Kumihimo KOBE

Kumihimo KOBE is a Japanese house of about 120 years in Nishi-ku, Kobe, rented to one group a day. In March 2026 the building was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property. It is a Japanese home still in everyday use, its old parts kept and repaired a little at a time.

The Japanese garden is the work of Katsuo Saito, a garden designer who made many gardens in Japan and abroad. The house opens wide onto it, and you can see the garden from many places inside, from the tatami rooms to the engawa veranda.

What matters to us here is not rushing from one sight to the next, but staying slowly, as if living in a Japanese home. That is why we recommend a stay of two nights.

On the first day, enjoy the house and garden at leisure, then dinner and the sauna. On the second, after a morning spent looking out at the garden, head to a local market to choose ingredients, or try Japanese food culture such as making soba. The fish and other ingredients you buy can become hand-rolled sushi that we make together.

Meals are cooked on the okudo-san, a traditional kitchen stove. The rice is cooked over a wood fire rather than in a rice cooker, and the dishes use seasonal ingredients. It is not only the eating: lighting the fire and waiting for the rice to finish are part of the experience of this house too.

The garden has a Japanese-style sauna. At a fairly gentle 75 to 80°C, it fills with steam and the scent of seasonal plants picked in the garden, such as yomogi (Japanese mugwort). After the sauna, step straight out into the garden and rest among the trees.

What we hope you find at Kumihimo KOBE is not time packed with special sightseeing programmes. You stay in an old Japanese house, look at the garden, cook over a fire, eat, take a bath or a sauna, and sleep well. This is a place to experience that time in Japan itself.

Up to 8 guests, one group a day.

A two-night stay is recommended.