We check out the new Six Senses Kyoto
In a departure for the brand, this hotel is not in a remote location. It’s plum in the heart of the city, yet feels like an oasis of serenity.
I slowly rub my hands together and bring my palms up to my face. I close my eyes as instructed and breathe in gently. A delicate, sweet, earthy scent fills my nostrils as I’m invited to centre myself in time and space. I open my eyes and take a sip of the tea created just for this moment: a deeply aromatic blend of mugwort, lemon verbena and angelica root. I begin to feel remarkably relaxed and forget about the hordes of tourists in the streets outside.
The 81-room Six Senses Kyoto takes its cues from the arts and crafts of the Heian period (794-1185) when Kyoto was the Japanese capital.Â
This welcome ritual, inspired by the Buddhist zuko practice of cleansing one’s hands with incense, is offered to all guests at Six Senses Kyoto, the new 81-room luxury hotel which opened in the increasingly popular Japanese city in April. The ritual is an example of the “emotional hospitality� hallmark of all 26 Six Senses properties worldwide, but is also a very effective way of plugging each visitor directly into the culture of this historic place.
The flavours of the tea I’m offered on arrival, for example, are a representation of kokuu, one of the many micro-seasons or sekki of Japan. This brief, two-week period following the cherry blossoms, is when the trees are full of tender lime-green leaves: as I sip, I’m looking at those exact colours in the central garden around which the hotel’s rooms are built.
Café Sekki is open from 7am to 6pm. It’s also the venue for regular events such as wagashi (dessert)-making classes and fermentation workshops.Â
This is only the second Six Senses to be located in a major urban environment (the other, in Rome, opened in March 2023) as opposed to a tropical island or halfway up a remote mountain, and is the first Six Senses in Japan. It’s plum in the heart of Kyoto, surrounded by houses and shrines, across the road from the Four Seasons, around the corner from the National Museum. This sense of immersion in a city and its culture is found throughout the building.
The aesthetic, created by Singapore’s BLINK Design Group, takes its cues from the arts and crafts of the Heian period (794-1185) when Kyoto was the Japanese capital. Behind reception in the huge main lobby is a screen made up of more than 500 locally made Raku-yaki tiles that echo the silhouette of sacred Mount Kurama; on the opposite wall is a large sculpture featuring the famous frolicking frogs and rascally rabbits of The Tale of Genji, the 11th-century literary work considered the precursor to modern-day manga.
Each of the rooms is full of similar details that tap into this cultural narrative, from the individually crafted door lights in the shape of Shinto shrine foxes to exquisite paintings and furniture created by local artists and artisans.
The master bedroom in the Six Senses Kyoto penthouse suite.Â
The rooms that capture this essence of place perhaps best of all are the two premier garden suites: as well as being secluded from the rest of the hotel and bathed in particularly beautiful, dappled afternoon light, each has its own private Japanese garden, as well as direct access to a local shrine and an extensive planting of herbs and tea that supplies the hotel’s restaurant and café.
In keeping with the wellness-retreat nature of Six Senses, the Kyoto hotel boasts a plethora of rejuvenating amenities, from a health spa featuring the latest biohacking technologies to the Earth Lab offering interactive sustainability workshops and the Alchemy Bar showcasing natural body products.
In keeping with my day job as The Australian Financial Review drinks writer, I’m much more interested in the moody Nine Tails speakeasy basement bar, featuring an all-Japanese line-up of top-quality booze, encompassing both well-known brands and new, cult drinks.
Six Senses beverage consultant Kevin Patnode, an award-winning bartender based in Istanbul, tells me he’s had a lot of fun sourcing bottles for Nine Tails: he’s managed to find Japanese-made substitutes for every possible kind of drink, from wine to whisky, liqueur and beer. The only exception is tequila – although the one he does offer, Don Sueños, is produced by a Japanese woman, Kumiko Zimmerman, so it gets an honorary inclusion.
The lounge at Nine Tails basement bar, where you can find beer, wine, spirits and liqueurs all made in Japan. Â
As I settle in at the bar, Patnode makes me the Nine Tails signature cocktail, a blend of sakura (cherry blossom) liqueur, locally made Ki No Bi gin, sansho pepper and a Japanese pet-nat sparkling wine.
I slowly bring the pretty pale drink to my nose, close my eyes to take a sniff, then gently take a sip. A delicate fruity floral aroma fills my nostrils and slides across my tongue and I begin to feel remarkably relaxed.
Need to know
- Six Senses Kyoto | 431 MyÅ?hÅ?in MaekawachÅ?, Higashiyama Ward,Kyoto, 605-0932.Â
- Rates | Suites start around $US1000 ($1500) per room per night; each of the two Premier Garden Suites $US2900; the two Grand Premier Suites $US3200; and the three-bedroom Penthouse Suite $US12,800 (subject to seasonality).
- Deal | To mark the brand’s entry into Japan, Six Senses is offering savings on accommodation, and hotel credits for dining and signature spa treatments, on bookings until 20 December.
- Contact |Â sixsenses.com/kyoto or tel +81 75 531 0700.
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