“This famous hotel, which has been honoured with the patronage of a larger number of distinguished visitors than any other hotel in the Far East, owes its justly earned celebrity to the beauty and convenience of its situation, its modern and thoroughly up-to-date equipment, the excellence of its cuisine and service , and the unremitting care and attention devoted by the management to the comfort of each individual guest.

“Almost doubled in capacity by the erection in 1907 of a handsome new wing , it has again had to be enlarged in the spring of 1908. All its appointments are of the highest class. It is heated by steam and lighted by electricity generated by its own electrical plant. Its large airy rooms are delightfully cool in summer, but still further to contribute to the comfort of its guests, every room is furnished with an electric fan.

“The Kyoto Hotel is, moreover, the only hotel in Kyoto that can offer its patrons the convenience and luxury of bedrooms with connecting bathrooms.”

– Kyoto Hotel advertisement, 1910

Elevated view of the Kyoto Hotel side gate entrance, Kyoto, c. 1910.

See also:
Jidai Matsuri, Kyoto, 1914

“[The Kyoto Hotel, a] First Class Hotel, is beautifully situated in a garden near the Imperial Park, fifteen minutes’ ride from the Station, and commands extensive views on all sides of the mountains and scenery for which Kyoto is famous.

“The main building with large airy rooms and high ceilings is delightfully cool in Summer while the annex building, being of brick and f1tted with open f1re-places, insures every comfort during the Winter months.

“The Hotel is furnished in the European style and is electrically lighted, and every attention is paid to the comfort and convenience of guests. The cuisine is in charge of qualified chef and the wines are of the best.

“Interpreter meets tra1n on receipt of letter or telegram.”

– Up-to-Date Guide for the Land of the Rising Sun, H. Hotta, 1903

Kyoto Hotel, Kyoto, c. 1910. K. Inouye, Proprietor.

Kyoto Hotel, advertisement, 1914. “The only hotel in Kyoto containing bedrooms with connecting bathrooms.” (Source: Terry’s Japanese Empire, 1914.]

“We left the train at Kyoto and took a ricksha to the Kyoto Hotel where Mr Awagawa, the manager, greeted us courteously and provided us with comfortable rooms. This hotel is in the center of the city, and after dinner we took rickshas and drove along the river which is lined with rows of tea houses and restaurants.

“Then we went to Theater street, the gay white way of Kyoto, where we enjoyed the strange sensations of being among entirely different people and amid such unusual surroundings.

“Returning to the hotel, I had a good hot bath and turned in for a good night’s sleep. The next morning. we were up at 7 o’clock as we wanted to see as much of Kyoto as possible during the day.”

– ‘How I Toured the Orient on Eight Hundred and Fifty Dollars’, by Jabez K. Stone, Japan Overseas Travel Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 12, 1920

The garden courtyard of the Kyoto Hotel, Kyoto, c. 1920.