Azumi Setoda

Azumi Setoda is a hotel in the estate that the Horiuchi family, shipowners and salt producers, built in 1876 in the port of Setoda, on Ikuchijima island, midway along the Shimanami Kaido island route in Hiroshima Prefecture. Its rooms, from 50 to 70 m², all have a hinoki (Japanese cypress) bath and open onto a garden or balcony. It suits couples who want two slow nights in an Inland Sea port town, cycling between islands and lemon groves, with a public bathhouse across the street for the evening.

The Horiuchi house

The Horiuchi family settled in Setoda in the early 17th century and prospered for nearly two centuries from shipping and salt, which they sent all over Japan along the Kitamaebune trade routes, the merchant ships that sailed the coasts. Their house was built in 1876 by Kyoto craftsmen, with materials from across the country.

Kyoto architect Shiro Miura restored it in the sukiya-zukuri style, the wooden architecture that grew out of 16th-century tea culture, with the principle of restoring rather than reinventing. The rooms, in cedar and cypress, surround a courtyard enclosed by marigaki fences. The name Azumi comes from the Azumi clan, ancient seafarers who carried knowledge and culture along Japan's coasts. The hotel holds one MICHELIN Key.

Four ways to stay

Every room has a hinoki bathtub, a heated Fukumitsu stone floor and twin beds placed together, made up as a king on request. The room table gives sizes; what sets them apart is the floor and how they open up.

• Niwa (50 m²), on the ground floor, opens onto the garden through a yukimi shōji, a paper screen whose lower part lifts so you can look outside. A large sofa sits at the foot of the bed. For couples who want the garden.
• Suzumi (50 m²), upstairs, has a balcony open to the sea breeze, for the night air after a bath.
• Sora Suzumi (70 m²) is a maisonette: bedroom downstairs, and upstairs a Japanese room with a horigotatsu (a low table set over a sunken floor) and a balcony with a wide daybed. It sleeps three, the third on a futon (a mattress laid on the floor) in the tatami room.
• Niwa Suzumi (70 m²) is the same maisonette with a small enclosed garden downstairs as well: garden and balcony, villa-style, for a family or three friends.

Niwa and Suzumi take two guests aged 6 and over; a child aged 5 or under may share a bed.

The yubune bathhouse

Across the street, the yubune public bathhouse, run by the same house, is open free and without limit to guests: hot baths and a sauna, beneath an island scene painted across a whole wall. Upstairs, the yuagari lounge, for resting after the bath, has a library on Inland Sea culture and a shop. Shared-bath etiquette is in our onsen etiquette guide.

Dining

The dining room serves seasonal Inland Sea cuisine on the Horiuchi family's tableware, with private dining rooms. Breakfast runs from 7 to 10 am. Dinner starts at 5.30 pm (last seating 8 pm), in two seatings, by reservation; there is no dinner on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, worth knowing when booking those nights. In the garden, the azumaya gazebo is used for tea, yoga and meals.

Setoda and the islands

Setoda is Japan's leading lemon-growing area, and the hotel offers lemon picking from October to early April. It hires out bicycles and e-bikes for the island route. On foot from the port: the three-storey pagoda of Kōjō-ji, built in 1432 and a National Treasure, 10 minutes away; Kōsan-ji, a temple built by an Osaka businessman in honour of his mother, with the Miraishin no Oka hill, open 9 am to 5 pm; and the Hirayama Ikuo Museum, devoted to the painter born in Setoda, open daily 9 am to 5 pm. It is all on our Seto Inland Sea, Naoshima, Teshima and Setoda page.

Getting there

The hotel is at 269 Setoda, Setoda-cho, Onomichi. A fast boat links it with Mihara port in 25 minutes or Onomichi in 40 minutes; by car, allow about 40 minutes from Onomichi and an hour from Hiroshima Airport, 67 km away. The hotel arranges a private taxi from Hiroshima Airport, from 39,000 ¥ (about 220 €), or from Fukuyama Station on the Shinkansen (bullet train), from 25,000 ¥ (about 141 €), about an hour either way. The Inland Sea and art islands in 10 days itinerary spends two nights here, between Iwaso on Miyajima and Naoshima.

Azumi Setoda, Benesse House or guntû

In our Inland Sea selection, Azumi Setoda is the port-town house: an 1876 estate, the bathhouse across the street, bicycles and lemon trees. Benesse House, on Naoshima, is the contemporary art museum hotel, with 65 rooms in four buildings. guntû, which leaves from Onomichi, 40 minutes away by boat, is a 17-suite floating ryokan for two or three nights on the water.