The Park Hotel Tokyo (Shiodome Media Tower), in December 2012, started the “Artist in Hotel” project where an artist decorates an entire guestroom. And this year this huge artistic project is finally completed all the 31 Artist Rooms (see link here).
“Artist in Hotel” is the hotel version of “Artist in Residence”. The artist himself stays in the hotel, absorbs the atmosphere of the hotel while partaking of its facilities and services, and fashions a hotel room into a work of art. Inspired by the “Japanese sense of aesthetics”, the artist paints directly on the walls of the room as if it were a tapestry, and affixes original paintings and objects to the walls so that the entire room becomes a room with the artist’s view of the world. These rooms, which evoke typical Japanese themes like “Sumo” and “Zen”, are primarily offered to overseas guests, and are highly appreciated.
And Artist Rooms No. 1 to 10 here.
No. 20 Artist Room ‘Beauty of Akita’ designed by Yuka Ohtani
The artist Ms. Yuka Ohtani started painting the 20th Artist Room based on the theme: “Beauty of Akita”, on March 1st, 2016, continued the work for about one month while staying at the hotel and commuting to and from it, and completed it on March 31, 2016.
Akita is a prefecture situated in the north of Japan. Ms. Ohtani says “Since I started living in the Akita region, coming in contact with the scenery, history and lifestyle of the people there, I became more strongly aware of my own identity as a Japanese person”. The work she created is a room decorated all over with Akita cedarwood, and is a fusion of Japanese and Western styles.
Past the cedarwood forest painting at the room entrance, right in front, there’s a cedarwood window frame, and through it, a moat with glorious lotus flowers in bloom. On the left wall, in the guise of a sliding screen, there are camellia japonica flowers, while the ceiling has a “cracked ice” pattern, often used for pottery or designing Japanese-style rooms, but here fashioned in cedarwood. In the guise of the upper closet, there’s a painted window frame, and through it, “Nishimonai Bon-Odori” summer festival dancers, while in the closet are painted pole lanterns of the “Akita Kanto Festival”. This room offers guests a myriad of images testifying to the beauty of the Akita region of Japan.
No. 19 – Artist Room ‘Edo – Tokyo’ designed by Hidetaka Furukawa
The artist Mr. Hidetaka Furukawa started painting the 19th Artist Room based on the theme: “Edo-Tokyo”, on January 8, 2016, continued the work for about two and a half month while staying at the hotel, and completed it on March 29, 2016.
“I’d be delighted if guests who stay in this room have an opportunity to discover even a little bit about the history of Tokyo that lies behind its modern veneer”, said Mr. Furukawa. In the foregrounds of the paintings of Tokyo’s landmarks today, Tokyo Skytree, Tokyo Tower, and Nihombashi, scenes from ukiyo-e are used. From the pictures of famous places by Hiroshige from Edo period, Mr. Furukawa had chosen ones of the same places viewed from the same angle. Seasonal flowers such as cherry blossoms, hydrangea, morning glories, chrysanthemum and camellia are also painted to symbolize that these flowers never change, even with a time difference of over 160 years.
No. 18 – Artist Room ‘Lucky Cat’ designed by Hyogo Mino
The artist Hyogo Mino started to work on the “Lucky cat”, the 18th room in the series, on 21th October, 2015, continued the work for about one month while he stayed in the hotel, and completed it on 21th November, 2015.
The theme of this room is Lucky Cat, and Japanese famous author Soseki Natsume is the key player behind theme. The walls acting as the bedside screen feature mysterious Lucky Cat. Among them, Mino has also added beckoning demons and mythical monster cats as a modern motif. Between the Lucky Cats gathering around the bed, a poem about cats by Soseki Natsume can be seen. On the ceiling, Mino has written a message dedicated to Kone, his own departed feline companion for 13 years, borrowing from Soseki Natsume’s first novel “I am a cat”. Mino has arranged the final scene, and then to return to the beginning of the novel in his message. On the opposite wall is a picture of an auspicious symbol of good fortune, carefully painted as though it were hung there. The tattoo-patterned cat, seen from behind, give a tasteful impression.
Mino's paintings and words are unique, somehow familiar and humorous. When night falls, it almost feels as though there are more Lucky Cat outside the window. It feels just like being in Soseki Natsume’s story, letting guests enjoy a sensation as if humans and Lucky Cat having switched places in this room. We are proud to offer our guests from around the world the opportunity to experience this unique and different feeling in the Artist Room Lucky Cat.
No.17 – Artist Room ‘Satoyama Landscapes’ designed by Kana Ito
The artist Kana Ito started work on the “Satoyama Landscapes” in the 17th room in the series on 2nd June, 2015, and completed it on 20th June, 2015.
