The Ise-Shima Summit was held in 2016. The Shima Kanko Hotel in Kashikojima, Mie Prefecture, which became known not only in Japan but around the world as a result of the summit, is a long-established hotel that overlooks Ago Bay, famous for its pearls. How has it managed to continue to attract visitors even now, some 70 years after it first opened?
A space of the highest quality that has hosted world leaders
The Shima Kanko Hotel is a resort hotel made up of three buildings: The Classic, designed by the famous architect Togo Murano, who also designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Cathedral; The Bay Suite, a high-end hotel with all rooms as suites; and The Club, which has no guest rooms but retains the appearance it had when it first opened, and is the heart of the hotel. All three buildings have a wonderful individuality that attracts visitors.
The hotel is located on the island of Kashikojima, which is situated in Ago Bay in Shima City, Mie Prefecture. It is a small island of about 68 hectares, where around 100 people live. It is about the same size as Tokyo Disneyland, and you can walk around the island in an hour.
In ancient times, it was called “Kachikoejima” (Island that can be crossed on foot) because it was possible to walk from the mainland to the island when the tide went out. It is said that this gradually became corrupted into “Kashikojima. The location, with Ago Bay in front of you, is very beautiful, and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe praised it as ‘an area where you can enjoy the scenery of Japan’s hometown, with its natural beauty of large and small islands and beautiful coves, which could be called the original scenery of Japan’.
The Ise-Shima Hotel has been standing in such a place as Kenkōjima, and has been communicating its beauty to Japan and the world in the form of “Omotenashi” (hospitality). When the G7 Ise-Shima Summit was held in 2016, the hotel served as the venue for the summit, and US President Barack Obama stayed at “The Classic”, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and and British Prime Minister David Cameron stayed in The Baysuite.
The hotel loved by Emperor Showa and novelist Toyoko Yamazaki
The Classic is the main building of the Shima Kanko Hotel. Since it opened, it has been visited by many famous people, and the stories of those visits have become the core of the hotel. In 1951, Emperor Showa visited Ise-Shima to inspect the state of post-war reconstruction, and stayed at the hotel. He wrote a poem about the beauty of Kenkōjima, “The view of Ago Bay is beautiful, like the red berries of the Sarutoriibara bush that have turned red”. After that, the Showa Emperor was very fond of this facility and stayed there five times in his life. With anecdotes like this, the hotel, which has been used by many people related to the Imperial Family and foreign dignitaries, has become a facility that represents Mie Prefecture. Novelist Toyoko Yamazaki also used the hotel frequently between 1955 and 2007. The scene in the opening sentence of her masterpiece, “The Glorious Family,” “As the sun begins to set and the tide begins to rise, a glorious twilight descends on Ago Bay on the Shima Peninsula,” is probably this place. The desk and chair that Toyoko Yamazaki used to write at the time are currently on display at “The Club”. You can reflect on the traces left by the literary figures and feel the depth of the history of this hotel.
All rooms are suites of at least 100 square meters.
The Bay Suite, on the other hand, was newly opened in 2008. As you enter the building, you are greeted by a large object decorated with pearls, a local specialty. As you walk further in, you will see pearls not only in the lobby, but also on the walls, information boards, and even the elevator railings, making it look like a scene from a storybook. There is also a refined fragrance in the air. The scent is a combination of garden roses, jasmine and musk, and it is a refined, fresh scent that exudes a sense of luxury, soothing the hearts of visitors and creating a high-quality, adult space.
The shared spaces are wonderful, of course, but what is particularly worth mentioning are the all-suite rooms. There are a variety of room types, including the “Royal Suite”, “Corner Suite” and “Superior Suite”, as well as the “Spa Suite”, where you can receive spa treatments from expert staff, and the “FUTON Suite”, where you can relax as if you were in a private residence. All of these types of rooms have a spacious area of over 100m2, with a separate living room, bedroom and bathroom. You can enjoy a superb stay in this spacious and luxurious atmosphere.
Togo Murano, an architect who thought about the feelings of the people who would use the place
The architect of the Shima Kanko Hotel (now The Classic and The Club) was Togo Murano, who is highly regarded as an architect and is known for his work on the Nissay Theatre (Tokyo), the main building of the State Guest House (formerly the Akasaka Imperial Villa), the Osaka Shinkabuki-za (Osaka Prefecture), and the World Peace Memorial Cathedral (Hiroshima Prefecture). He is widely known in the field of architecture as a builder of buildings of historical value. The Shima Kanko Hotel is a building that harmonizes Japanese, Western and modernist styles, while also retaining its own originality. Mr. Murano was not only involved in the building itself, but also in the design of the furniture inside the hotel, and he paid attention to even the smallest details. This attention to detail was not limited to the pursuit of stylistic beauty, but also included the pursuit of ease of use and comfort.
