Capella Kyoto

Capella Kyoto is an 89-room hotel that opened on 22 March 2026 in Miyagawa-cho, one of Kyoto's five geiko (Kyoto geisha) districts, in Higashiyama ward, 4 minutes on foot from Gion-Shijo Station. It is the Capella brand's first hotel in Japan. It suits couples and lovers of food and architecture who want to stay within walking distance of Gion, the Kamo River and Kennin-ji temple, with a hot-spring bath inside the hotel.

A hotel built with its neighbourhood

The hotel stands on the former site of Shinmichi Elementary School. It is one of three projects along Shinmichi Street, together with the restoration of the Miyagawa-cho Kaburenjo theatre, where geiko and maiko (apprentice geiko) perform, and a new community centre. The four-storey building is by Kengo Kuma & Associates, with interiors by Singapore-based Brewin Design Office. It follows the layout of the machiya, the Kyoto townhouse, with its narrow passages, layered thresholds and tsuboniwa, small inner gardens. The materials are cypress, cedar, bamboo, Japanese paper and ceramics.

Kennin-ji, described as Kyoto's oldest Zen temple and around 800 years old, is a few steps away.

Rooms and suites

Every room is over 50 m², and 29 of the 89 are suites. The choice comes down mainly to view and bath.

• Deluxe City Room: the entry category, on the city side.
• Premier Theatre Room: overlooking the Kaburenjo theatre, for those curious about life in the district.
• Gion Suite: two suites facing Kennin-ji.
• Onsen Suite: six suites with a private bath filled daily with hot-spring water delivered from the source, facing an inner garden. This is the room for a honeymoon that wants a private onsen (hot-spring bath) in the heart of the city.
• Capella Suite: the largest, 206 m² on the top floor, looking over the rooftops of Higashiyama to the Yasaka pagoda.

The hotel also has Premium categories and Junior Suites. The table above lists the types the hotel described at opening.

Auriga Spa

The spa, set beneath the bamboo courtyard, takes its cue from the cycles of the moon. It has three private onsen rooms, where you take the hot-spring bath in privacy, wet and dry saunas, four treatment rooms and a gym. Bathing etiquette is explained in our guide to onsen etiquette.

Four places to eat

Food is the other reason to choose Capella Kyoto.

• SoNoMa by SingleThread is the first project outside the United States for SingleThread, the three-Michelin-star restaurant in Sonoma, California. Chef Keita Tominaga runs a 12-seat counter, and a 20-seat bar is fitted out like an ochaya (geiko tea house).
• Yoi is a late-night kappo (Japanese cooking prepared in front of you at the counter) with cocktails; its timber and lamps come from the old Shinmichi school.
• Lanterne is an all-day French brasserie, where breakfast is served.
• SingleThread Entremets is the patisserie, led by executive pastry chef Emma Horowitz and chef Miu Morita, formerly of L'Effervescence in Tokyo.

The culture programme

Under the name "Capella Curates", the hotel books front-row seats at the Miyagawa-cho Kaburenjo theatre and arranges a meeting with a maiko in an ochaya, a visit to a 150-year-old sandal workshop for a made-to-measure pair, and a kintsugi (repairing ceramics with lacquer and gold) workshop with a master lacquerer.

The district on foot

Miyagawa-cho lies south of Gion, between the Kamo River and Kennin-ji. Gion-Shijo Station (Keihan line) is 4 minutes on foot and Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station (Hankyu line) 8 minutes; the Keihan line reaches Yodoyabashi in Osaka in about 48 minutes. In Gion, Gion Corner stages a show of dance and traditional arts every evening at 6 pm and 7 pm (local time). Kiyomizu-dera, on the Higashiyama hillside, opens at 6 am (local time), so you can go up early in the morning.

In the lanes of Gion, residents and tea houses have asked since January 2024 that visitors do not stop, touch, follow or photograph a geiko or maiko without her consent, and do not enter private property; trespassing is punishable by a fine of up to 100,000 ¥ (about 564 €). The rest of the city is on our Kyoto page, and Capella Kyoto is the Kyoto stop on our Japanese Alps and Kanazawa in 10 days itinerary.

Compared with the other Kyoto hotels in the selection

Capella Kyoto and the Imperial Hotel Kyoto opened 17 days apart in March 2026, both in a geiko district and both on the grounds of a Kaburenjo theatre. Capella is a new 89-room building with private onsen in the spa and in six suites, and a restaurant born of a Californian three-star; the 55-room Imperial has moved into a listed 1936 building in the heart of Gion Kobu. Aman Kyoto and Hoshinoya Kyoto are far from the centre, in a forest and on the river.