Enso Ango is Japan’s first ‘dispersed’ hotel. Rooms and amenities are scattered walking distance apart in the aim to boost guest experience by immersing them in the local culture. The hotel combines classical and modern design elements in its five zen-inspired sites. A unique idea, the Kyoto hotels each have different types of gardens inside and invite guests to experience a range of activities including Zen meditation sessions with the Ryōsokuin temple’s Buddhist priests, home-style obanzai cooking classes, guided night runs past various rivers and shrines, yoga and more.
Each building part of the Enso Ango boasts traditional and contemporary elements, designed by Japanese and Swiss artists who worked on the décor, furniture and fittings, interior gardens and even the uniforms of staff in the hotels. The interior designs present a feeling of entering a relaxing sanctuary. Tiles in the corridor floors were hand-made and specially designed for the hotel by Masanobu Ando.
Fuya II, the largest of the buildings, contains a Japanese tea room and tatami straw mat room, integrating aspects of traditional Japanese culture into the guest experience. It also includes the hotel’s gym. Fuya I greets guests with design inspired by traditional wooden machiya houses and has an elegant gallery area. Tomi I contains a guest kitchen and lounge while Tomi II includes a restaurant serving fusion foods. Enso Ango’s smallest building is closest to the popular streets of
Gion and has a bar for guests to enjoy. Depending on which building guests choose to stay at, rooms range from family size with a kitchenette, to compact with bunk beds.
