room, and no bill presented at a table. Everything is settled at the desk, afterwards.

The rules

Six quiet insistences.

None of them are posted on the walls, because signs are noise. They are explained once, at the desk, on your first visit.

No devices past the genkan

Phones and watches stay in the box. We will take a message at the desk and bring it to you.

No conversation in the bathing hall

Speak in the garden room, the tea room or outside. The hall is for water.

No fragrance

Not on us, not in the building, and we ask the same of guests. The house should smell of cedar and steam and nothing else.

No photography inside

Every photograph on this site was taken on a closed day.

Thirty guests at a time

The building could hold ninety. It holds thirty, which is why it costs what it costs.

Nobody is hurried

If you are still in the water when your treatment slot arrives, the treatment waits.

The people

Eighteen therapists.

Rei Tanaka

Head of Treatments

Twenty-two years of shiatsu, eleven of them here. Trains every therapist who joins the house and still takes four clients a day.

Tomo Arakawa

Bathing Master

Designs every circuit and monitors the water four times a day. Will send you out of the hot bath at twelve minutes exactly.

Kaori Nishi

Kobido & Sound

Trained in Kyoto in the traditional forty-eight movements. Also runs every sound bath on the timetable.

Marit Sørensen

Movement · Copenhagen

Came from the Danish house to open our garden studio. Slow flow, mobility, and the long Saturday classes.

Ines Halvorsen

Restorative & Yin

Physiotherapist before she was a teacher, which shows in how carefully she props people. Candle yin is hers.

Haru Ito

House Manager

Runs the desk, the reservations and the garden. If something in the house is quiet and working, it is because of him.

Come and stand in it.

A day pass is the simplest way to see whether the house suits you. Most people know within an hour.

Reserve a Day See the Treatments

Built around stillness,not services.