"A plaque honoring the partnership of the Pritzker, Takenaka, and Kyoyamato families in the gravel garden entrance of Kyoto’s Park Hyatt is overlooked by most travelers. But to Japanese guests, it’s an assurance of being in good hands in the newly opened 70-room masterpiece of Japanese architecture built into Higashiyama’s temple-dense hillside. The true meaning of this plaque deserves some unpacking. The Pritzkers get a mention because they’re the American family behind the Hyatt and the iconic Park Hyatt Tokyo. Takenaka, the builders, are a 17th-generation Kyoto construction company responsible for many of Japan's temples, shrines, ryokan, and skyscrapers. And Kyoyamato, because the 360-year-old wooden tea house standing among the hotel's modern buildings has been and remains their family restaurant, a warren of immaculately restored tatami mat rooms offering kaiseki meals and garden views. The Park Hyatt’s interiors are the work of Tony Chi, who used fragrant ash wood for the angular ceilings, basalt stone work, and shoji screens made with local washi paper to create serene rooms. He also commissioned the legendary 16th-generation potter Asayaki-san in nearby Uji for the tableware, weaving a golden thread of heritage through this utmost of modern hotels. —Adam Graham" - Danielle Demetriou