"I wanted to create a world which would fill the guests with calm" said Ms. Ito. In a room in the Shimbashi area, looking out onto a cluster of buildings in the middle of the city, the scenery of Japan's Satoyama Landscapes is drawn, depicting people living in harmony with nature, the changing seasons unfolding like a picture scroll being unrolled. With its gentle, familiar colors, stepping into the completed room is rather like walking into a picture book.
Inside a closet to the left, just as you enter the room, is a field of rape blossoms. Then, on the walls, there's a rice field that's just been freshly planted. If you continue to the right, the rice grows, and we see a scene of the changing seasons, with windows sandwiched in between. With autumn come hanging, golden-colored heads of rice. Each wall depicts a different season, but whichever one you look at, you can't miss the distinctive plants and animals of "Satoyama Landscapes". Spring rape blossoms, swallows, tadpoles. Summer frogs, ants. The autumn cosmos, sparrows and winter foxes. Also, the artist wanted to depict the summer nights on the ceiling, so when the lights are turned off, you can see fireflies and the Milky Way in glowing fluorescent paint.
No. 16 Artist Room ‘The 47 Vegetables’ designed by Mayako Nakamura
The artist Mayako Nakamura started work on the “The 47 Vegetables” in the 16th room in the series on 12th May, 2015, and completed it on 11th June, 2015.
“I treated the room as a white porcelain vessel,” says Ms. Nakamura. The focus was on the white walls, which were primed five times before being coated in white. Taking inspiration from the forms of Nabeshima ware, which is globally famous for its rarity and degree of quality, of which Ms. Nakamura is also a fan, the walls were then decorated with the motif of forty-seven plants from Japan. The resulting design is transparent and refined.
The artist says, “I hope people staying in this room will treat it like a part of their own home, as though taking a stroll in the garden.” The walls, almost like a scroll, feature motifs of traditional Japanese dwellings. To the right, towards the bed, is an open corridor. One proceeds past the adjacent kitchen to the hills. Passing by a small stream, wetlands, a swamp, and another hill brings one to a field, then back home. This unusual white space is where the seasons pass, with the image of mountain ginseng, fern, pepper, and matsutake mushroom adorning the scene.
Can you find the 47 plants around the room?
Can you find the 47 plants around the room?
No. 15 Artist Room ‘Otafuku Face’ designed by Aki Kondo
The artist Aki Kondo started work on the “Otafuku Face (=moonfaced woman) ” in the 15th room in the series on 7th May, 2015, continued work for 9 days while she stayed in the hotel, and completed it on 15th May, 2015.
She says: “I felt that the whole beauty of Japan was within the “Otafuku Face”. When a guest enters the room, the first thing that catches their eye is the smiling face of the woman. And: “She’s also called a “beauty with five virtues”. By painting the face of this humble, demure woman which was a good example to ancient Japanese, she expressed the beauty of the heart of the Japanese people. On the opposite wall, she painted a graceful plum tree, loved by the Japanese, which actually extends up to the ceiling. This plum tree which cradles the bed is full of vigor when viewed from afar, but reveals fine detail close-up - a totally different impression.
The beauty of ancient Japan and warmth which you see in the “Otafuku Face” painted in this room looks out on Tokyo Tower, an icon that symbolizes modern Tokyo.
No. 14 Artist Room ‘Carp’ designed by Yoko Naito
Artist Ms. Naito says she felt “the majestic swimming figure of the carp embodies the universal wish for improvement, progress, and prosperity”. From ancient times, the “carp” was regarded as an auspicious fish, and was vividly painted using various raw materials and techniques, such as collage with oil paints, acrylic paints, sumi (Japanese ink), and Japanese paper. At the entrance to the room and beside the window, he painted bengala (red iron oxide pigment), a traditional material used for shrines and Buddhist temples, so that overseas visitors can feel “Japan".
Next to the bed, there is the main mural, that of a boy who rides and plays on the back of a carp. Beyond, through the craggy rocks, a carp is trying to swim up a waterfall. The "carp" is a lucky symbol for people who wish the growth of their children and themselves. The artist hopes that the carp will also be lucky for those who stay in this room.
No. 13 Artist Room ‘Cherry Blossoms’ designed by Hiroko Otake
The 13th room, “Cherry blossoms”, was the motif chosen by the Japanese artist Hiroko Otake who began it on 16th December 2014, and completed it on 16th January 2015.
Ms. Otake says: "Japanese people took art into their everyday life with sliding doors and folding screens, from a long time ago". I decorated a guest room by painting a cherry tree, so that the corners of the room were like the folds of a folding screen. As soon as you enter the room, you see a big cherry tree covering the bed. By drawing cherry blossoms like butterflies which are a symbol of transiency or the soul, I expressed the beauty of the end of life. As it flies around the room, a butterfly expresses the cycle of the four seasons - spring, summer, fall and winter. And I did the gay golden clouds beyond the cherry tree with about 400 gold leaves carefully affixed one by one.
