Go Niche

IN THIS PART of the world we talk a lot about the struggle a business faces getting past the third generation. In Japan, not so much.

The Hoshi Ryokan, in the Awazu Onsen area of Komatsu, hasn’t survived a mere three generations, it has been operated continuously as a hotel, by the same family, for a mind-bending 46 generations.

The hotel, which is famous for its thermal spring waters, was founded in AD 717, and has been welcoming guests ever since. Amazingly, although it held the Guinness world record for a number of years, it is no longer considered the oldest hotel in the world.

That honour has since been given to another Japanese hotel, Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan, in Yamanashi, which opened its doors in AD 705. However, its 52 owners were not all of the same family.

As you might expect, the Hoshi Ryoken is as traditional a Japanese Inn as you could find, with welcoming tea ceremony, rooms named after poetic words for the seasons and simple wooden furnishings.

For 13 centuries travellers have taken – either bathed in or drunk – the waters here, said to cure whatever ails you.

Traditionally, guests arriving would stay 21 days, operating their bathing on a seven-day cycle that saw them bathe twice on day one, rising to, by day seven, six times – four around noon and twice at night.

After one such cycle, the illness was considered “shaken up”, after a second it was considered cured, and after a third the body was thought to have become better conditioned and healthier.

Be as sceptical as you like, but can you really argue with 1,300 years of repeat business?

ho-shi.co.jp/jiten/Houshi_E/ home.htm