Time to get going

On a map, Ikuchijima is a tiny speck, one of hundreds of small islands that make up the Setonaikai (or Seto Inland Sea), Japan’s answer to the Mediterranean – a dreamy stretch of water hemmed in by three of Japan’s four main islands. In his classic 1971 travelogue The Inland Sea, Donald Richie described the sea being as “flat as a meadow” and Ikuchijima as “a smaller Sardinia, a greener Corsica”.

Travelling from Tokyo to Ikuchijima today is a swift transition: an hour’s flight to Hiroshima, a short hop to the sleepy port of Mihara and, finally, a small ferry that deposits passengers at the town of Setoda. The luckiest will be heading a few steps up the road to the island’s newest hotel, Azumi Setoda.

Azumi is both striking and easy to miss. A beautifully renovated 140-year-old house – the former home of the Horiuchi family, local bigwigs who made their money in salt – it has been brought back to life and yet the new owners have wisely avoided installing any hotel signs that would disturb the harmony of the small street. Once inside, the house opens up. It has been given fresh height thanks to a sympathetic reworking by Kyoto-based architect Shiro Miura, who is known for his classic Sukiya tea-house style. The old building does the talking; there are few artworks but family porcelain is everywhere, including brightly decorated Imari dishes that were once used for banquets and generously handed on to be used in the hotel. There are 22 serene rooms with minimal furniture and comfortable wood-framed beds. The bathrooms are huge and guests can enjoy a soak in a fragrant hinoki cypress bathtub.

Dinners are a treat. Famous for citrus fruit and seafood, this area was also a staging post on the Silk Road and the food is designed to reflect the mix of cultures: tofu with coriander, Innoshima octopus with sesame oil and grilled loin of pork with a Thai-style herb salad. Wine is selected by John Ishikawa, whose recommendations are well worth taking. An evening might be capped with a sniff of smooth Taketsuru pure malt whisky.

Azumi’s new proprietors are Yuta Oka and Fumitomo Hayase, go-getting hospitality entrepreneurs with a conscience. Oka also runs Tokyo’s K5 hotel. In their previous careers they worked with Aman Resorts founder Adrian Zecha, who, now in his eighties, has a co-founding role in Azumi.

The search for the perfect site took a long time. “This was almost the last place we looked at,” says Oka, who was born in Japan but spent the first 10 years of his life in the US. “We weren’t looking for something remote and exclusive – we wanted to be somewhere we could connect with.”

Hotels often talk about community engagement but Oka is serious. Azumi is playing an important role in the area: holding workshops, liaising with farmers, helping to fire up the nearby shopping street and opening Soil, a waterfront café and workspace or, as Oka puts it, “a living room” for the area’s residents. Many of the Azumi staff come from the region, picked for potential over experience; Oka has also encouraged staff from his Tokyo office to move to the island. Few hotels can claim to be tackling rural depopulation so directly.

General manager Yoshi Kubota, who spent years with Aman, including stints at its resorts in Bali and Bhutan, was on board with the idea of integrating the hotel into the neighbourhood. “It was important for us to be accepted by the immediate area, to blend into the street and to hire people from here if we can,” she says. Nearby businesses launder the sheets, supply birthday cakes and provide  flowers. (Kubota admits that there were some negotiations over aesthetics.)

The area is heaving with potential activities: boat rides, paddleboarding, art, walks, temples and even a spot of lemon picking to get closer to the region’s prized produce. Or you could just pop across the road to Yubune, the new sento (public bathhouse) that Azumi has built for its guests and the community. It has accommodation for visitors too. The combination of fresh sea air, warm sun, delicious food and a good bed make Azumi a welcoming berth. It’s easy to feel at home, even after only a night. You will find yourself wanting to stay much longer.
azumi.co