Lounge at Kinugawa Kan, a place of quiet luxury, now lost to time.

01 Kinugawa KanNikko2016

ISO 1001/6f/9.014mm

Series · 22 prints

Kinugawa Kan

Photographed 2016
Frames 22
Camera NIKON D810
Location Nikko, Tochigi, Japan
Status Interior sealed by Nikko City 2022
Years 1942 to 1999
Specs 9 storeys above ground · 70 guest rooms · Kappa-buro hot-spring bath
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Hoshi Takashi (星堯) incorporated Yugen-gaisha Kinukawa-kan Honten (有限会社きぬ川館本店) on 31 December 1942, on the Kinugawa River gorge in what is now Nikko City. The hotel grew to nine storeys, 70 guest rooms, one restaurant, and the Kappa-buro (かっぱ風呂) hot-spring bath on the river. In June 1999 the company filed for bankruptcy with debts of approximately 30億円, the first hotel at Kinugawa Onsen to fail in the post-bubble era.

The building cut into the wall of the Kinugawa River gorge, nine storeys with rooms configured for river views. The Kappa-buro started as an open-air pool on the river and was moved indoors during the hotel's operating life. Faded exterior signage on the upper floors is still legible from the opposite bank.

At its 1993 peak Kinugawa Onsen and Kawaji Onsen took 3.41 million overnight guests between them, with Kinugawa alone exceeding 3 million. Kinugawa Kan's June 1999 filing came four years before the 2003 Ashikaga Bank nationalisation triggered the wider wave of resort closures. By 2021 the combined overnight count had fallen below one million.

The Second Annex (第二別館), rebranded as Hotel Quatre Saisons and later converted to a condominium, is the only Kinukawa-kan building still in active use. Nikko City boarded up the main building's openings in March 2022 after a December 2021 inspection. Demolition would cost around 600 million yen, and the site sits over active hot-spring sources between the Kinugawa River and the national highway; the City's joint research project with Utsunomiya University has moved from working out how to take it down to working out how to keep people out.

ja.Wikipedia (きぬ川館本店), att.JAPAN and tochipro.net

02 TIMELINE

Chronology

1929
1942
1956
1975
1993
1999
2008
2009
2010
2021
2022
03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed limited editions, printed from the original RAW file. Editions run from 100 down to 25 and are not reissued once they sell through.

Lounge at Kinugawa Kan, a place of quiet luxury, now lost to time.
Lounge
Kappa Onsen at Kinugawa Kan, the heart of Kinugawa Kan’s Kappa Onsen, now silent and dry.
Kappa Onsen
Balcony Looking Downstream at Kinugawa Kan, perched on the crumbling balcony of Kinugawa Kan, the view down the valley.
Balcony Looking Downstream
Entry Level Guest Room at Kinugawa Kan, the most modest accommodation in the hotel, these rooms once offered a simpler stay.
Entry Level Guest Room
Guest Room at Kinugawa Kan, a low chabudai table sits at the centre of the room, zaisu chairs still positioned around it.
Guest Room
Engawa at Kinugawa Kan, framed by shoji screens, this was once a place of quiet retreat - a small sitting room where guests.
Engawa
Public Bath at Kinugawa Kan, a pale blue swimming pool sits buried under dense green growth.
Public Bath
Onsen Entrance at Kinugawa Kan, green carpet runs the length of a corridor on the upper floor of Kinugawa Kan.
Onsen Entrance
Kinugawa River at Kinugawa Kan, the abandoned Kinugawa Kan hotel complex overlooks the Kinugawa River.
Kinugawa River
Exterior Fire Exit at Kinugawa Kan, a concrete overhang presses low above an exterior corridor on the upper floors.
Exterior Fire Exit
Games Room at Kinugawa Kan, a JVC Victor karaoke machine sits against the left wall, two chrome stools still positioned.
Games Room
Dining Room at Kinugawa Kan, a thick mat of moss stretches across the floor, creeping over broken tiles and fallen plaster.
Dining Room
Main Guest Room at Kinugawa Kan, tatami mats line the floor of a corner guest room at Kinugawa Kan.
Main Guest Room
Thatched Walkway at Kinugawa Kan, bamboo reed panels line both walls of a narrow corridor inside Kinugawa Kan.
Thatched Walkway
Kappa Onsen and Kinugawa Kan at Kinugawa Kan, a curved bay of windows juts from the lower facade of Kinugawa Kan.
Kappa Onsen and Kinugawa Kan
Utility Room at Kinugawa Kan, the utility space behind the kitchen, once used for cleaning and hot water supply, is now.
Utility Room
Stoves at Kinugawa Kan, a row of heavy-duty gas stoves sits coated in dust, their burners long extinguished.
Stoves
Poker and Pachinko at Kinugawa Kan, a forgotten corner of Kinugawa Kan’s games room, where the sound of clattering pachinko.
Poker and Pachinko
Kitchen at Kinugawa Kan, stainless-steel benches run the length of the room in two long rows.
Kitchen
Mosaic at Kinugawa Kan, a large mosaic mural dominates the far wall.
Mosaic
Function Room at Kinugawa Kan, a low-ceilinged room stretches deep into shadow.
Function Room
Public Bath Access at Kinugawa Kan, stone steps descend into a narrow corridor choked with debris.
Public Bath Access
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

05 FIELD NOTE

From the field

Read all field notes
06 PRESS

In the press

Often I'd find myself looking at the machines and architecture and challenging myself to find one single object designed purely for aesthetics. Craftsmanship made way for efficiency in engineering long before I'd even left school.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

People talk about what it was like to work or stay in these places, who they knew, what they did, how great the Christmas parties were, that store man nobody liked, what all the different machines were, how they worked and what became of them.

Broadsheet

Brett Patman·2016

lostcollective.com

On the LC archive.

There's this sense of wonder you get when looking at abandoned buildings. You try to imagine what these spaces were like when they were filled with busy workers trying to meet production targets. And why did they close?

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

Read the full story

Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

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