When you stretch out on the bed, butterflies in the shape of cherry blossoms will dance all around you. But outside the window, you will see an urban landscape against the scenic backdrop of Tokyo Tower. This contrast reminds us that all things are transient. I hope you enjoy the Japanese sense of beauty in the artist’s room "Cherry blossoms", with its falling cherry blossoms.
No. 12 Artist Room ‘Landscapes’ designed by Junji Yamada
The 12th room, “Landscapes”, was the motif chosen by the Japanese artist Junji Yamada who began it on 6th September 2014, and completed it on 1st March 2015.
Artist Mr.Yamada, took his inspiration from the fact that the countless buildings you can see from the room change their appearance depending on the time and the season, and are never the same at any one moment. This painting, which takes “The Folding Screen of Landscape with the Sun and Moon” at Kongoji Temple, Osaka, as its motif, is a landscape painting which changes and glimmers with the passage of time.
On one wall, when viewed from afar, there are the lines of a mountain ridge; but if you look closely, there are countless animals living there. Then there is a “spring wall” on which you can see cherry trees in the daylight, and an “autumn wall” which has the color of autumn leaves in the evening. A pine forest at night covered in snow shines coldly, but the light of a summer morning dazzles everywhere.
This is a beautiful room like a folding screen painted with mountains and oceans, day and night, and spring, summer, autumn and winter.
No. 11 Artist Room ‘Public Bathhouse’ designed by Keiko Migita
The 11th Wave of this project, “Public bathhouse”, was started by the modern artist Keiko Migita on 7 August, and completed on 1st September.
On the headboard, a painting of Mount Fuji and pine trees. On the wall, the mosaic looks like tiles, but this is also a picture. This painting, which makes you feel like you’re actually inside a “sento” (Japanese public bathhouse), surrounds you. Migita chose the theme of Public bathhouse as her motif because it’s part of the “austere, daily life of the Japanese people”. She wanted to create a room where you could relax body and mind in the easy going atmosphere of a Japanese bathhouse. And the characters painted there are the fictitious people called PONI (dwellers) which always appear in her work. The painting shows these dwellers, who might be foreign guests or space travelers, enjoying Japanese culture.
About Park Hotel Tokyo
Park Hotel Tokyo, opened in 2003, is located on the 25th floor and above in the Shiodome Media Tower. The 25th floor has the lobby and reception desk besides restaurants and the bar. The city's view can be enjoyed through the windows behind the reception desk. There are 270 guest rooms, located from the 26th to 34th floors. In 2013, Park Hotel Tokyo put forth a new concept, "Infinite time and space amid cognizant Japanese beauty." In line with the concept, every room on the 31st floor is decorated and turned into Artist Rooms, based on the theme "Beauty of Japan." To offer a memorable experience in various parts of your stay, Park Hotel Tokyo will continue to maximize the role of Japanese aesthetics and hospitality.
Park Hotel Tokyo, opened in 2003, is located on the 25th floor and above in the Shiodome Media Tower. The 25th floor has the lobby and reception desk besides restaurants and the bar. The city's view can be enjoyed through the windows behind the reception desk. There are 270 guest rooms, located from the 26th to 34th floors. In 2013, Park Hotel Tokyo put forth a new concept, "Infinite time and space amid cognizant Japanese beauty." In line with the concept, every room on the 31st floor is decorated and turned into Artist Rooms, based on the theme "Beauty of Japan." To offer a memorable experience in various parts of your stay, Park Hotel Tokyo will continue to maximize the role of Japanese aesthetics and hospitality.
The room is very nicely painted. Some are really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda :)
DeleteI love the Lucky Cat room because I love cat so much.
ReplyDeleteMe too! I think I will bee all the luck after staying here.
DeleteI love hotels that has characters! And having a customized art design inside the room is definitely a bonus. I personally pick No. 11 to 13 art design. Would love to stay in one of those rooms given the opportunity to visit Tokyo. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou did have awesome taste!
DeleteRoom #16 is my favorite! That's what I call a unique hotel!!
ReplyDeleteSo true! Then you can play a game of finding the 47 vegetables!
DeleteIt looks small but the art makes a big difference in making the rooms a special place to stay for the night. There's something that really catches my eye about the 13th room!
ReplyDeleteWhat makes them more interesting are the various textures they created to make it more lively!
DeleteThis is so unique... an artist's room. It seems perfect to encourage talent. Each room is better than the other and I am finding it difficult to pick my favorite....maybe the floral ones appeal to me the most :-) Nicely captured through pictures
ReplyDeleteThis is a great way to remember the artist's works, before sleeping.
DeleteThis is such a beautiful Hotel with an amazing concept. I always love those hotels that have unique concept and this one is really great. The art that are scattering almost on every wall is just perfect. The comforting ambiance is also great. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteHope you could visit Park Hotel Tokyo soon and spend at least a night to this 31 Artists Rooms.