For example, on the stairs leading up to the second floor of the old building, there is a landing before you reach the top, and Mr. Murano thought that this would allow people to take a breather when descending the stairs, and also make it easier to start walking again once they had reached the top. In addition, Murano’s expression of modernism is to create a “connection” within the building and give the space continuity by making the banisters of the stairs curved rather than ending in right angles or straight lines, and by deliberately making some of them protrude forward, and you can sense that the design takes into account the feelings of the people who will use the space.
The paintings, which evoke traditional crafts and stories, can be felt everywhere.
The props that decorate each room are also remarkable. The Royal Suite where President Hollande stayed during the Ise-Shima Summit was decorated with a hanging scroll of calligraphy by calligrapher Hota Shisen, and ikebana. The room where President Obama stayed was furnished with furniture designed by Togo Murano, including chairs, tables and chandeliers, just as it was when the hotel first opened. Of course, the room is also available for use by ordinary guests, and there are also accommodation plans available that allow you to experience the same space and scenery as the great men who stayed there.
Also, the summit table used during the Ise-Shima Summit is still in the hotel, and you can actually sit at it, so it’s interesting to be able to feel the atmosphere of the summit.
La Mer” is a French seafood dinner that is full of the thoughts of the executive chef.
The executive chef of the Shima Kanko Hotel is Hiroe Higuchi, who was also in charge of the working dinner for the Ise-Shima Summit. She entertained the leaders of each country with the desire to “deliver the deliciousness that is unique to the food country of Ise-Shima with a sense of surprise”. The working dinner featured lobster, abalone, Matsusaka beef and other local Mie ingredients, and the chefs even sliced the abalone into bite-sized pieces so that it would be easier to eat during the meeting.
The menu from the summit was called the “Ise-Shima Summit Commemorative Dinner”, and you can still eat it when you stay at the hotel.
Chef Hiroe Higuchi’s cuisine, which is known as “French cuisine with seafood”, has delighted the palates of gourmets all over the world. The hotel’s signature dishes, such as the lobster cream soup and abalone steak, which have been passed down since the time of the previous executive chef, represent the Shima Kanko Hotel’s traditional menu, and the many dishes that make the most of the nature and seasonal produce of Ise-Shima are the hotel’s famous dishes, where you can fully enjoy the fusion of traditional flavors and the ingredients, culture and thoughts of the producers of Ise-Shima. Chef Higuchi actually goes to fishing ports and other places to meet with the producers. The inspiration he feels through these interactions is the source of the dishes he comes up with, which include local culture and historical background.
In addition to this, the hotel also has a range of restaurants where you can enjoy the blessings of Ise-Shima, such as Hamamoyou, where you can enjoy Japanese cuisine that makes the most of the seasonal ingredients of Ise-Shima, and Yamabuki, a teppanyaki restaurant where you can watch the seafood, produce from the countryside and produce from the mountains of Mie Prefecture being grilled in front of you.
Enjoying the time in Shima, both from inside and outside, while feeling the atmosphere of the Ise-Shima Summit
If you walk a little further from the hotel, you will find a number of tourist attractions in the surrounding area, such as Ise Jingu Shrine, Yokoyama Observatory, Shima Spain Village, Daiozaki Lighthouse, and Anorozaki Lighthouse.
However, the Shima Kanko Hotel is no less than these tourist attractions, with its own history and stories to tell. The beautiful spaces, with their attention to detail, and the experience of staying there, with the superb hospitality nurtured by its long history, is called “Shima Time” and even captivates important people and cultural figures.
The thousands of ways to spend your time and enjoy the culture and history that have been spun together by fine cuisine and culture cannot be experienced in a single stay. That is why you will want to visit again, and each time you visit you will be able to experience a new Shima time. It is no exaggeration to say that the wonderful accommodation experience is the reason why it has been affectionately nicknamed “Shima-kan” for so long. From now on, the appeal of the Shima Kanko Hotel will only increase, and it will provide many people with a wonderful Shima time.
