STORY
SHU-HA-RI
Honor. Break. Transcend.
Shu-ha-ri is the path of learning and mastery handed down through the Japanese arts, from the tea ceremony to the martial ways.
First, keep the form. In time, break it. At last, leave it behind and arrive at a place entirely your own.
A night at Kuromatsu waits at the far end of this path.
Honor the form of the ryokan, and carry it forward.
There is a form here, cultivated over a very long time.
A spirit of thoughtful attention, attuned to the land and its seasons - this is where Kuromatsu begins.
- The Setting
- The Bearing
- The Words
Built on the form, we break it - deliberately.
Only because the form was inherited can we bring in what no ryokan has held before.
For your comfort, what should change, we change.
- Attentive service, learned from the world’s finest hotels
- Contemporary design, art, and technology
- New ways of living, new ways of seeing
Beyond tradition, beyond innovation - we transcend.
Through Shu and Ha, we arrive at a place that is neither.
A night that has existed nowhere before, beginning here in Gion.
- A stay possible only here
- A bond with this land
- A ryokan for the next hundred years
THE NAME
Gion Kuromatsu
The name brings together the spirit and tradition of Gion, the character 玄 for the origin of all things, and 松, the pine, a symbol of prosperity.
It holds reverence for this place and its traditions, a new beginning, and a wish for prosperity that endures.
祇をん
The Spirit and Tradition of Gion
In this district, a geisha quarter since the Edo era, signs and noren curtains still carry the old spelling of Gion.
We carried that spirit and tradition into our name.
玄
The Beginning
Black, the color from which all things arise, was known in ancient times as gen.
The deepest and quietest of colors - the color before anything is born.
松
A Symbol of Prosperity
Since ancient times, the pine has been revered as a tree in which the gods dwell.
Evergreen and unchanging, it stands for prosperity that lasts.