Overview

Step into more than 300 years of history at Chousenkaku Kameya, a nine-room hot spring ryokan beside Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya. The property once formed part of the honjin that welcomed feudal lords, members of noble families, and other important travellers along the Nakasendo route.

After the Meiji period, writers including Toson Shimazaki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Tekkan Yosano, and Akiko Yosano spent time here. Their connection with the ryokan remains visible through historic rooms, documents, and objects preserved inside the building.

You can walk through the stone-paved entrance, look across a historic Japanese garden, soak in Shimosuwa Onsen water, and enjoy seasonal kaiseki dining. With only nine rooms, Chousenkaku Kameya gives you a more personal setting than a large hot spring hotel.

Accommodation

Choose from four main room styles, including traditional Japanese rooms and a Japanese-modern twin with its own semi-open-air hot spring bath. Every room is non-smoking and includes free Wi-Fi.

The Japanese-Modern Twin with Semi-Open-Air Bath was renewed in April 2022. This 57-square-metre room includes two Simmons beds, a sofa, and a private semi-open-air bath supplied with Shimosuwa Onsen water. Open the terrace doors after bathing to feel the air from the forest around Suwa Taisha.

Fuji no Ma is a 14-tatami Japanese room overlooking the historic garden. Writer Toson Shimazaki often stayed in this room while visiting Suwa, and the garden view remains one of the most distinctive at the ryokan. Fuji no Ma has a private toilet but no in-room bath.

The spacious Standard Japanese Rooms offer 13 tatami mats and an enclosed veranda. Large windows look towards the stone garden, the Suwa Taisha forest, or the surrounding streets, depending on the room. These rooms include a private bathroom and toilet.

The Main Building Japanese Rooms offer ten tatami mats with futon bedding. From selected rooms, you can look towards the forest around Suwa Taisha and listen to birds and moving leaves. These rooms include a private toilet but no bath.

Your room includes individual heating and air conditioning, a television, refrigerator, tea set, hair dryer, safe, towels, yukata, slippers, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, razors, and personal amenities.

Dining

Dinner introduces you to seasonal creative kaiseki cuisine prepared with ingredients chosen when their flavour is at its best. Traditional regional dishes from Shinshu are reworked with careful presentation, bringing together familiar local flavours and the changing character of each season.

Each course allows you to enjoy a different texture, temperature, aroma, and style of preparation. The exact menu changes throughout the year rather than following one fixed selection.

Breakfast is served as a Japanese morning basket set with several dishes arranged together for an easy start to the day.

Dinner and breakfast take place in the dining facilities rather than inside your room. Depending on your arrangement, you may dine in the main dining area or a private dining space. Larger dining and banquet rooms are also available for family occasions and group gatherings.

Onsen and Wellness

The hot spring water blends the historic Wata-no-Yu source with Tanga Daiichi Gensento, one of the hottest springs in the Suwa area. Local legend connects Wata-no-Yu with a deity who placed cotton soaked in lotion-like water on the ground, causing the spring to appear.

The water is classified as a simple hot spring with weakly alkaline, hypotonic, and high-temperature qualities. It emerges at approximately 57.5°C and has traditionally been associated with easing fatigue, muscle and joint discomfort, stiff shoulders, sensitivity to cold, bruises, sprains, and tiredness after travel.

Separate indoor baths are available for men and women from 15:00 until 9:00 the following morning. The bathing areas were fully renewed in 2013.

The shared open-air baths are currently unavailable because of equipment failure. The indoor hot spring baths remain open while repair work continues.

For greater privacy, reserve the indoor private hot spring bath for a 45-minute session. Evening and morning bathing periods are available. The Japanese-Modern Twin also gives you a private semi-open-air hot spring bath inside your room.

Guests with Tattoos

You cannot use the shared indoor hot spring baths if you have tattoos.

You can enjoy the hot spring in the reservable private bath or choose the Japanese-Modern Twin with its own semi-open-air hot spring bath.

Facilities

Salon Jodan occupies the historic upper room once used by feudal lords and members of noble families. You can sit beside the garden with complimentary coffee or flavoured tea between 15:00 and 18:00. The salon is reserved for overnight stays, and young children cannot enter.

The garden viewed from Salon Jodan is a traditional pond garden associated with master gardener Kobori Enshu. Its stone arrangements, small waterfall, bridge, and stepping stones have welcomed travellers since the property’s days as part of the Nakasendo honjin.

The exhibition room contains old accommodation records, documents, and objects connected with the ryokan’s history. You can learn about the noble processions, feudal lords, writers, and other travellers who passed through Shimosuwa.

The property also includes a lobby, shop, dining areas, private dining spaces, banquet rooms for up to 30 people, free Wi-Fi, and complimentary parking for seven vehicles. The shop is open from morning until evening.

Activities

Walk next door to Suwa Taisha Shimosha Akimiya, one of the four main shrines that make up Suwa Taisha. The shrine’s large sacred rope, historic buildings, and forest create an impressive introduction to the spiritual traditions of the Suwa region.

Continue through the streets of Shimosuwa-juku, the only Nakasendo post town that developed around a natural hot spring. You can follow sections of the old road, visit traditional shops, see historic buildings, and experience the meeting point of the Nakasendo and Koshu Kaido routes.

The neighbouring Honjin Iwanami House once formed a single property with Chousenkaku Kameya. Its garden is considered a companion to the ryokan’s garden, making the two sites especially interesting to view together.

You can also walk towards Lake Suwa, visit the Manji Stone Buddha, explore the public bathhouses of Shimosuwa Onsen, or travel to Suwa’s museums and sake breweries.

Additional Features

Check-in begins at 15:00, with final arrival by 19:00, and check-out is by 10:00. The entrance is locked between 22:00 and 5:00 for security.

JR Shimosuwa Station is around a ten-minute walk away. When you arrive by car, complimentary parking is available on the grounds.

Your stay brings together nine non-smoking rooms, seasonal kaiseki cuisine, natural Shimosuwa Onsen water, a reservable private bath, a room with its own semi-open-air hot spring bath, a historic Japanese garden, Salon Jodan, an exhibition room, free Wi-Fi, and complimentary parking.