Function Room

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 5s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A large function room within Kinugawa Kan stands empty. Chairs are overturned, and light streams through grimy windows, highlighting years of dust and decay.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

See certificate sample →

Shipping Free shipping over $250. Ships worldwide, rates calculated at checkout.

Returns Damaged in transit? We replace it. Full policy →

Ships within 10 business days · signed & numbered

In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Function Room
Series: Kinugawa Kan
Catalogue: KKA-006
Process: Giclée
Captured: 9 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 5s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Nikko, Tochigi, Japan
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Nikko, Tochigi, Japan

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The function room at Kinugawa Kan is a large rectangular space on one of the lower floors, fitted out as a banquet room for corporate retreats, weddings, and the larger group bookings the hotel handled. The floor is tatami, laid in a continuous run across the room. Low tables are stacked along one wall, with zaisu floor chairs piled at the corners. A small raised platform at one end of the room functioned as a head table or stage for speeches. The walls carry traditional decorative panels at intervals. Damp has worked at the tatami in patches, with the mould pattern visible across the surface. The lighting overhead is a row of paper-shaded pendant fittings, several broken.

Function rooms at Japanese ryokans of Kinugawa Kan's grade hosted the corporate-retreat business that was a large part of the trade through the 1970s and 1980s. Companies brought entire departments to the gorge for two-day strategy meetings, with banquet dinners in rooms like this one. When the corporate-retreat trade fell away through the 1990s, the rooms ran less often. After the June 1999 bankruptcy the room was sealed. The tables, the chairs, and the platform have stayed where they were. The tatami has not been replaced since well before closure.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A low-ceilinged room stretches deep into shadow. Dark carpet tiles grid the floor, their seams visible under a layer of grime. Heavy curtains sag from the far wall, grey with mould, half-pulled aside to reveal stacked zaisu and folding furniture. Ceiling panels buckle overhead. Water damage spreads in brown stains across every surface. Light enters from somewhere beyond the curtains, pale and indirect. The air looks thick.

Brett Patman

The series

Kinugawa Kan

2016 · 22 photographs

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.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.